A picture of me with my dog Tess next to me looking at me

Amazon Essentially Bricked My Kindle

Enshittification, planned obsolensence, and e-waste all rolled into one
April 9, 2026

I got an email yesterday saying that Amazon is going to completely stop supporting my Kindle Paperwhite. This means no more downloading books, no more borrowing books from the library...all of it.

Dear Customer, Thank you for being a longtime Kindle customer. We're glad our devices have served you well for as long as they have. Starting May 20, 2026 — 14 to 18 years after their initial launches — we are discontinuing support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier. Here's what this means for you: You can continue to read books already downloaded on these devices, but you will not be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date. If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way. Affected devices include Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation, Kindle DX and DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle 5, and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation. To minimize any disruption, we're offering a promotional code for 20% off select new Kindle devices B4PT5XAJ74 as well as a $20 eBook credit that will be automatically added to your account after purchasing a new device (valid through June 20th, 2026, 11:59pm PST - Terms and Conditions apply). Our newer Kindle devices bring meaningful improvements in screen quality, performance and accessibility — and you'll have access to your complete Kindle library and the Kindle Store. You can also continue to read all your books on our free Kindle apps (Android, iOS, Mac, and PC) and Kindle for Web. If you have any questions or require assistance, please visit https:// www.amazon.com/help/kindle/devicedeprecation. Sincerely, The Kindle Team

I have a 1st generation Kindle Paperwhite which was released at the end of 2012. I've been using it extensively for 14 years as I love reading and it provides me easy access to multiple books on longer vacations as well as access to borrowing books from my local library.

Now while I understand that the device is old, it's still perfectly usable. The battery life has degraded slightly, but other than that, it still works great. I can borrow books through Libby without issue, it's great and I love that I, until now, didn't have to replace it.

But come May 20, I will no longer be able to download any new books to it whether I buy them from the Amazon Kindle Store, or borrow them on Libby. And to make things even more fucked up, thanks to DRM, I can't legally copy the books (okay, there might be a few DRM-free books, but most have DRM) I've bought onto any device other than a Kindle. I've mentioned it before in some of my posts on ownership, the lock-in will get you. I've avoided buying books on Amazon of late for this exact reason. I can't remember the last book I've bought on their store, but I've used it extensively to borrow books, and now I can't even do that.

I'm frustrated, but also can't say I'm surprised, sadly. I have purchased a Kobo Libra Color to replace it, and while I'm sure it will have its own lock-in issues, it's at least not Amazon. I'm still going to try to focus more on DRM-free books when possible. It'll also be nice to have an e-reader than can natively handle the epub format.

I'm also not going to lie, I have been eyeing the Libra Color for a while, I just was never able to pull the trigger to buy it since my Kindle was still working just fine.

So what will I do with my Kindle? I'm not sure, I don't think I'll throw it out, I still have a large collection on it and I'll still be able to read what I have on it.