> they're killing the old Kindles as well
Wait, what? What's the scope, and when does it happen?
Wait, what? What's the scope, and when does it happen?
"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"
My jailbroken Kindle has been sitting in a drawer for a while, but I do go into phases where I am using it heavily for months at a time. But, what I'm really getting at is, I don't find myself having to undertake the procedure to root a Kindle on a regular basis.
Could someone clarify for me -- if I nab another secondhand device from eBay after May 20, will I be able to jailbreak it?
When I bought mine, it was updated to the latest firmware. I wanted to jailbreak mine, the method was “there isn’t one yet” so I set it in airplane mode. For a bit I manually copied all books over usb to the kindle, or disabled airplane mode to read new books if there wasn’t a new firmware version out yet anyway. A few months later, there was a jailbreak method. Now ive jailbroken. I can even connect it to the internet, and auto updates are prevented.
If the kindle is old enough it doesn’t recieve updates anyway though, then it should be very easy.
Personally i would not buy a kindle with the intent to jailbreak it, just buy a kobo.
The exception being if you want a scribe. There is no other 10” 300dpi ereader. I bought mine from an eBay seller who had one on the correct version and jailbreaking it was a bit anxiety inducing, given the cost and the fact I had no use for it if it were unsuccessful.
In any case, Oasis firmware seems to already be capped and isn't among the models being sunset anyway, should I decide to try it out.
The biggest downside was not having a frontlit display.
I recently switch to an xteink x4, and found that several others in that community migrated from kindle 4s as well. So there are still some number of users in the world that value the device.
I'm actually surprised that Amazon didn't offer to do a buyback of them.
Will I be able to load books via USB? Or there is some new DRM the kindle won’t be able to decrypt?
As long as I can still keep loading books on it over USB, and it's just their DRM ecosystem that will stop working, that's fine with me.
But if they are aggressively bricking the units, if I accidentally turn on wifi by accident and it just completely stops working, I will be extremely pissed.
what is on the kindle will stay and keep working.
if you reset the kindle, DRMed content won't work anymore.
That does minimize the disruption for me. In fact I will never buy a new kindle nor buy an ebook from amazon ever again.