Old Kindle e-readers will stop working on May 20th - Good e-Reader
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Old Kindle e-readers will stop working on May 20th
Older Kindle e-readers will stop working in a couple of days, will no longer be able to purchase e-books, and will basically be doorstops.
No comments<br>2 minute read
Published on 18 May 2026
Author
Michael Kozlowski
Tags<br>Amazon,<br>discontinued,<br>Kindle,<br>old kindles
Amazon announced that Kindles made before 2014 will stop working on May 20th, which is only a couple of days away. This is a serious blow to anyone who casually uses an older device, who just wants to buy the odd book and read. Amazon is also destroying its reputation as a company that can be trusted to support old e-readers.
Popular e-readers that will no longer be able to purchase books include the 1st-generation Kindle Paperwhite, one of the most popular e-readers of all time. Kindle 5, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4, and Kindle DX are also discontinued. You can think of these e-readers as glorified paperweights, since they have no use anymore. Amazon Kindle e-readers are not the only devices that are on the chopping block. The Kindle Fire 1st Gen, Kindle Fire 2nd Gen, Kindle Fire HD 7, and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 were all released from 2011 to 2012, and these devices won’t be able to buy e-books or audiobooks.
I recognize that people are mad at Amazon for this, but the news cycle tends to make them forget other Amazon missteps. The last time this occurred was when the Download & Transfer via USB option was disabled. This change affects all Kindles associated with a customer’s account, so it applies not just to new Kindles but to every Kindle ever made. This is a severe blow to users who wanted local backups of their books; now everything is entirely hosted on Amazon, and customers are at its mercy.
People also got irate when Amazon announced they were discontinuing Kindle for PC on June 30th, 2026. When this date comes, the app will no longer work, even if you download it from another website. Amazon disclosed to Good e-Reader that a new Kindle for PC app will be released, but it will only be compatible with Windows 11. This will be an app available only to download from the Microsoft Store.
How do you feel that Amazon is dropping support for older Kindles?
Michael Kozlowski
Editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader | michael@goodereader.com<br>Michael Kozlowski has written about audiobooks, e-books and e-readers for the past eighteen years. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
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