Early this year, I heard that it was possible to jailbreak most Amazon Kindle devices. I was interested, but ultimately decided against it. The deal-breaker for me was Libby. If jailbreaking meant losing access to library books, I was out. I couldn’t find a good answer to this initially, so I held off. Since the height of the COVID pandemic, I’ve switched reading almost exclusively on my second-hand Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (7th Generation), so I didn’t want to disrupt my reading.
Last week, the topic of jailbreaking ereaders came up on the Reading Glasses podcast and it reminded me that it was something I was considering. Best of all, they gave a nice, non-technical overview of why one might want to do it. The increased flexibility was enough to get me interested again, and they confirmed that it still works with Libby. They also shared a helpful video overview:
I’ve rooted a few Android devices in the past and the process for jailbreaking the Amazon Kindle was very easy and well-documented. A great website provides step-by-step directions. I set aside about half an hour and was able to complete it without encountering any issues.
Once the jailbreak was done, there are additional steps to take to disable over-the-air updates from Amazon (these could potentially remove the jailbreak) and install a custom reader. I followed the guide and installed KOReader, which is a popular reader for e-ink devices. It gives you the ability to read a wider range of file formats (for example, ePub) as well as more customization options, faster PDF handling, and custom fonts. It also doesn’t send analytics to Amazon, which the privacy nerd in me enjoys. I struggled a bit with understanding the UI, but skimming the User Guide helped and after a few minutes, I had a nice optimized layout.
A good part of why I wanted to do the jailbreak was to hopefully get the Amazon ads removed from the lock screen. I haven’t figured out that part yet, but hopefully soon. Overall, it feels good to loosen Amazon’s grip — even if their ads are still clinging to my lock screen for now.