Epubor

5 Different Ways to Delete Books from Kindle (Device, App, Library)

Posted by on .

A significant advantage of eBook reading device is the capacity, even with a basic version of Kindle, you can hold thousands of eBooks with this handy size device. But every coin has two sides. As you keep adding more and more ebooks to your device, storage space will run out soon. What's worse, you need to spend a lot of time finding the book you want to read, it is high time that you should delete / remove kindle books.

Kindle delete permanently vs remove from device: In general, the difference between "Delete" and "Remove" is that "remove" only deleted the history for the book(we can retain them in the cloud for later), while "Delete" will delete books from the MYCD library.

Delete/Remove books on Kindle (Kindle Paperwhite, Voyage and Kindle Fire)

kindle modelDelete books from Kindle

This is the cheapest model in Kindle family at the moment which only costs you $69, what a bargain! I bet you will never regret to have it.

To free up space on your Kindle, you can archive items by selecting the item’s name on the Home screen and pressing the Left Arrow on the 5-way controller. Select remove from device, and press the center of the 5-way controller.

(Tips: The model has a 5-way controller and 4 buttons at the bottom)

Delete books from Kindle Keyboard

Press the Home button>>>move the 5-way controller to underline the item you kindle keyboard modelwant to remove.

Then move the 5-way controller to the left to remove the item. For books purchased from the Kindle Store you will see “remove from device” and for all other content you will see “delete”. Press the 5-way controller to remove the content. To change your mind, move the 5-way up or down to cancel the deletion. Notic that Kindle books are backed up for you at Amazon even if they are removed from the device. And for content other than books purchased from the Kindle Store, you will need to confirm the deletion of the content by selecting “ok.”

Delete books from Kindle Paperwhitekindle paperwhite model

To clean up your library on Kindle Paperwhite, you can remove items by pressing and holding the item’s name or cover on the Home screen. When the dialog box appears, tap Remove from Device. This option will vary depending upon the content. Your content will remain stored securely in the Cloud for download at a later time

Delete books from Kindle VoyageKindle Voyage

It's not complicated to delete books from Kindle Voyage, you just need to press and hold the title which you want to remove for one or two seconds, When a menu pop up, select "Remove from Device", then the book will be deleted on your Kindle Voyage. If you want to read this books again, you can download it from Kindle Cloud again.

Delete books from Kindle OasisKindle Oasis

If you want to delete a recent book Kindle Oasis, go to your home screen, otherwise head to your Library/search box to find the title(s) you want to get rid of. Just press and hold the name for a couple seconds until a box appears with a list of options, select “Delete This Book”.

The content transported to your Kindle Oasis via USD will be deleted permanently in this way. But you can still resync the delete books purchased from Kindle Store or Pushed to Kindle via email.

kindle fire modelDelete books from Kindle Fire (HD)

To delete books from Kindle Fire, simply press and hold on an item to display the contextual menu, then select Remove from Device. Content purchased from Amazon will remain stored in the Amazon Cloud in case you want to download it again at a later time.

Tip: How to redownload Kindle books to Amazon Kindle again?

Books are still stored on Amazon cloud though they were removed from your device. So it's possible to redownload them onto your device again. just click on "MY LIBRARY" on the home page. Then choose "ALL" button in the top-right corner, next select the book you wish to redownload.

Of course you can also re-download your Kindle books through your Amazon account. From "Manager your Content and Device" tab click the "Actions" button, select the "Deliver to Default Device or Others" option.

re-download kindle books

Delete books from Kindle devices in batch

Since 11 November, 2017, Amazon rolled out a new Firmware Update 5.9.2.0.1 for its Kindle ereaders, like Kindle Oasis 2 (KO2), Kindle Oasis (KO), Kindle Voyage (KV), Kindle (Kindle 7), Kindle (Kindle 8), Kindle Paperwhite 3 (KPW3) and Kindle Paperwhite 2 (KPW2), which allows you delete Kindle books in batch.

To delete Kindle books in batch, you need to go to Home — Menu — Settings — Device Options — Advanced Options — Storage management — Manual Removal. Then You can manage your device storage by choosing the items you would like to remove.

manual removal

Or you can also go to Home — Menu — Settings — Device Options — Advanced Options — Storage management — Quick Archive to quickly remove content from this device that has not been opened for the last 1/3/6 months, 1 year or more.

quick archive

Amazon adds storage management to the new firmware, though it’s a small function, it’s really convenient for Kindle users who need to clean their storage frequently. Compared to Manual deletion, Quick Archive will easily your contents by accident. If you can’t remember all the contents in your kindle local disk, please don’t try this method.

If you want to delete books from Kindle devices in batch, make sure the Kindle firmware is 5.9.2.0.1 or above version. You can automatically update software firmware to 5.9.2.0.1 version or above on your Kindle device or download Firmware 5.9.2.0.1 manually from Amazon website.

Notice: All the methods above just delete the books from your device. If you want to delete them completely, you need to remove them from Kindle Cloud.

Delete books from Kindle app(Android, iOS, Windows, Mac)

Delete kindle books from Kindle Android app

To remove content from your Kindle app which installed on Android device, just find the book you want to remove from your Kindle app for Android, tap on the book cover that you want to delete for 2 seconds, then choose "Remove from device".

Delete kindle books from Kindle iOS app

You can delete books from your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch so you don't have to use your device's memory space to store them.

To remove individual book from Kindle for iOS app, simply tap and hold the cover of the book, and then tap "Remove from device" which in fact is the only choice for you.

delete from kindle ios

Delete kindle books from Kindle App for Wins/Mac

To remove individual book from Kindle for PC/Mac, right click the book cover, and then select "Remove from device" in the pop-up menu.

delete books from kindle for PC/MAC

Tips: For a book synced from cloud, the pop out choice is "Delete permanently". For a book only exist on your device, it will be "Remove from device".

Content that is purchased from the Kindle Store is archived and can be re-downloaded at any time; sideloaded content and personal documents that are not archived in your Kindle Library are permanently deleted.

Delete Kindle books by deregistering your device

When we want to re-sell our Kindle device, or the Kindle device is lost or stolen, the safest way to protect our contents is to deregister our device from Amazon.

Go to "Manage Your Content and Devices" page >>> select the "Your Device" tab. Then click on the grey button "Device Actions" >>> select "Deregister".

deregister kindle

Please keep in mind that this will remove all the contents from your device. You are not able to download or buy any more until your device is registered with another Amazon account.

deregister yes

Delete books from Kindle Unlimited

With Kindle Unlimited we can borrow books (up to ten books) but no need to pay for them. But once finished reading, they will be still saved in our account. In this situation we can delete them from Kindle Unlimited history.

You just need to "View My Kindle Unlimited Library", and then "Return this book".

return kindle books

Tips:

1. Kindle Unlimited allows you to borrow 10 books at a time. So if you borrow more than 10 books, you will be asked to delete one in Kindle Unlimited library.

2. Books will be gone when you cancel your Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Delete books from Kindle Cloud: delete kindle books permanently

Update: If your Kindle firmware was updated to 5.12.5, there’s also the option to permanently delete purchased ebooks and personal documents from the Kindle itself.

Before you do this, please make sure you understand that if you delete a book from your Kindle Cloud, you will not be able to read it any more unless you purchase the book again. In other words, you are giving up your ownership of this book by deleting it from your Kindle Cloud.

If you navigate to this part, I can see you really have a pretty strong mind to clean up your Kindle archives. Now let's remove contents from Kindle Cloud permanently(deleted them off the website).

1) Login to Amazon.com and go to "Manage Your Content and Devices" page. In this page you can see all the items in your Kindle Cloud, which means they can be synced to all your registered Kindle devices and apps.

2) Select the books you want to delete, and then click on "Delete" button.

delete from kindle cloud

3) Then it will pop up a warning window, click "Yes".

delete from kindle cloud warning

Wrapped up:

If you delete books from Kindle Cloud, you can never have the books back. This means that you have to purchase for a second time if you want to read them again. Still want to delete kindle books from your Kindle account but need a back-up? Please use Epubor Ultimate tool which helps remove the drm from your Kindle books and back up them to your computer for good.

Download Epubor Ultimate for Free
   

That's all. Now you free up your Kindle and manage your Kindle library.

author

joined Epubor since 2011, loves everything about eBooks and eReaders. He seeks the methods to read eBooks more freely and wants to share all he has got with you.

34 Comments
reply
reply
05/7/2013 23:38:43
Thanks so much for posting this, it is really helpful to have all the instructions for a variety of devices in one place and I appreciate the time you put into this.
reply
06/5/2013 10:55:34
I always delete my books from kidle management, but some of the books stay on my ipad. When I tap them they just want to know if I want to download..
reply
06/5/2013 19:10:31
Hi Susie,
If you keep a book on the device, and directly delete it in Kindle Library Management page, then the book on your device will not disappear. But if you delete a book on both device and Kindle Library Management page, you are not to able to download it again.
reply
01/3/2015 07:41:59
So to delete an item from both the cloud and the device, you need to delete it twice? In the article above it says if you delete from the cloud it will disappear from the device also.
reply
06/11/2013 08:08:05
Very informative all you need to know, thank you
reply
06/17/2013 15:38:53
Thank you for the information on this. I have been looking for a way to delete some duplicate documents I had in my kindle app for quite some time and I appreciate the detailed walkthrough.
reply
06/17/2013 19:20:38
Thanks for the nice words. Hope we can deliver more helpful information to you. :)
reply
11/15/2013 13:25:35
I did as instructed and removed about 8-9 books from my archives (cloud?) now I have fewer MG left than I did before I deleted them What is happening?
reply
11/18/2013 01:17:29

And you also need to delete them on your device. And make sure you hadn't sync other contents.

Delete books definitely won't take more space.

reply
12/10/2013 00:57:25
I really appreciate your doing this as my Kindle app on my iPad was getting kind of trashy/messy looking.
However, you may want to make a note of the following: as I was deleting titles from my device page I noticed that the dialogue box that popped up said something different than what you quote here. It said: "Delete Permanently" over "Add to Collection". As I was only deleting samples and one (horrid) book that I got by mistake I opted to click on Delete Permanently. You might want to check this out. It could be different post OS 7.
Again, thank you.
reply
12/11/2013 23:16:36

Hi,

If the book is synced from your cloud library, then you will see "Remove from Devide".

If the file doesn't exist in the cloud but just on your device, you will see "Delete permanently".

However, I will explain this in the article. Thanks for your feedback.

reply
01/1/2014 12:58:08
This method works for deleting books, however the cloud version is left behind on machine.
reply
02/7/2014 02:06:36
How do you remove the book icon from a Kindle Android.
The books have been deleted, but the icons still show, but with a cloud impression
reply
02/7/2014 18:10:56

The cloud icon indicates the book is still remain in your Kindle cloud library.

If you want to get rid of it, please refer the method about deleting kindle books permanently.

reply
02/9/2014 01:50:34
Thanks Jonny, I had figured that out, but I just wanted to delete the books/icons from my Android not permanently from my Kindle library. It seems that is not possible. In that case there is no point deleting any books in my Android
reply
02/18/2014 08:28:07
This article helped where others simply confused.  Not being able to get rid of a horrible book is beyond irritating for a book worm like me.  Using the steps given I was finally able to joyfully delete the waste of space from my library, iPad and Cloud once and for all.
reply
02/22/2014 05:53:41
Thanks for the help. I wish you would clarify some iTunes download issues for me
reply
03/7/2014 10:12:42
Thank you for taking the time to write this. You'd think this was a silly thing to spend any time on at all; esp. since most people are at least partly computer savvy. Well, I'm pretty techno-literate and it was driving me NUTS that I could NOT find a way to quickly and intuitively delete a book from the Kindle App I downloaded to my iPad Air. Thank you for solving this so elegantly.
reply
07/19/2014 14:18:57
Thank You very much, it worked this time ,I don't know what I did before,but thank you again very much.
reply
07/19/2014 18:30:58
Now that Amazon has changed it's "Manage My Kindle" - how do you delete non-Amazon purchased books from the Kindle App on iPhones and iPads
Thank you
reply
11/24/2014 14:06:27
I just wanted to say thanks for this article! I had a ton of Loan Ended letters on my Kindle Paperwhite from when I get library ebooks from OverDrive. I could not figure out how to get rid of them! I'm so pleased to have all those annoying things gone!
reply
04/28/2015 07:45:37
It took a long time to remove from the device but it really does work. Thank you, there's been some books that I brought by accident that I couldn't delete off the cloud until today. This is definitely amazing.
reply
08/1/2015 01:23:42
Great, clear advice.Thank you.
reply
08/14/2015 10:17:49
Hi I am having a hard time to delete books from my cloud I did delete them from Manage content device but the icon is still in the cloud file, when I hold down the book the only option that comes up is adding to favourite or download no delete sign. Please help
reply
08/5/2016 13:22:37
I need to delete library borrowed books from iphone using Kindle app. They were returned on amazon site with MMC, but still on iphone cloud. Not on computer to remove again. When I hold down on iphone to delete from cloud, I do not get a remove or delete from device prompt. Only recommend, download, details, add to collections. I have read previous posts. Still can not remove from cloud. Suggestions?
reply
08/25/2016 04:35:54
Thanks so much for posting this! It helped a lot.
reply
09/24/2016 04:46:25
Thanks so much for the help.I have 3 Kindle's and I have like 2 to3 thousand books on them and I could not figure out how to erase them. But with your help I am cleaning them up so I can add some more. I read a book in about 3-4 days. I love books and I love my Kindle's.          Thanks so much.
reply
09/27/2016 04:04:53
I followed all directions posted on all of my devices and under the Manage My Content section on amazon but I STILL had the deleted book covers showing up on my kindle for PC app. When I left click it only gives me the option to purchase the book or to add it to a collection, which I don't sort my books by collection anyhow. I tried right clicking and then hitting the delete button. Nothing. Wiped all kindle books off my laptop and emptied the recycle bin. Still no change.  This has been an issue for me for years literally. I had given up. I decided to google around for a solution today and still could not get the covers off my app. The PC app has changed over the years but currently under Library you see ALL and DOWNLOADED. I had removed all books from my laptop and so under downloaded I had 0 but under ALL I had 101. I only actually own 41 kindle books. The rest are book covers from library ebooks I have checked out and have now expired and I have either used the return feature under manage my content or for expired books used the delete for ever option. STILL these books are on my PC kindle app.
FINALLY I stumbled upon a solution. The images are cached under the appdata file. I got all the 'ghost' content off my PC by deleting the cache file. Then I opened the app and re-synced.
SO step by step: 1. Find your Kindle XML File named "KindleSyncMetadataCache.xml"
It will be located here (the default location): C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Amazon\Kindle\Cache
"YourUserName" will be your username on your computer. 2. Delete the file. It will regenerate when you next open and sync the kindle app. Now your PC kindle app will match whatever you have in the cloud.    
reply
04/19/2020 04:26:50
Your solution in 2016, which I just found, was awesome and so simple.  All I did, as you instructed was find the cache and delete that particular file only.  It worked!
I've spent hours over the last few years trying to deal with this.  Much appreciation.
reply
04/19/2020 15:52:18
Thank you for your comments. We are glad to know that this article can help you fix your problem.
reply
08/22/2017 09:10:04
THANK YOU!!!  I've been looking everywhere to figure out how to delete a book from my "old" Kindle! This is the only site that gives you detailed instructions per device!
reply
08/22/2017 14:45:48
Glad to know that your problem has been solved!
reply
02/28/2021 04:55:35
I have the same problem with "ghost" icons on my Fire 8 HD tablet.  I try to "hide" or "remove" and they disappear but after I use an application and come back to the home screen there they are again!  Some are book covers of items I returned and some are just blank Kindle files.   How do I permanently get rid of these phantom icons?
reply
02/7/2021 08:12:56

How can I delete book funnel books downloaded on my kindle app on my Samsung 6 tablet.
The delete or remove from device does not show up as an option

Thanks

reply
Leave a comment
Rating
YourName *
email
Comments UBB Editor
Home > Guide >How to Delete Books from Kindle (with Video)
mcafee badgenorton badge