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Attention Kindle readers: Amazon may soon end support for your e-reader. Now, if you recently acquired a Kindle—recently meaning anytime in the past 10 years—you don’t need to worry. But for anyone who is still rocking an older Kindle, you might be affected.
The news started spreading on Tuesday, followed by a confirmation from Amazon. In a statement to PCMag, Amazon said the following: “Starting May 20, 2026, customers using Kindle and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 and earlier will no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download new content via the Kindle Store.” Amazon’s first ever Kindle dropped back in 2007, which means there are five years worth of devices that the company is ending support for. That includes:
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Kindle 1st Generation (2007)
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Kindle DX and DX Graphite (2009 and 2010)
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Kindle Keyboard (2010)
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Kindle 4 (2011)
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Kindle Touch (2011)
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Kindle 5 (2012)
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Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation (2012)
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Kindle Fire 1st Gen (2011)
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Kindle Fire 2nd Gen (2012)
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Kindle Fire HD 7 (2012)
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Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (2012)
As with most device deprecations, Amazon is not killing Kindles released in 2012 and beyond. If you have an older Kindle from this time, it will continue to work, and you will be able to read on it—you just won’t be able to access the Kindle Store. That might not be a dealbreaker: You can still read your existing books, or add any new titles by hand. But you won’t be able to borrow books with library apps like Libby, which is how a huge number of readers use their Kindles. The issue gets worse if something happens to your device, like if you need to deregister or factory reset it. Amazon says in this case, “you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way.”
Amazon will be reaching out to affected customers directly via email, explaining the situation, and offering those users 20% off new Kindle devices as well as $20 ebook credits following the purchase of a new device. That code is valid through June 20th, 2026, at 11:59 p.m.
What do you think so far?
What to do if you have an older Kindle device
E-readers aren’t really like smartphones: It’s not really about having the latest and greatest features, since, for most situations, you’re using your e-reader to, well, read—and often just black and white text, at that. If your 2012 or older Kindle is still doing that just fine, you might not feel a need to spend the money on an upgrade—even with Amazon’s discount.
Luckily, you do have some options here. First, you can continue to use the Kindle Store for now, so if you like buying ebooks, you can load up your Kindle until it gets shut off. But the long-term option is to start “sideloading” (or manually uploading) your ebooks to your device. One of the most popular apps for manually managing your ebook library is Calibre, which acts like a sort of iTunes for ebooks. You can customize each book’s data (such as choosing to swap out covers), and convert ebook formats to Kindle’s proprietary AZW3. While there are certainly illegal ways to obtain ebooks and sideload them to your Kindle, there are plenty of legitimate methods to buying books like this as well. That way, you can still buy your ebooks, convert them to Amazon’s format, then upload them to your Kindle, without having to unnecessarily upgrade your device.
