The enormous amount of e-books you can store on Kindle makes it a favorite for many bookworms, who don’t want to or simply can’t lug all those physical books around. But what happens if you actually start running out storage space? Yes, if you’re a voracious reader (or a book collector, at the very least!) it’s possible to max out your Kindle storage.
Kindle is Amazon’s e-book reader that allows you to read all the e-books you bought from Amazon, plus Kindle books you borrow from the library. If you don’t have the e-reader, Kindle also comes as an app that you can download onto any smart device, such as your tablet or smartphone.
How to Delete Books from Kindle: 4 Different Ways
The good news is that it’s quite easy to remove books you no longer want from your Kindle account, in order to make room for new reads!
How to Delete a Book from Your Kindle Device or App
In this post, we hope to share the basic steps you need to take to remove a book from Kindle. This applies both to the Kindle e-reader and the Kindle app on your gadgets.
Step 1. Open your Kindle e-reader or the Kindle app on your smart device.
Step 2. Click on Library, or the book icon on the bottom part of the screen.
Step 3. Hold down on the book you want to remove. Note that this will give you two options:
- Remove Download – This will remove the book from your device but not from your Kindle account. This lets you access the book again at a later time by going to your Kindle account on Amazon.
- Permanently Delete – This will let you delete the book not just from your current device, but also across devices and from your Amazon Kindle account. Remember, if you do this for a book you’ve purchased, you will have to buy it again if you want to access it in the future.
How to Delete a Library-Borrowed Book from Kindle
For e-books that you borrowed from the library, they automatically expire and get undownloaded at the end of your loan term. But the books still appear in your Kindle library. Doing the above step will not let you “permanently delete” it. Instead, you need to delete the book from your Amazon account, using the following steps:
Step 1. Sign in to amazon.com
Step 2. Hover your pointer over “Accounts and Lists” in the upper right hand corner and select “Account.”
Step 3. Click on “Your devices and Content,” and then “Kindle Content.”
Step 4. Go to “Quick Solutions” on the left side of the screen and click on “Devices & Content.”
Here you will see all your Kindle contents, with all library books coming with the label “This book is a Kindle digital library loan” right under their title. For library books that have already expired, simply click “Delete.” For those that haven’t expired yet, click on “Return this book.” When you refresh the page, you will find that the “Delete” option is now available.
How to Remove Several Books in One Go from Your Device
Now, since we’re talking to bookworms, it’s quite possible that you’re here not just to delete one book. Maybe you’re like most of us who keep collecting Samples that we never end up reading, or who keep buying new books to add to our TBR (to be read) list, but they actually only end up as Guilt Trip List.
And, if you organize your Kindle using Collections, chances are, it will take you ages to go into each folder to find what you want to delete. Here we want to give you a faster way to get rid of those unwanted books (no offense, Beloved Books!) without getting distracted by each Sample Cover we run across.
Step 1. First, open the main menu, click the three dots on the upper right hand corner, and select Create a Collection. This will be the folder in which you will house all of the books you wish to discard from your Kindle. Give it whatever name you want. It can be TBD for To Be Deleted, or Trash, or Remove.
Step 2. Click on the filter icon on the upper left side of the page and select Downloaded. This will show you only the books you’ve downloaded onto your device.
Step 3. If you remember the titles you want to remove, search for them on the Magnifying Lens icon, and when they appear, click the three dot icon on the bottom right of the book cover. Click “Add to Collection” and select the collection you made in Step 1. Click Done.
Step 4. If you don’t know exactly which titles you want to delete, type the Collection name you created in Step 1 onto the Search box on top. When the Collection appears, click on it. It will say “There are no items in this Collection yet. Start adding books from your library by tapping the +/- icon.”
Step 5. Follow the directions and click the +/- sign. This will bring up all the books in your Kindle. Whenever you see a title you want to delete, click the box on the left side of the book cover to give it a checkmark. Do this for all titles you want to delete, then click Save.
Step 6. Now that you have all the books you want to delete in one Collection, type the Collection name again on the Search bar.
Step 7. When the collection comes up, click on the three-dot icon on the bottom right corner of the Collection cover, and click “Remove all downloads” option. This will delete all the books in this collection from your device. Remember, this option does not remove them from your Kindle library and you can re-download them anytime.
For some reason, this step does not give you the “Permanently Delete” option. If you wish to delete the books permanently from your Kindle library, follow the steps below.
How to Delete Books Permanently from Your Kindle Library
If you wish to clear up not just storage space on your e-reader or gadget, but to clean them right out of your Kindle library (for good!), here’s how you do it:
Step 1. Go to amazon.com on your laptop, desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone, and login with your credentials. Note: you won’t be able to to this on the Amazon app. You will need to login to the actual website.
Step 2. If you’re on a computer, go to the right side of the search box, click on “Accounts & Lists” and choose “Manage your content and devices.” If you’re using a tablet or smart phone, click on the three lines over on the top left corner, select “Account,” and click on “Content and devices.”
Step 3. To delete one book, click or tap the three dots on the left side of the title, and then click or tap Delete.
Step 4. To delete several books in one go, click or tap the checkboxes on the left of each title. If you’re on a computer, simply click the Delete button on the top of the screen. On a tablet or smartphone, after putting checkmarks on the book titles, tap the three vertical dots over the book list, then tap Delete.
Step 5. At this point, the query will pop up, “Are you sure you wish to delete these books permanently from your Kindle library?” Tap “Yes, delete permanently,” and ta-daa! They’re gone forever!
Deleting Books from Your Kindle
We love how the Kindle library lets you keep all the books you may not want on your device right now but may still want to get back to in the future. But there will also be books that you just want to purge from your library for good. We hope these steps can help you in your e-book housekeeping!
If you’re like us, once you’re done clearing out some space, it’s time to find some new reads again!
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- How to Transfer Ebooks to Your Kindle with Calibre
- Your Guide to Kindle Vella: Amazon’s Intro to Serialized Fiction
- How to Publish Your Blog on Kindle: Step-by-Step Instructions to Start Making Money from Your Blog on Amazon
- Selling PLR Books on Kindle: What, Why, and How
Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
