How to read an ePub file on a Kindle

Copy an ePub file onto a Kindle over USB and the device will not see it. Email the same file to yourself and it works.

That is the whole of it, and it catches people out because the two actions feel equivalent and are not.

The route that works

Every Kindle account has a Send to Kindle email address, in the form [email protected]. You will find yours in your Amazon account under the Kindle device settings.

Email the ePub to that address as an attachment, from an address you have approved in the same settings. Amazon converts the file and it appears on your Kindle.

There is also a Send to Kindle app for Windows and macOS, and a browser extension, which do the same thing without the email step.

The file has to be free of DRM. A book bought from another shop and locked to that shop’s reader will not go through, which is a licensing limit rather than a technical one.

The advice that stopped working

Older guides, including an earlier version of this one, told you to convert the ePub to MOBI first and send that.

Do not. Amazon ended MOBI support in Send to Kindle and finished phasing it out in late 2023. ePub is now the format that service accepts, and converting first only adds a step that makes the file worse.

If you would rather convert it yourself

Calibre converts an ePub to AZW3, which a Kindle reads directly and which you can copy over USB.

Calibre: calibre-ebook.com

This is worth doing when you want control over the result, for example when the automatic conversion has mangled a table of contents. For an ordinary novel, emailing it is less work and the result is the same.

There is more on what AZW3 and KFX actually are if you want to know which format you are choosing between.

When the file is not what you think it is

A surprising share of “my Kindle will not open this” cases turn out to be a file that is not an ePub at all: a PDF renamed, an FB2 from a library site, or an archive that was never unpacked.

Before converting anything, it is worth confirming what you actually have. If you need to open the file on the computer first and are not sure what to use, there is a device by device guide to opening ePub files that covers Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.

And if it turns out to be an FB2 file, Calibre will convert that to ePub, and the rest of this page applies as written.