Syncing between "Kindle for PC" and "Kindle for iPhone"

I have a number of ebooks that I am managing using calibre - E-book management. These books are in a number of various formats (pdf, chm, epub, mobi...etc). I found a blog post that detailed using Calibre to convert the ebooks to ".mobi" versions and then, by double-clicking on the converted books, they would be added to my "Kindle for PC" library. This worked very well.

However, I can't seem to work out how to sync the books I've added to my "Kindle for PC" library with my "Kindle for iPhone" library.

I should also mention that I do not own a Kindle, all I'm trying to achieve is to be able to sync the books I've added to "Kindle for PC" to "Kindle for iPhone".

Has anyone managed to do this?

Lou

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 161

Thanks everyone for your replies, however, I think there's some confusion in the term "syncing" here. I am aware of the various methods to get my ebooks onto my iPhone. The actual question that I'm trying to answer is this: I start reading an ebook on my PC using the Kindle app. I finish at chap. 2. I now switch to my iPhone which has the same book on it. How do I get the copy on the iPhone to be "in sync" (ie. at chap.2) where I left off on the PC? I don't think this is possible with non-Amazon ebooks. Thanks. – Lou – 2011-07-22T04:09:05.707

Answers

Not sure if you had already figured this out.

I JUST got this to work. After i downloaded Kindle for IPhone, i went into iTunes on my PC, select 'File' -> 'Add file to library' -> select Kindle from the PC desktop. A few minutes later, my books from the Kindle for PC showed up in the ARCHIVE list at the the kindle for iPhone. I went into that list and downloaded them into my main kindle list. Hope this will work for you as well.

All the books i had bought for my Kindle for PC were from Amazon though.

SKN

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 31

Thanks @SKN. I'll give this a run through when I get a moment. I don't suppose you've tested to see if this will keep your books in sync between the iphone and the desktop app? Using the "File Sharing in Itunes" method above I noticed that the ebooks weren't being kept in sync. – Lou – 2011-02-07T05:36:33.540

I send .mobi books as an email attachment, which I synchronize on the iPhone. Opening the attachment offers me to open it in Kindle for iPhone.

Note: it doesn't work with attachments bigger than 5MB.

janoska

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 21

I don't think it is going to work , I have a kindle and I too use Calibre to manage some of the content in my Kindle . Calibre detects the kindle(or any other ebook reader) when you connect and can automatically sync with it .
When you connect you phone the calibre doesnot detect your phone as an ebook reader so it wont transfer the books to your phone .
What you need to do is ,locate where on your hard drive(you can check this from the calibre's settings) , the books are stored and then manually transfer them to your phone.

Shekhar

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 4 815

Unfortunately, "kindle for iPhone" doesn't support books not brought from Amazon.

9dan

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 323

For future searchers, this answer is not true. Using tools like http://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle will send documents to a Kindle/Kindle App even if not acquired through Amazon.

– Kruug – 2013-02-27T18:29:29.317

Just discovered that the latest update to Kindle for iPhone has introduced the ability to add files to Kindle for iPhone via "File Sharing in iTunes".

I haven't tested if using this mechanism will also keep the books synced between the iPhone and PC, but at least I now have a way to get the books on to the device.

Lou

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 161

Wow! I successfully added .prc and .mobi e-book files to the Kindle for iPhone! – 9dan – 2011-01-26T15:32:58.193

1Ah.. It seems unstable with .prc files... – 9dan – 2011-01-26T16:10:28.523

You can manually add books from Kindle for PC to your Kindle for Iphone / Ipad / Ipod app.

Connect your device and open Itunes
Select your device and click on the apps tab towards the top of the screen
Select the Kindle app and scroll down to the file sharing section
Again select the Kindle app and then click on the add button to add your books

If you've already added your books to Kindle for pc, the default storage directory for your kindle books is: Libraries/Documents/My Kindle Content

Alex

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 11

You can also email the .mobi file to yourself then open the attachment from your email on your iPhone which will prompt you to open it in Kindle for iPhone.

Winston Douglas

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 11

Use Dropbox. You can synch the Kindle's library in your phone and your PC. You have to use dropbox in your iPhone and in your PC.

Pablo

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 11

Hey I am not sure if you are still struggling to place your PC books to your iPhone, but if you go into iTunes and click on the kindle app and you will notice an "Add Documents" to the right.

Click there, find your books in your Documents and from there you can import them to your iPhone - hope this helps.

Alex Sims

Posted 2011-01-07T08:55:13.820

Reputation: 1

1http://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle This one works as well. – Kruug – 2013-02-27T18:28:31.797