Kindle Unlimited - doesn't make sense..?

B0bbyEwing

So I took out their 3 month trial for £0.99 but I just don't read enough (only on my breaks at work) to warrant the £10/month charge. I knew this from the get go but I managed to get 3 books out of the £0.99 whereas they're about £4-£5 each & there's 15 in the series.

I cancelled my membership on time - ending it on the 27th when it was set to expire on the 28th.

It's now the 30th and I can STILL read the book which I haven't yet finished. 

I expected to fire up the Kindle only for it to have disappeared or get a notice saying trial ended or something like that & be unable to view any more pages & was fully prepared to have to buy this book but it's as though nothing has changed.

Which makes no sense to me.

Having never experienced their trial before, can any of you comment as to why I'm still able to read this book?

soolin

The book remains on your kindle until you connect to wi fi again, it can’t just be taken back until there is an open connection.

i buy kindle unlimited occasionally as i read a lot. I download 20 books and keep swapping them for new ones when i finish one. Then the day before my membership expires i make sure i have 20 new books loaded, and then don’t connect to wi fi until I've finished them. 

heroic

Yep, it’s because you haven’t connected to Wi-Fi yet. Kindle Unlimited books only get pulled when your device syncs back up with Amazon.

If you stay in airplane mode or keep Wi-Fi off, you can keep reading what’s already downloaded until you finish it. Once you reconnect, it’ll update and remove anything that’s no longer included in your membership.

Handy little loophole if you just need to finish your current book before moving on!

Exodi

soolin said:

The book remains on your kindle until you connect to wi fi again, it can’t just be taken back until there is an open connection.

i buy kindle unlimited occasionally as i read a lot. I download 20 books and keep swapping them for new ones when i finish one. Then the day before my membership expires i make sure i have 20 new books loaded, and then don’t connect to wi fi until I've finished them. 

I've never used a Kindle nor Kindle Unlimited, though my wife has been hinting at me getting her one for her birthday./

As a Kindle now usually has about 16GB of storage and a typical book is ~2.6MB (meaning you can store around 6300 books) - what's stopping someone from signing up to a 3 month trial for 99p, downloading thousands and thousands of books, then cancelling and leaving WiFi off?

I can't imagine you need Wifi on for anything else except downloading books (and verifying you have a subscription)?

It seems like this would be easily exploitable unless I'm missing something?

On other devices with subscriptions of this nature, when opening content offline I'm prompted to connect to the internet to proceed, though I don't know if an eBook can facilitate this function.

flaneurs_lobster

Exodi said:

It seems like this would be easily exploitable unless I'm missing something?

Nice try - there's a 20 book download limit at any one time.

Exodi

flaneurs_lobster said:

Exodi said:

It seems like this would be easily exploitable unless I'm missing something?

Nice try - there's a 20 book download limit at any one time.

Ahh that makes sense!

soolin

Exodi said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Exodi said:

It seems like this would be easily exploitable unless I'm missing something?

Nice try - there's a 20 book download limit at any one time.

Ahh that makes sense!

If you are a fast reader though waiting for a 99p subscription, reading everything for a month and then making sure you have 20 unread books downloaded the day before the trial ends  like I do extends that free month nicely. 

I also add loads of books to my wish list (I have a separate book wish list) and then a couple of times a week check them using the 'cheapest first' option as very often they will have a 99p offer on a book on your wish list. I've had some best seller books on a lightening reduction like that for 99p. 

B0bbyEwing

Slight problem with that WiFi thing... 

I fired up the Kindle this morning at home to check I still had the book before asking this question. 

Would the Kindle auto connect to my home WiFi (obviously I've had it connected to my home WiFi in order to download books previously)? 

As if so then why hasn't it taken the book off my Kindle? It's still there. 

I can only assume that it's not set up to auto connect then, although I haven't been asked each time to connect to WiFi when wanting to download a book, it just does it. 

And all that aside, if what you said is correct then I wish I'd known previously. I'd have downloaded the whole series. 

soolin

To connect to wi fi it needs to be left open to network. It is more usual to keep kindles on aeroplane mode as that’s the default as it saves a lot of battery. I’ve never routinely left mine on anything other than aeroplane mode .

p_anotherguy

soolin said:

The book remains on your kindle until you connect to wi fi again, it can’t just be taken back until there is an open connection.

i buy kindle unlimited occasionally as i read a lot. I download 20 books and keep swapping them for new ones when i finish one. Then the day before my membership expires i make sure i have 20 new books loaded, and then don’t connect to wi fi until I've finished them. 

Interesting advice, I'm going to try it

B0bbyEwing

soolin said:

To connect to wi fi it needs to be left open to network. It is more usual to keep kindles on aeroplane mode as that’s the default as it saves a lot of battery. I’ve never routinely left mine on anything other than aeroplane mode .

What do you mean exactly 'left open to network'? 
Like do you mean it needs to be powered on for 5mins, 10mins, 1hr?

Mine is (was) not in aeroplane mode. It is now though. I never even knew that was a thing until this thread. 

As for what I did.... 

Powered it up at home, went forward about 5 pages to see if they'd load, backwards 5 pages & then turned off. 

It will have had the ability to connect to the WiFi during that time. Whether it did or not I'm not sure.