How to Permanently Delete Books From Your Kindle
Removing finished books from Kindle has always been possible, but with one catch. Anything you delete from your device is saved to your account. It’s not gone forever, it’s just gone from the specific Kindle device you’re using.
You probably caught this caveat the first time you pressed and held your finger on a book on your Kindle and hit the Remove from Device option. However, the all-new Kindle update finally gives users the ability to delete books from their collections directly from their Kindles – a feature previously only found in Kindle apps for iOS or Android (albeit limitedly).
As Nathan pointed out on eBook Reader.com , the latest Kindle software update 5.12.5, released in late April, adds this feature. You will now see a new “permanently delete” option when you hold your finger on a book title, just like you would have done before to remove it from your collection. Click on that option, confirm your decision to remove it, and the book will disappear from your account. (Meanwhile, the Delete from Device option has been renamed to Delete Boot, so don’t get confused by this change either.)
Previously, to remove a book from your account, you had to open your Amazon account in your desktop web browser, click on the content you no longer need, and delete it that way.
Or you could use the Kindle iOS or Android apps to permanently remove items, although this only works with free or sample content you download or items you download to your library.
As of the 5.12.5 update, you should have gotten it by now if you’ve connected your Kindle to Wi-Fi at any point since April. If not, you can always download and install the update manually . However, before taking this route, it is worth checking if version 5.12.5 is already installed on your device – or even if it supports it from the very beginning.
If you don’t see the “permanently uninstall” option after the update, you may have to wait for Amazon to enable it on your device. Deploying features is great, isn’t it?