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I have a tablet running Android 9, with the latest version of the Kindle app. (The tablet is a Galaxy Tab A (8.0", 2019), but that shouldn't matter.) It's not rooted.

In the Amazon Kindle app, I've enabled "Download to SD Card" (which causes books I've bought from Amazon to be stored on the external SD card) and "Show Personal Documents in Library".

The latter option makes *.mobi files I've copied into the "Books" folder in "Internal Storage" to be visible in my Kindle library. The path to the folder is /storage/emulated/0/Books.

The external SD card is visible as /storage/0000-0000. Copying *.mobi files into /storage/0000-0000/Books doesn't make them visible to the Kindle app.

Is there a way to copy my own *.mobi file (not purchased from Amazon) to a folder on my external SD card so I can read them with the Kindle app? I'm guessing there's a particular directory path, but a Google search has not revealed what it is.

(I know I can install books by emailing them to [email protected], but I'm looking for a way to just copy the files to the device.)

Keith Thompson
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  • @beeshyams No, it's not rooted. – Keith Thompson Jan 03 '20 at 23:44
  • Without root you can't AFAIK. Storage location is configured on Ext. SD but you would need to access the app folder (which is in the folder path above) and you can't do that without root – beeshyams Jan 03 '20 at 23:54
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    @beeshyams: If that's the case, then I'd say it's a flaw, or at least a missing feature, in the Kindle app. If it lets me use the Books folder on the internal file system to store and read personal mobi documents, why shouldn't it let me do something similar on an external SD card? With no external SD, Kindle can read books stored either in its own application-specific folder or in the Books folder. – Keith Thompson Jan 03 '20 at 23:59
  • Well there's an alternative using Dropbox https://www.lifewire.com/load-non-amazon-books-kindle-1616647 – beeshyams Jan 04 '20 at 00:06
  • @beeshyams: It looks like that just lets you copy files from Dropbox to internal storage. – Keith Thompson Jan 04 '20 at 00:22
  • How do you copy the files into the Books folder? Via adb or MTP? If you use adb make sure you can see the file via MTP, if not reboot the device or use an sd-card refresher. because if the file is not visible via MTP it most likely is also invisible to the Kindle app. – Robert Jan 04 '20 at 12:35
  • @Robert: I use scp under termux. I think I have visibility to everything on the SD card. An ideal answer would be "copy the files to this directory on the SD card. My guess is that the Kindle app just doesn't have that feature. – Keith Thompson Jan 04 '20 at 21:03
  • @KeithThompson If you copy it via SCP the file may be not recognized by the Media Service and therefore invisible to MTP and apps that rely on the file list provided by the Media Service. Therefore you may encounter a similar problem as in this question. – Robert Jan 05 '20 at 12:09
  • @Robert: I'm not using MTP. I can copy *.mobi files to /storage/emulated/0/Books (on internal storage) and the Kindle app automatically recognizes them. I'm looking for a similar directory on my "external" SD card that the Kindle app will also recognize. Does the Kindle app depend on MTP to find files? – Keith Thompson Jan 06 '20 at 00:24
  • @KeithThompson That you don't use MTP may be the problem! As a Linux user you assume you understand how Android works, but sometimes you would be surprised how different some things like listing files is done on Android. Apps usually don't use the file-system listing but the database provided by the Media Service. Therefore that a file is in the file-system does not necessarily means that an app can see the file! That is why I was asking you to copy a mobi file using MTP instead for a test. – Robert Jan 06 '20 at 08:25
  • @Robert: I just plugged the tablet into my Windows laptop with a USB cable. The internal and external file systems were visible from Windows. I presume it was using MTP, but I can't confirm that. I was able to copy a .mobi file into the Books directory on the external SD card. It was visible to the file manager on the tablet, but didn't show up in my Kindle library. If I copy another .mobi file into the Books directory on the tablet's internal storage, it does appear in my Kindle library. – Keith Thompson Jan 06 '20 at 18:30

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