Step-by-Step Guide: Transforming MOBI Files Into Compatible Amazon Kindle AZW Format

How to Convert Mobi to Kindle AZW

Posted by Ada Wang on 10/6/2017 4:06:02 PM.

Though both Mobi and AZW are closed formats of Amazon Kindle, a Kindle book can be delivered between them and almost looks the same. Sometimes people may still have the need to convert Mobi to AZW. But in fact, there is no need to do. Why? Here I will tell you the detailed information.

Reasons you want to convert may be

I list 2 reasons below. If your reasons are not included, please leave a comment to let me know.

Reason 1: Read DRM protected Mobi on Kindle devices.

As what I’ve said in part 1, both Mobi and AZW have drm form and non-drm form. So when you received some mobi books and they are protected with drm, you can’t open them directly on your Kindle devices. So, you think if converting the mobi to azw, your kindle may recognize them directly, yes?

Reason 2: AZW would be better?

Maybe you have been using .mobi books on your Kindle Paperwhite for a long time, but one day you were told that .azw format has better display quality on Kindle, then you also want to have a try to convert your mobi to azw, yes?

No need to convert. But why?

As mentioned above, people may convert Mobi to Kindle AZW format for 2 reasons. But in fact, there is no need.

1. For DRMed mobi, remove drm, not convert.

For the first reason, I want to tell you that when your mobi is with drm, your solution is not to convert (in fact you can’t convert successfully), but to break the drm first.

2. AZW is practically the same as mobi (when non-drm).

For the second reason, I want to tell you that Mobi have the similar display with AZW. It won’t affect your reading. Mobi can be used on any Kindle devices or kindle app.

3. Mobi has its own places

Mobi formats can take complex content, include advanced navigation controls, supports indexing and a high degree of compression. It can also display reflowable content and fixed width layout.

Then, what can I do?

Simple, just make sure you can open your Mobi without any problems.

But, here I need to stress a problem that, if your mobi files were bought by yourself, don’t convert please. No matter they had drm or not, you have the right to read them directly on your Kindle, with your own amazon account.

Tips: Nowadays, most of Mobi books are DRM-free, as Amazon transforms them to AZW once they are protected.

However, things will be different, if you received one mobi book from your friend, and you found this mobi is drm protected (you can’t open it), then there is an important thing you need to do: Remove Kindle DRM from Mobi first.

This is an useful tool Kindle DRM Removal . Once drm stripped out, from the output folder you can find your books.

Tips: Some will be kept in mobi, but some will be azw3, but don’t worry there is no change to the original content. What’s better, in fact AZW3 is a more advanced format for your Kindle devices, because azw3 has better performance than Mobi, is much smaller, and shows up on your Kindle as a book, not a personal document.

This is also the reason why when you add a mobi into Calibre to convert, from the output formats you can’t see “AZW” but only “Mobi” and “AZW3”.

The same interesting thing happens when I choose ZAMZAR and online-convert (they are 2 famous online ebook converters).

To get a conclusion, the important thing you need to do is to make sure your mobi is without drm protection. About whether converting to azw3 or not, this depends on you.

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Step-by-Step Guide: Transforming MOBI Files Into Compatible Amazon Kindle AZW Format