If you’re like most people, you probably have at least one Kindle device in your home. And if you’re a Kindle owner, you probably also have an e-reader that’s connected to your home network. But what if you want to share purchased eBooks with family members on those devices? There are a few ways to do this, but the best way is probably through the Kindle Family Library. This feature lets you share purchased eBooks with your family members without having to worry about any technical issues. To get started, open the Kindle Family Library and select the books that you want to share. Then, click on the “Share” button next to each book. You’ll be able to choose how many people will be able to access each book at once and decide how long each person has for access. Once everyone has access to a book, they can start reading it. If there are any problems sharing the book, just try again later or contact Amazon customer service if there are any problems. The Kindle Family Library is a great way to keep your family together while reading purchased eBooks!
What You Need to Know
When you set this up, both adults agree to allow the other adult access to each other’s payment methods. If you’re actually in a relationship with someone, this hopefully won’t be a big deal. On the other hand, this means you don’t want to set up Family Library with someone you don’t trust.
Set Up Family Library
You’ll find Family Library setup on the settings screens on modern Kindle eReaders and Kindle Fire devices. However, you can also set this up entirely online, even if you don’t have a Kindle eReader or Kindle Fire device.
After you agree, you’ll be able to share which types of content you want to share with each other. This also shares future purchased content of that type.
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Access Your Shared Books
You’ll see shared content from your partner’s library under the same Manage Your Content and Devices page we looked at earlier. They’ll be tagged “Shared With You.”
To actually see this content on a device, you may need to click the Your Devices header here and select each device. Check the “Show [Partner Name]’s content” box under Family library for each. No, we’re not really sure why this isn’t enabled by default for each device. Your partner will have to do this for their devices on their own account, too.
With this option enabled, your purchased books and other content will appear under the Cloud or Archived section in any of the devices or apps you enabled it on. They’ll be mixed in with the other books you have available for purchase. You can download and read the book just like you would any other book.
Apple’s iCloud Family Sharing and Steam’s Family Sharing work similarly, allowing you to share digital content like you would physical media.
Image Credit: mobilyazilar on Flickr
