Last week I bought a new Kindle for $79. I saved $30 by buying the Kindle “with Special Offers”. There are no ads while I’m reading, but banner ads appear at the bottom of menu screens and full-screen ads display when the Kindle powers down. The ads change regularly, which makes them harder to ignore.
I could go online and pay Amazon the difference in cost to turn the Special Offers off, but it turns out there’s a free and easy way block the ads. Here’s how you do it with Windows 7 (updated 11/29):
- Make sure your computer is configured to “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” and that it isn’t set to “Hide Protected Operating System Files“.
- Connect your Kindle to your computer with your USB cable.
- View your Kindle in Windows Explorer. Open the system folder and you’ll find an .assets folder.
(Click for full-size image)
- Delete the .assets folder.
- Create an empty file in the system folder named .assets. That keeps the Kindle from re-creating the .assets folder. The easiest way is to create an empty file is to open the system folder, right-click on the list of files and folders in system, and select New->Text Document from the context menu. That creates a file named New Text Document.txt.
- You can’t name a file with a leading period in Windows, so you need to open a command prompt window. Hold down the Shift key and right-click on the system folder, then select Open Command Window Here. This opens a character-based command prompt window (a “DOS Box”) with a prompt showing the location of the system folder (in my example, the prompt is D:\Kindle\system).
- Enter this command:
rename “New Text Document.txt” .assets
at the prompt to rename the file you created in step 5. - That’s it!
The Kindle stores Special Offers in folders inside the .assets folder. When it can’t write to those folders, it assumes there’s no wireless connection and displays a default screensaver (or banner) :
I find this much less annoying than an ever-changing ad. If I leave my Kindle off long enough, the screensaver changes one of a set of Amazon-supplied defaults, like this one:
Other versions of the Kindle may act differently. If you find you can’t stop the ads, or if you find another method that works better, let us know in the comments.
While you’re here… I bought my Kindle so I could test my ebooks. Chasing the Runner’s High is $2.99 and R is for Running is only 99¢.
Note: My original method was only a temporary solution. Matt Flint expanded on it, and I changed the above instructions accordingly (Thanks, Matt!) If you find an even better solution, post it in the comments.
I replaced the “.assets” directory with a file of the same name… made it read-only too, for good measure.
Wonder if that’ll be more of a permanent solution?
Matt,
In Windows, you can’t give a file a name that has nothing to the left of the dot, so I assume you’re using Linux of a Mac?
I originally did it using Windows… Explorer wouldn’t allow it, but a command prompt will.
Create a new file using Explorer, with any old name, then rename it using command prompt.
Yes you can, I usually do this to make new .htaccess files on my windows box, you just need to name the file
“.filename.” with a dot at the end, that will trick windows and it will just remove the last dot, leaving you with “.filename”
D’oh!
FYI, here’s the source for all the Kindles:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200203720
Have at it!
In step 5, after you select New > Text Document, instead of leaving the file name as “New Text Document.txt” you could hit any alphabet key to change the name to (for example) “b.txt”. This way, in step 7 you will have a much shorter command to type, and you don’t even need the double quotes!:… rename b.txt .assets
Although this tip gets rid of the rotating advertisements themselves, it still leaves a message asking you to connect wirelessly to download special offers. However, (big thanks to Matthew Flint!) it prevents Kindle from actually downloading ads when you connect to the internet, which is a good thing.
As the Kindle 4 is a very new device, the hackers still haven’t figured out a way to permanently remove the ads system. I have tried all the simple hacks such as replacing the ads with my own picture (this worked ONCE before the ad system reverted to asking me to connect). All the more complex hacks such as jailbreaking, installing USBnetwork hacks, etc are applicable to K3 and I haven’t read even one report that they would work for K4. My guess is, they don’t.
Anyway I will try more different attempts tomorrow and post any new developments. Meanwhile, this solution provides a good workaround until the Kindle experts can figure out a true solution to get rid of ads.
One thing I’m interested to know if anyone who bought the ad-supported Kindle and later unsubscribed from ads (paying extra $30) would be able to check their Kindle’s “system” folder and report if there are any new files or any new changes to the configuration file.
Btw, I have updated to Kindle OS 4.0.1
For your info, I’m in the UK and the option to remove ads doesn’t work here.
I’ve given up on removing them, having instead replaced them with pictures of the kids. (Aaaah!)
This was achieved with altered DNS settings, and a fake Ad server called “pwnazon”.
Happy!
Example:
photo/1
Fork of pwnazon:
https://github.com/mflint/pwnazon
I assume the reward is for someone who finds your Kindle, not that you’ve lost your baby?
Hey I just posted a solution below to completely remove the ads and disable the ad system (totally ad-free Kindle). However, it doesn’t give any option to have custom screensavers (maybe it’s doable in the future with some other hack, but for now, the standard Amazon screensavers will be displayed).
Of course if you’re happy with your pwnazon serving pics of your kids there’s no need to follow my solution. But just letting you know you can disable the ad system very easily.
Amazon will probably drop a nuclear bomb on my house for this. Here’s how you can get a COMPLETELY AD-FREE Kindle 4 (non-touch) without paying a single extra cent to Amazon. Your Kindle will behave EXACTLY as though you purchased the Ad-free version.
Tested on Kindle 4 non-touch with latest OS 4.0.1. Theoretically, should work on older OS 4.0 also. Actually, steps x to y were tested on a 4.0 device, but the steps before that were never done on the device (It was never connected to the internet before doing this hack.) Theoretically this may even work on the Touch and Touch 3G version and other ad-supported Kindles.
START FROM STEP 1 if you have already connected to internet, registered your Kindle and thus got ad loaded on your Kindle.
SKIP TO STEP 10 if you have never connected to internet since you got your Kindle (That is, your Kindle is currently behaving as “ad-free” without even the “Please connect wirelessly to download sponsored offers” message, and is currently unregistered.)
It may seem lengthy but trust me it’s quick to do. Just give it a full read to mentally plan out what you have to do, then start doing it.
1. Connect Kindle to PC and allow USB mode.
2. Copy out the “documents” folder and any other content you may have loaded on your Kindle. ["Copy out" means copy to your computer's hard disk so that you can copy them back later.]
3. Disconnect the Kindle from the USB cable.
4. Wake your Kindle if needed. From Home screen, press Menu, go to Settings.
5. Press Menu button again, go to Reset to Factory Defaults.
6. Press Right to select “OK” then press the center key of D-pad.
7. After a few seconds, Kindle will restart. Be patient.
8. When you see the Language selection screen, choose your desired language (by default “English (United States)” and select “OK”.
9. A few more seconds later, you will see the “Set Up Your Kindle” screen. DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THIS SCREEN! Not yet.
10. Plug in your USB cable to Kindle and connect to your PC.
11. Open the Kindle drive in your computer. If you did steps 1-9, you will find that the drive has been reformatted by Kindle and all your documents are now gone (including the dictionaries that Kindle came with!). This is why step 2 is important. If you skipped to step 10, your documents (if any) are not affected, and you must skip next step, go to step 13.
12. (For those who did steps 1-9) Copy back the documents folder that you had copied out in step 2. You will be asked whether to replace two Kindle_User_Guide files. You can click “Don’t Copy” or say No to this question unless you want restore your last read page on the User Guide.
13. Make sure hidden files can be seen by enabling the “Show hidden files, folders and drives” option.
14. Open the “system” folder in your Kindle drive.
15. Right-click an empty area and choose New > Text Document. Enter any alphabet to shorten the name to (for example) d.txt
16. Go back to the Kindle drive, hold SHIFT on your keyboard and right-click the “system” folder.
17. Choose “Open Command Window Here”
18. In the black command window, enter the command “ren d.txt .assets” (no quotes, and replace d.txt with whatever filename you chose in step 15). Press ENTER key after typing command. Close command window once done. (IMPORTANT: Make sure you get the file name right, or you will have to start from step 1 again, even if you had skipped steps 1-9.)
19. Open the system folder again, and right-click the .assets file, choose Properties.
20. Place a checkmark on the “Read-only” option and click OK. (This step may not be necessary, but I did it so I’m mentioning it. You’re welcome to test without it and post your results.)
21. Eject your Kindle and disconnect the USB cable.
22. NOW is the time to “Set Up Your Kindle”. First of all, connect to a WiFi (internet). Once connected, register to your Amazon account.
23. Once registration is complete, press the Home button (unless you wanna shop or read user guide, but you probably don’t wanna do that now).
24. SURPRISE! No ads! Not convinced? Go to the Experimental Web browser and do some good amount of surfing. Go back to Home screen. STILL NO ADS! Awesome, huh? Not even the “Please connect wirelessly to download sponsored offers” banner! You won’t even find the “View Special Offers” option in the menu. Your screensavers will also have the same effect.
25. Final step: Go to Settings and set the time, and ensure that your dictionary and other settings are set correctly and to your preference.
Enjoy your ad-free Kindle at ad-supported Kindle’s price!
Has anyone tried this? I’m planning on buying one and I don’t want to pay some extra 30 bucks for removing the ads.
Yes I did. Works great!
If i were to do this will it void the warranty?!?!
Works nicely in Linux too. The thing bothering me was they never eliminated the old add files. Copies of the adds are kept in two places. They accumulate quickly and waste space on the Kindle.
Thanks for clearly setting out how to remove the ads. I just did it with an Amazon Kindle Free 3G + Wireless ($85 at Target Black Friday).
Just completed the steps on my Kindle Keyboard 3.3 and it works great so far. The pictures look so much better than the ads.
Have you had an issues yet? been able to update the software? I’m considering this….
I’ve clicked the “show hidden files and folders” option on my computer but I don’t have a “systems” folder. I have Kindle version 4.0. What should I do?
On Windows this script will take care of everything for you: http://www.pierotoffanin.com/ (Link to unverified executable deleted by blog owner)
While I’m sure Piero Toffanin is a fine human being, I’m not going to allow any direct links to unverified executables (or zips thereof). If Piero wants to put a link to his script on a page and link to that page here, he’s welcome to do that, and readers are welcome to make their own judgements as to whether to run the script.
http://www.pierotoffanin.com/2011/12/how-to-remove-ads-from-your-ad-supported-kindle-4-for-free/
Kindle4Free script.
What is the “ren d.txt .assets” command equivalent for doing this in terminal on a mac?
I believe you are able to name the file .assets directly, but it would be “mv d.txt .assets”.
It’s funny how there are just two commonly used command sets in the world, unix-based and windows.
Thank you, this method works great! To those with vista not getting the systems folder on step 14, make sure to disable “hide protected operating system files” in the folder options from your control panel. Once I disabled that it immediately came up.
It works great.Thank you!
If I wanted to reenable the special offers would I just delete the .assets file that was created?
incredible! thank you! i was able to do this very easily following your directions.
after reset, it does not show “select your language.” instead, it goes straight to the home screen in english. If i do not register my account, there are no ads. however, once i register, the ads come back. it seems they are linked to my amazon account, not the device itself.
nevermind, i figured it out. the problem was i created a .assets FOLDER on my mac. i redid it with a .assets word file and it seems like it is going to work.
is this legal?
Works great! Thanks
How do you do this with mac?
Thanks for the info and thanks also to Anon7788990 for the added info about resetting it.
Mine was a 4.0 version and it worked great. Followed all the instructions.
thanks!
Yours is Kindle 4 (non touch) or Kindle Touch?
I just followed Anon7788990 guide for my kindle touch and it worked perfectly!
Followed the guide for my Kindle Touch as well, worked like a charm.
I pirate movies, music, and software all the time and even I find this “technique” to be very wrong. Call me a hypocrite but I pirate software and movies that I would not otherwise buy, period. I still buy video games, software, music, and movies that I actually like and enjoy. If I pirate something and end up enjoying it, then I buy it.
This method, it is taking something that you obviously like and enjoy (Kindle) and cheating Amazon out of their money. Amazon chose to offer the kindle at a cheaper price since they would generate that revenue back from the ads.
There is a difference even if you choose to ignore it.
The money that Amazon is losing by selling the ad-supported Kindle at a cheaper price is made up by their deals with the sponsors that the ads come from. I doubt Amazon or the sponsors really care that (probably) less than 5% of Kindle users go through the effort of removing the ads.
hypocrite.
i doubt that you go out and buy every movie that you download and watch or song you listen to. you are cheating the movie studios and music studios out of their money. you would have had to pay if you went to the theater or even rented it from red box or bought it from itunes. even if you ended up not liking it.
just because you like and enjoy does not make it right or wrong. not paying for something that is meant to be paid for is all wrong.
i also like how the author plugs his ebooks at the end of the article. maybe someone trying this hack on their kindle should get these ebooks, remove any drm if there are any, and post the files out for the world to have for free. it would be a great way to test out your new ad-free kindle with some free books.
Re: DRM
http://www.chasingtherunnershigh.com/faq.htm#drm
My ebooks are only $2.99 (actually, Amazon has it at $2.51) and 99 cents. If you think about it, the time and effort you’d spend to try and find a free copy is worth more than that, isn’t it?
i DO hope you get paid for your work.
that concept seems to be losing favor these days though.
worked great on kindle touch, thank you,
i hope amazon isn’t preparing to brick hacked devices or something.
oh well, you can always restore to factory settings
LOL. Yeah, you are a huge hypocrite and your lecture is ridiculous.
“It’s okay when I do it because I’ve managed to form a weak but convincing rationalization for myself… but what YOU guys are doing is WRONG!”
this works, but you get a new banner at the bottom “Please connect wirelessly to download the latest Special Offers”
also, I noticed my Kindle froze when I tried connecting with the experimental browser. I’m not sure if the browser was at fault of if the device was trying to download the offers and it wasn’t able to save it to .assets
[...] got two choices. You could pay Amazon $30 to get rid of them, or you could do it yourself for free. Y42K shows you how. [...]
I doubt Amazon cares… much… the folks that disable ads, weren’t going to click through anyway… BUT… Amazon’s ad revenue is based on the number of “eyes” they are selling… so… if 5% of the owners hack out the ads, then Amazon is misrepresenting/overstating the number of “eyes” to their advertisers… think about that…
Point noted. But I believe 5% (or whatever the real number of hacked Kindles is) is WELL WITHIN an accepted margin of error for any representations Amazon makes about kindle users or any other data.
[...] You could pay Amazon $30 to get rid of them, or you could do it yourself for free. Blog Y42K shows you how. [...]
[...] ad Amazon per sbarazzarvene, oppure potete farlo da soli gratis. Come? Ve lo spiega passo passo il blog Y42K, ma se prima di imbarcarvi nelle istruzioni per farlo volete sapere di che si tratta, ve lo spiego [...]
[...] You could pay Amazon $30 to get rid of them, or you could do it yourself for free. Blog Y42K shows you how. [...]
sorry i already asked it… What happens to the warranty if I do this?
Amazon is preparing to brick those devices.
Where did you read that?
Nonsense.
[...] December 2, 2011 in Everyday Hack If you purchased the cheaper, subsidized Kindle with ads and have now grown tired (either physically or philosophically) of the ads, you’ve got two choices. You could pay Amazon $30 to get rid of them, or you could do it yourself for free. Blog Y42K shows you how. [...]
[...] You could pay Amazon $30 to get rid of them, or you could do it yourself for free. Blog Y42K shows you how. [...]
[...] If you purchased the cheaper, subsidized Kindle with ads and have now grown tired (either physically or philosophically) of the ads, you’ve got two choices. You could pay Amazon $ 30 to get rid of them, or you could do it yourself for free. Blog Y42K shows you how. [...]
[...] [via] // [...]
[...] My post on how to block ads on the Kindle was picked up by Lifehacker yesterday. The result has been interesting: [...]
[...] Block Kindle Special Offers – Easy and Free « Y42K? Enter this command: rename “New Text Document.txt” .assets You can’t name a file with a leading period in Windows, so you need to open a command prompt window. [...]
I’ve had some time to work on this and put my results in this page: http://www.pierotoffanin.com/2011/12/how-to-remove-ads-from-your-ad-supported-kindle-4-for-free/
It describes the same method wrote by several people to simply add a .assets file in the system folder but it also describes how you can replace the ads with custom images with the DNS spoof method. I wrote my own version of the server that doesn’t require a an install of Apache to work.
I tried this with the Kindle Touch, but unfortunately I cannot find the system folder. Mine only has the following:
.active_content
audible
documents
music
tts
There is no system folder. I have show hidden folders active as well.
Do a search for “assets” from the root drive, then right click on the resulting .assets folder and then on Open Location,and you’ll find you’re in the System folder.
I had the same problem too on vista. The solution is to go to file settings and disable “hide protected operating system files”. Once I did that it showed the system folder.
[...] You could pay Amazon $30 to get rid of them, or you could do it yourself for free. Blog Y42K shows you how. [...]
Does anyone know how to do this with a Mac? Would the steps be exactly the same? TIA
[...] quitar la publicidad de Amazon de tu [...]
[...] Block Kindle Special Offers – Easy and Free « Y42K? [...]
I can confirm that the instructions in this post works for the Kindle Touch. The ads don’t show but a message says to connect to wifi to receive the offers.
I can also confirm that Anon7788990′s instructions works on the Kindle Touch to eliminate all ads as well as the message box asking to connect to wireless!!!
For those on a mac, go to the terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
Then, either restart your computer or option-command-esc to get the force quit window…select finder and click “relaunch” … you should then see the hidden files and folders (including files that begin with dots and the system folder) in the finder.
What is the “ren d.txt .assets” command equivalent for doing this in terminal on a mac?
I think, on Mac OS X, you can directly create a file by the name “.assets” in step 15, thereby skipping steps 16, 17 and 18 (including the “ren d.txt .assets” command). The reason why you have to do steps 16, 17, 18 on a Windows system is because Windows doesn’t allow file names to start with a dot. I have seen Mac OS X allowing this though, but I could be wrong. If it doesn’t allow, search for Mac terminal commands for renaming files.
Has anyone found any kind of negative impact from doing this yet? Someone mentioned in an earlier post that the web browser would freeze up. Whereas I won’t be using my Touch to browse the web much, if I find myself out and about and want to check scores or something, I may pull it up. Anyone else found this to be true? Thanks for the instructions on doing this!
Browser always freezes up, even in non Special Offers Kindles, LOL. Follow the instructions of Anon7788990 from November 29, they are a lot better than original post. I did it and I got rid of the ads, and returned to the classic Jules Verne & Friends wallpapers
Thank you! I wish the blog owner incorporated my instructions or Piero Toffanin’s simplified version (Method 1) at http://www.pierotoffanin.com/2011/12/how-to-remove-ads-from-your-ad-supported-kindle-4-for-free/ in his post above. Glad to be of help.
You don’t need to delete the .assets folder and make a new one. I just deleted the contents of the folder and it works just the same. I even shut it down and booted it back up, as well as surfed around for a bit in the browser – still no ads.
[...] More at Y42K [...]
[...] More at Y42K [...]
[...] More at Y42K [...]
[...] all. Just like most smartphones, your e-reader can be jailbroken. The process is surprisingly easy. Y42K has published an easy to follow guide that shows how the process can be done fast.In order to [...]
I followed all of the steps regarding the “View hidden files and folders”, but I still can’t see the “System” folder when I view my Kindle in Windows Explorer. What could be going wrong?
**Liz**
you must go to Folder and Search Options>View> There you will remove the checkmark for “Hide Protected Operating System Files.
Then it should work!
Cheers,
Ash
Another fine example of the moral decay of society brought about by the ability to steal something without getting caught, and then attempting to rationalize the behavior as OK or, worse, noble.
Pathetic.
This method is much easier: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/12/29/remove-ads-from-kindle/
Just “play” the included MP3 and it creates a “disable ads” toggle button. Press button, enjoy your own custom screensaver.png. The benefit of this method, over the one described in this blog post, is that it WILL NOT have the “please connect to network” message box displayed on your screensaver at all times…and you get to choose your own screensaver.
Tried it. Worked for few days. And then suddenly started seeing Ads today. Again toggled ads twice to remove ads.
Fix seems to work as indicated thanks – I think the ad-subsidized marketing and resulting user experience is terrible for consumers although it obviously had the intended effect for Kindle sales.
I found a workaround taht makes the .assets folder creation easier just name a .zip folder that and it will give you no errors then extract tested and working on windows vista
The instructions tell readers to replace a folder with a file. Instead of creating and renaming “New Text Document.txt”, the you need to create a new folder (New > Folder on the right click menu), and go with the default “New folder” name.
Then open a command line per the instructions in the article, but instead of typing “rename ‘New Text Document.txt’ .assets”, type “rename ‘New folder’ .assets”.
That got rid of the ads for me.
DISREGARD MY LAST COMMENT. Follow Anon7788990′s instructions, using the file (d.txt > .assets) he mentioned, not a folder like I suggested. My method works, but it only yields the “Please connect to the Internet to download the latest Special Offers” banner per the instructions in the OP. Anon’s instructions give a completely banner-free experience.
does anyone have a source for the original .assets file? I seem to have lost mine
it worked
Is there any way to get rid of the ads on a $79 Kindle?…
As others have mentioned, there are ways to pay to remove the ads – but my assumption is that whoever purchased the lower priced Kindle would not like the ads, but also doesn’t want to pay to remove them. I have not tested any method for removing ads …
Update, for what it’s worth: Just bought an ad-free K-4 (don’t know if it’s 4.0 or 4.0x, but I assume the latter since I b ought it more recently than others on this thread). Using Windows XP, I double-checked with Control Panel>Folder Options>View>Advanced to make sure that Hidden Files/Folders are shown and Protected Operating System Files are not hidden.
Then I plugged in my new Kindle (still a WiFi virgin). The Kindle screen told me to unplug it if I wanted to use it as a reader, and that I was “not charging.” (At that point I was already fully charged).
I ignored this message and and opened up the Kindle drive in Control Panel. Looked in the System folder (whose icon, BTW, was for some reason fainter than the rest) and found no “.assets” folder, only two sub-folders, “com.amazon.ebook.booklet.reader” and “Search Indexes.” (Neither of these contained “.assets,” either).
I unplugged the Kindle, plugged it in again, and this time got a screen that announced I was in USB Drive Mode. “If you want to read or shop…while continuing to charge…keep USB cable attahed, but eject Kindle from computer…”
Went back into Control Panel and saw the same two folders plus a third, new folder labeled “.active-content-data.” This is the only filename in the directory with a leading period.
Is this “.active-content-data” the new avatar of the “.assets” folder, Amazon’s latest attempt to block cracks? I hesitate to delete and replace it as described for the “.assets” folder, until I have a better idea of what it is and why it’s there. Anybody have an light to shed?
The only other file in the Kindle driver was “Documents,” which contained the users’ guide and dictionaries.
Unplugged
If you bought an “ad free” Kindle, why are you trying a process designed to block ads?
Tiebian,
If you scroll down to read user (Anon7788990) comment posted on Nov 29, 2011, he laid out a different method to achieving an ad-free kindle. I believe this method has been verified to work by other users judging by the comments to his post. From his instructions for a “virgin” kindle, you should not see a “.assets” folder initially. Instead, you are supposed to create a “.assets” folder by renaming a “.txt” file created in a previous step. Just read through his steps a few times before attempting. It shouldn’t be too difficult as his instructions are pretty detailed. Hope this helps.
Xus
seafood restaurants…
[...]Block Kindle Special Offers – Easy and Free « Y42K?[...]…