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I was expecting to find .epub or .prc files on my hard-disk, but didn't. Does anyone know: Where are the ebooks that the official Kindle App downloads located?

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The Kindle app stores AZW files, but only downloads them for Amazon-purchased content that you have opened in the Kindle app on that computer.

The AZW files are saved in ~/Documents/My Kindle Content.
Their names are random-looking (like B0043M4ZH0_EBOK), so it takes a little work to figure out which file corresponds to which book. Here's how you do that:

Open the book of interest on Amazon.com (make sure you're looking at the Kindle edition). It's URL will be something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-ebook/dp/B0043M4ZH0/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1309013055&sr=8-2, but all you're interested in is the code after /dp/. In this case, it's B0043M4ZH0.

So, you know that the AZW file with the name B0043M4ZH0_EBOK is The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

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  • Thanks for the explanation. I was able to locate the file using your URL method on my Android device, but there's just no such file on the Mac. Apparently it must be some different version, using some sort of packaged database file or something.. ? Hm.
    – scrrr
    Commented Jun 25, 2011 at 15:06
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    Wait, I must correct myself. Found it. It was in ~/Library/Application Support/Kindle/My Kindle Content Thank you!
    – scrrr
    Commented Jun 25, 2011 at 15:17
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    @scrrr That's very strange. It's in ~/Documents OMM. Maybe that changes based on the version of the Kindle app...
    – Nathan Greenstein
    Commented Jun 25, 2011 at 22:22
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    This is no longer correct. Andrew Hancox's answer below is the correct answer.
    – Karl Horky
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 8:47
  • This didn't answer work for me - someone needs to mark Andrew Hancox's answer as the correct one now - think the path has changed (I'm using MacOS 10.14)
    – tomh
    Commented Jun 7, 2019 at 14:12
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These files are now (October 2012) stored in:

~/Library/Containers/com.amazon.Kindle/Data/Library/Application Support/Kindle/My Kindle Content/

If they move again you can find them by running the command:

find  . -name *.azw
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    Notice that the directory ~/Library is typically not displayed if you navigate with Finder. To access it, click on Finder, then click on the "Go" menu and select "Go to folder". Then enter the address of the directory you want to access.
    – Martin Van der Linden
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 21:04
  • If you want this folder to be visible to apps such as Calibre, create a symbolic link by running this command on Terminal app inside the directory where you want the link to be created. "ln -s ~/Library/Containers/com.amazon.Kindle/Data/Library/Application\ Support/Kindle/My\ Kindle\ Content/ Kindle"
    – pm_labs
    Commented Oct 26, 2014 at 11:23
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    find . -name *.azw 2>/dev/null for cleaner output, since a lot of root-level reads might not be permitted
    – Brad Solomon
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 1:43
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Well, by going to the "Content Folder" in Kindle "Preferences," and clicking on same, I found the .azw files, but greyed out. They are in ~/Library/Application Support/Kindle/My Kindle Content/.

You can also use the "find" command in Terminal: find ~ -name '*.azw' to locate them.

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You can find (and change) the location of your books in the general preferences. Simply choose Preferences from the Kindle menu. In the General tab, you can find an entry Content Folder and a button to change it.

This works at least on a fresh installation of Kindle from the App Store, running Mountain Lion.

Addition: Worth saying that if you change it that it will automatically move everything from the existing location to the new location so you don't have to worry about it losing track of your books.

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After reading the above, I created a new folder under /Documents and then changed the target file location in Kindle/Preferences. Kindle app then copied the files to their. Then they became visible. Before that I also couldn't find them.

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You can define the location of the files (and see where they are) in you application.

Under Kindle -> Preferences you will find the content folder. if you hover the mouse over you can see all of them one at a time.

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As of August, 2024, books that have been downloaded by Kindle 17.5.1 lurk as follows:

  1. In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder…
  2. Enter the path ~/Library/Containers/com.amazon.Lassen/Data/Library/eBooks
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