Amazon is now automatically adding documents stored on a Kindle device to its Cloud Drive for easier archiving and retrieval.
The company has started sending out emails to customers notifying them of the change, although this new feature doesn't require any input from the user. Up until now, Kindle users were able to send documents, text from websites, or e-books that are Kindle-compatible to their devices through the popular "Send to Kindle" feature. Amazon is now extending the feature to work both ways, allowing users to see their personal Kindle documents on their Amazon Cloud Drive, but without needing to specifically send files to the cloud. As previously mentioned, this synchronization will be automatic.
"Amazon announced this morning through an email to its customers that all personal documents archived in your Kindle e-reader library are also now being made available from Amazon Cloud Drive," Tech Crunch reports. "The files will be placed in a folder called 'My Send-to-Kindle Docs' where you'll then be able to manage the items as you would any other file, including being able to organize, share or delete them as need be."
Personal documents include any file sent to a Kindle device, such as PDFs, Microsoft Word documents, online news articles, blogs, or even e-books acquired in a less-standard manner. Users can upload such files to their Kindle device via the desktop, browser, mobile device, or email, and see them automatically added to their Amazon Cloud Drive as well.
"As always, you can use Manage Your Kindle to see a list of your documents, re-deliver them to Kindle devices and free reading apps, delete them, or turn off auto-saving of documents to the cloud," Amazon explained. "Documents will be delivered just as they have in the past and you will continue to have 5 GB of free cloud storage for your personal documents. Just 'Send Once, Read Everywhere.'"
Moreover, all documents added to your Amazon Cloud Drive will be stored in their original format, although Amazon automatically converts files such as Microsoft Word documents (DOC) to Kindle-friendly formats. Basically, Amazon will still continue to convert them to facilitate reading, but it will also keep a copy of the native format in your Cloud Drive.
On the other hand, while Cloud Drive will keep all of your Kindle files, it will not offer the same functionality as the Kindle. This means that features such as bookmarking pages or keeping track of progress with a book will not work in your Amazon Cloud Drive, but that was expected.
Lastly, as Kindle owners benefit from 5GB of free space for Personal Documents and Cloud Drive users also receive 5GB for free file storage, users have a total of 10GB of free cloud storage to save their documents and files.
