How to set up Family Library for Kindle

Amazon’s 7th generation Kindle wields a host of cool new functions; now the Kindle Voyage an Kindle Paperwhite have a so much more to offer, not least of all Family Library, which lets you share ebooks across devices with your family, completely free of charge.

If you’re keen to start sharing books across your devices – hey, why not start a family book club! – read on for our guide on how to set up Amazon’s Family Library function.

How to set up Family Library for Kindle: before you start

Before you start, you need to make sure the people in your household have Family Library-compatible devices. Currently, this is limited to the 7th-generation Kindle, the Kindle Voyage, and the Kindle Paperwhite ebook readers.

The service is limited to a “household” consisting of two adults and up to four children. Each adult will need their own Amazon account, while children’s accounts are set up as part of an adult account.

Both adults will also need to authorise each other to use the payment card details associated with their respective accounts.

How to set up Family Library for Kindle: step one

First of all, you will need to set up a household. On your kindle, swipe down from the top of the screen to bring up the notifications screen and tap on the Settings menu.

Next, tap on Household Profiles. Here you can add children or another adult to your household.

Add a child Adding a child is quite straightforward. Press on Add Child, assign them a name and select if they are a boy or a girl and add their date of birth. You can also choose their user photo and decide whether to use Amazon Free Time or Teen Profiles to control their usage.

Tap Add Profile and your new profile will be created. You’ll then be taken to a screen where you can decide what content you want to let them view.

Adding an adult To add another adult profile, you will need the other adult to be present. Tap on Add Adult Profile and you will be prompted to pass the device to the other person. Here, they can either sign in with their existing Amazon account, or create a new account.

Once they’re signed in or signed up, they can press Add Profile at the bottom of the screen and they’ll be added to the household.

How to set up Family Library for Kindle: step two

To set up your family library, head over to [a hfre=”https://www.amazon.co.uk/mn/dcw/myx.html/ref=kinw_myk_surl_1#/home/content/booksAll/dateDsc/” title=”amazon” follow=”no”]Manage Your Content and Devices[/a] on the main Amazon website. If you aren’t already logged in, you’ll be prompted to do so.

Click on Your Content and you will see all the Kindle books you have bought. Select Show Family Library and two new options – Add To Family Library and Remove From Family Library – will appear at the top of the list as buttons. Until you select any content, they will be ghosted.

How to set up Family Library for Kindle: step three

Select the titles you want to share in your family library by clicking on the tick box to their left. Once you’ve selected all the content you wish to share, click the Add To Family Library button at the top.

You will then be presented with a pop-up screen where you can decide one-by-one who in your household you want to share the content with. This means you can share certain content with the other adult in your household, but not your children, for example if you don’t feel it’s age appropriate. Similarly if you have children with a wide age range, you may want to share some content just with your eldest child, but not your youngest.

Select from the dropdown menu the profile you want to share content with and click OK. That person’s profile picture will then appear next to the title in the Family Library list.

Repeat this action for everyone you want to share the content with.

That’s it – your family library is now set up.

How to set up Family Library for Kindle: step four

If you want to remove a title from your family library go through step two again and select the titles you want to remove in the same way they were added in step three.

Now, instead of selecting Add to Family Library, click Remove fro Family Library. Once again, you will be presented with a dropdown menu where you can select which profiles you want to remove the content from. Note that all the names in your Household will appear, not just those with whom the content is already shared.

Click OK and their access will be revoked.

If you need to remove a whole profile from your household, you can do this the same way you set the profile up.

In Household Profiles on your Kindle, click on the profile you wish to remove and at the bottom of the profile menu there’s a Remove from Household option. Tap it and you will see a message asking you to confirm their removal. By clicking on remove profile you’ll revoke their access to all shared content as well as removing them from any shared devices.