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Kindle Scribe: Send to Kindle vs USB for PDF planners (and why links vanish)

By Graphite Planner · Last updated 8 October 2026

There are two ways to put a PDF on a Kindle Scribe, and they do not give you the same file. One gives you a planner you can write in and tap through. The other gives you a document you can read but not write on. A third outcome, a reflowed book with no links at all, usually happens by accident. This article compares the routes side by side and explains each way links can vanish.

The two routes compared

The first row decides it. Amazon's help page Kindle Personal Document File Types That Support Notes says you can write directly on the page in PDF documents imported through Send to Kindle, and that the Kindle Scribe doesn't support writing directly on the page in PDF documents loaded via USB-C. The same page also excludes PDFs sent to your library before 11 November 2022.

Sending a planner with Send to Kindle

Amazon's page Send PDF, EPUB and Other Files to Your Kindle lists the ways in:

• Send to Kindle for Web: drag the file onto the page in any browser, up to 200 MB.
• The Send to Kindle app for a computer or a phone.
• Email: attach the PDF and send it to your Kindle's email address from an address on your approved list, up to 50 MB.

A dated planner stays far below those limits when it is drawn as vectors. The Graphite Kindle Scribe files have 639 pages and weigh about 2 MB each. A planner built from page images can run to tens of megabytes, and above 50 MB the email route simply fails.

Once the file arrives, open it from your library. Write with the pen. Tap a link with a finger, or choose the pointer, the hand tool, before you tap with the pen.

Why links vanish: conversion

The most common way to lose every link is conversion. If you email a PDF with the word convert in the subject line, Amazon's service turns it into a Kindle book. The text is reflowed to fit the screen like a novel. The page design is gone, so the invisible link areas that sat over each tab and calendar square have nothing left to sit on, and they disappear with it. What arrives is a long scroll of loose labels: OCT, NOV, W41, 15, 16.

The fix is to send the original PDF again with an empty subject or any other subject. In the apps and on the web page, leave any conversion option switched off. Then delete the converted copy, so that you don't open the wrong one out of habit.

Other ways links get lost before the file arrives

• Printing to PDF. Some people print a planner to a new PDF to change its paper size. A print driver redraws the page and leaves the links behind, so the result looks the same but no tap goes anywhere. Send the original file instead.
• Re-saving in an editor. Merging, compressing or flattening a PDF in an editing tool can strip links in the same way. If you need to change a file, check that its links still work on a computer before you send it.
• A zip file. The Scribe cannot open a zip. Unzip the download first and send the PDF itself.

When USB is fine

USB has its uses. For a document you only read, such as a manual or a reference sheet, a cable copy is quick. Amazon's page on connecting and transferring files notes that on Windows the Scribe shows up as a drive, while on a Mac it needs the Send to Kindle app even for USB transfers. For a planner, though, you want to write on the pages, so a USB copy is the wrong one.

If your planner is already on the tablet by USB, you don't need a new file. Delete the USB copy, send the same PDF with Send to Kindle, and write on that one. Since you could not write on the USB copy, nothing is lost by replacing it.

Links after a good transfer

Once a planner arrives as a writable PDF, its links are part of the file and keep working however much you write. Two things can still make a tap fail. The pen writes, so a pen tap on a button leaves a mark. And owners have reported that taps very close to the top and right edges of the screen are sometimes missed, near the top edge that also brings up the toolbar. The Graphite Kindle Scribe edition keeps every link at least 10 mm from the top and side edges for that reason. Kindle Scribe templates covers the edge problem in full.

Troubleshooting

I can't write on the pages.

The PDF came by USB, or was sent before November 2022. Send it again with Send to Kindle.

The planner is a reflowed book with no pages.

It was converted. Send the original PDF again without convert in the subject.

The pages look right but no link works.

Tap with a finger or the pointer tool. If links still fail, the file may have lost them before sending: test the original PDF on a computer.

The email never arrives.

Check the approved sender list and the 50 MB limit, or use Send to Kindle for Web.