PSA: Redownload your Harry Potter e-books from Pottermore before they disappear for good

An email sent to customers warning them about the change. | Image: Pottermore

If you own digital Harry Potter books purchased on Pottermore, you might want to redownload your copies before the option disappears for good at the end of the month. The site is emailing its customers to warn them that the books will no longer be available to redownload after January 31st, since being removed from sale in September last year.

When it launched back in 2012, Pottermore was the only official way to download digital copies of the Harry Potter books. Despite big stores like Amazon running promotions for the titles, which are some of the best-selling books of all time, stores would funnel customers to Pottermore to complete the sale (retailers like Amazon reportedly still got a cut, however).

But sales of the e-books reportedly declined over the years, and in 2015 they were made available directly from other online stores. Digitally enhanced editions launched on Apple’s e-books store in October 2015, and releases on other digital stores like Amazon followed later that year. Pottermore eventually morphed into WizardingWorld.com in 2019.

Although the option to redownload existing book purchases from Pottermore will disappear for good at the end of the month, it shouldn’t be too hard to hold on to your existing digital copy. On Twitter, Ryan C. Gordon notes that existing downloads consist of a DRM-free .epub file, which you should be able to transfer to any new e-readers in the future (though you have to convert the .epub file to make it readable on a Kindle). Just be sure to stash the file somewhere safe if you don’t want to pay again for books you already own in the future.