Microsoft closes its ebook store; all purchased books stop working
Microsoft closed the books category of the Microsoft Store in 2019. Because the books used DRM tied to Microsoft's servers, every purchased ebook stopped working in July 2019. Microsoft issued full automatic refunds.
- Date
- July 1, 2019
- Platform
- Microsoft Store
- Refunds offered
- Yes
- Offline copy provided
- No
What happened
In April 2019, Microsoft announced it was closing the books category of the Microsoft Store. Because purchased ebooks used DRM validated against Microsoft servers, the closure meant every book customers had bought would stop being readable in July 2019 — not merely become unavailable for repurchase.
Microsoft issued full automatic refunds for all book purchases; reporting at the time also described an additional $25 credit for customers who had annotated or marked up their books.
Consumer impact
- Total loss of the purchased library, including highlights and annotations.
- Full restitution of purchase price, handled automatically.
Why it matters
This is the canonical "your books stop working" case: a complete, DRM-enforced revocation of a purchased media library caused solely by a business-line closure. It is routinely cited to explain why DRM-locked purchases are structurally different from ownership, and — like Stadia — it shows full refunds are an available remedy when a platform winds down.