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Amazon recently released a software update for the Kindle Scribe that introduced a side panel writing feature within ebooks. While this is a useful addition for those who like handwritten notes, many users find the always-visible icon for the feature distracting, and it currently cannot be hidden. There is hope that Amazon will add an option to hide it in future updates, but there’s no timeline for when that might happen.
In the meantime, a temporary workaround exists to avoid seeing the icon by using an older ebook format (AZW3). Users can download their purchased ebooks from Amazon’s Digital Content page via the “Download & Transfer via USB”option and sideload them onto the Kindle Scribe. However, this disables all handwritten note-taking features.
There are two major limitations to this workaround:
1. Amazon is removing the USB transfer option on February 26th, meaning this method will soon be obsolete.
2. It does not work on the 2024 Kindle Scribe, though users with an older Kindle registered to their account can still download AZW3 files (but must remove DRM for them to work on the Scribe).
For advanced users, another option is to remove DRM from KFX-formatted books and convert them to AZW3 via Calibre, but this requires extra effort. Ultimately, unless Amazon provides a fix, users must choose between tolerating the icon or losing handwriting functionality.
Source: How To Avoid Seeing New Notes Icon on Kindle Scribe
