Can not copy text from epub in Adobe Digital Editions and paste in e.g. Word

[ITfee]

There are several threads in this support forum asking all likely the same question, how to copy text passages from an epub opened in Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to another application or text editor like Word, Notepad, Open Office ...

Copying from adobe digital editions

Re: Copying text to my term papers. Ctrl+C doesn't work. Help!!

Problems with Copy/Paste This question is Not Answered.  no longer copy text and paste into another ...

how do I copy text from an epub book?

Digitl Edition EBook copy text option not available

... but remain unanswered. That's a little odd, due to the fact that it seems to be an issue for a bunch of people.

Is it just impossible or a bug in ADE?

I use latest version ADE 4.5.1 on Windows 7. The tested epubs have no DRM. And they are not blocked by Windows.

What I found out so far, if I open the same epub in an older version (ADE 3.0) I can copy and paste text without any problems. But if I open it in ADE 4.5.1 I can only copy once and then the option is greyed out in the context menu (also ctrl + c doesn't work). So for every copy paste I need to reopen the ebook. So it is useless for scientific work, where you need to cite a lot from different books.

Is there a workaround or will there be a patch from Adobe? Or can someone suggest a similar eReader application for desktop users?

[Nanaky]

The problem is often that the creater of the eBook not want that text was copy. Has you check the perssion of the eBook?

[ITfee]

Of course I did (as I mentioned above):

As you can see, it is allowed to copy on every device, but ADE doesn't let me copy paste any text ...

[Nanaky]

Has you try it with a ohter eBook? Sample eBook Library | Adobe Digital Editions

[ITfee]

I already tested that of course! It is the same as with the other eBooks!

I've downloaded one of the samples you've mentioned and it is always the same:

Sometimes it works:

And then it works not:

There doesn't seem to be a pattern. Once opened I can copy several text passages. If I open it the next time I can't copy anything. If I try again and again, sometimes I can copy just one(!) text passage and then the copy-option is greyed out. And yes, I already tested this (of course!) on different computers and different Versions of Windows, so I assume it is not a problem of a local client. It must be a bug in the software! Due to the fact btw. that an older version of ADE (I've tested ADE 3.0) doesn't show this behaviour.

[Nanaky]

Then its better your try to write a staff person for this issue.

[ITfee]

I wrote a staff member 10 days ago, but he neither answered nor took a look inside this thread obviously ...

[evan9685809]

Bump thread. Having this same issue and it's really annoying.

[Nanaky]

ITfee schrieb:

I wrote a staff member 10 days ago, but he neither answered nor took a look inside this thread obviously ...

Has you try to write a staff person a private message?

[ITfee]

Yes, I wrote a message to Dominic Michael on August 8th, but he didn't answer since then. What else staff member do you suggest to write to?

[ITfee]

Some days ago Adobe Support confirmed, it is a bug:

We are able to reproduce this issue in our testing environment. We are tracking it as bug.

[evan9685809]

Any ETA on a fix?

[ITfee]

I'm using Adobe Digital Editions version 4.5.4 now, but the bug still persists...

[kristina.sooy]

Did you ever discover a fix? I'm still having the same problem and it's been 5 YEARS since your post? You'd think Adobe would have done something about this bug in that extended amount of time!

[Yousif345760371jbg]

Did you manage to get it fixed?

[rémid18650607]

Hello,
nope.
I cannot copy text form epub in Adobe digital Eidtions and paste in e.g.
word
Is there a way to get it fixed?
Happy new year
Rémi

*Dr. Rémi de Bercegol*
*in France: UMR PRODIG, <>
(CNRS, IRD, PARIS 1), bureau n°1139/1133; Campus Condorcet 5, cours des
Humanités 93322 AUBERVILLIERS*
*in India; ** French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP)
<>; **11, Saint Louis
Street, Pondicherry - 605 001 *

[saulh18988542]

I am having the same problem, a full year later. Obviously not yet fixed.

[flaviah2651065]

And I have the same issue

[pascala19951347]

Same here, that's annoying

[Yousif345760371jbg]

Did you manage to get it fixed?

[philm55460753]

9 months later and it is still broken. BUT, I found a work-around that Adobe themselves have posted: Copying with Ctrl+C sometimes fails (Adobe Digital Editions 1.x)

• Press and hold the Ctrl key.
• Press the C key.
• Release the Ctrl key.
• Release the C key.

  Be sure to follow it exactly and it works. Being a programmer myself, all I can say is (in my best Yoda voice)....'How embarrassing. How em-bar-ras-sing'.

[MrChambo]

I still cannot make this work. Any other ideas?

[MrChambo]

I actually think that it was because I had not created a user before I authorized ADE. I made the user to post here, uninstalled and reinstalled it, then authorized it with my new user and the workaround worked like a charm!

[MrChambo]

Now it wont work. WTH Adobe. Make something that works please. I need this for class!

[jeffreye5602337]

It's 2019 and still an issue. You think they would have fixed this after 3 years.