Can't open DRM ebooks on Kobo Glo

[Guest]

I gave my mom a Kobo Glo for Christmas, but I can't get Adobe Digital Editions to work with it properly. I installed ADE 2.0 on her Windows XP machine and it recognized and authorized the Kobo, but when I try to open a library book on the Kobo, the cover appears and then the screen goes black and I'm returned to the main menu. The book is then marked as Finished.

Other DRMed books on her Kobo (free ones from the Kobo Store) won't open, but display an error message: "Oops! This document is protected by Adobe Digital Rights Management (DRM) and is not currently authorized for use with your Adobe ID [etc]..."

I've tried some of the suggestions I've seen here, including deleting the authorization on the device and reconnecting. I've also tried deleting the Digital Editions folder on the Kobo and reconnecting. Nothing appears to be resolving this problem.

I guess the next step would be to revert the Kobo back to factory and start all over. Any other suggestions?

J> (on behalf of my mom on this Adobe profile)

[Manfred_Austria]

Hi,

I have now the same problem. Have you solved it?

[sjpt]

when I try to open a library book on the Kobo, the cover appears and then the screen goes black and I'm returned to the main menu.

Does this happen with all library books or just one?  I encountered a small number of books that did similar things to my Bookeen Opus.  One even crashed it completely when I tried to open the book.  It seemed to be specific to some books.  I never tracked down exactly the issue; just read different books.

Also, you may find ADE 1.7.2 works better.  ADE 2.0 has problems with XP, and also with some eReaders, especially with library books.

Version 1.7.2, it is a little difficult to find, available on Adobe site for Windows and for Mac.

http://helpx.adobe.com/digital-editions/kb/cant-install-digital-editions.html

The forum software is sometimes corrupting the link above.  There shouldn't be a blank in 'editio ns.html'.  The following redirects to the same page: http://tinyurl.com/diged172

[Marnie311]

Same problem as junemb. Spent over  an hour today with Adobe Support. No good results. Tried 1.7.2 version, no difference. Someone should know why DRM won't open on Kobo Glo.

This is my second K. Glo. One I had in  Dec.2012 non of these issues. Now with this replacement Glo ( touch screen problems with first one )  it's a NO GO in regards to DRM right from the start.

[Guest]

How did you contact Adobe support?  I have searched the entire website and cannot find a way to contact a real live person.

[Manfred_Austria]

I got the answers over this forum.

Am 16.01.2014 04:28 schrieb "Scu11y" <forums_noreply@adobe.com>:

Re: Can't open DRM ebooks on Kobo Glo created by Scu11y<http://forums.adobe.com/people/Scu11y>in *Adobe

Digital Editions* - View the full discussion<http://forums.adobe.com/message/6017767#6017767

[sjpt]

How did you contact Adobe support?  I have searched the entire website and cannot find a way to contact a real live person.

Adobe Live Chat: http://www.adobe.com/support/chat/ivrchat.html,

or as a slight short cut try http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html?product=digital-editions&topic=using-my-product-or-service

Choose topic ‘'Signing into my Account' , and then click on 'I still need help';

then you should see 'Chat with an Agent' at the bottom of the page.

Depending on screen resolution, you may need to scroll down a bit to see the Chat with an Agent' bit, just under 'Ask our Experts'.

'Ask our experts' will indeed just lead you back to this forum.

Sometimes you will get ‘Sorry! All agents are busy— please check back soon.’

Don’t refresh the page, just hang on and it should eventually go to ‘Chat Now, and agent is available’.

[Manfred_Austria]

sjpt,

thx for your answer.

I tried it with all my DRM ebub books, also I tried it with ADE 2.0 and 1.7.2.

I think the problems is on Kobo reader. With other readers I have no problems with it.

[sjpt]

I guess the next step would be to revert the Kobo back to factory and start all over.

I'm afraid that's what it sounds like.  Good luck.

[Manfred_Austria]

I have tried it with no result. Factory reset, reset over reset button (all things you hear from Kobo support), remove authentification and set it again.

If I hear more from Kobo support, I will post it here.

Maybe it is a problem of the actual firmware (released at february).

[richjenn13]

I wish it was that easy!

I bought my Mum a Sony, cos i couldn't subject her to Kobo - but exactly the same issue. Now I have a KOBO, and she has a Sony, neither of which will sync with Adobe to download Library books

The answer would be to find an alternative to Adobe DE - has anyone had any success in ditching this awful software?

[louh94665546]

me too!!

[margaretm33206250]

I have the same problem.  The last couple of times it happened was when I was charging my Kobo Glo.   I was able to get it working after much time and effort and back and forth with both Kobo and Digital help desks.  This time we are unable to troubleshoot the problem.  I get the black cover on my Kobo and the message protected by ADE and not authorized.   Anyone solved this type of issue.   Thanks

[SuziWeb]

I too have had this problem, with books I have bought via BooksOnBoard - if I download to ipad onto Bluefire app they are fine. When I came to move my ebooks to new Kobo Glo in late Feb, these DRM ones didn't work - used ADE, did it all as said - no joy. Have spent time on Adobe and Kobo help - latest from Kobo was to Reset the 'Adobe GB Licence' attached to the books - not sure at all what this means (BoB say not licence attached to books) so will be going back to Kobo.

I think it is a problem between the ereader and ADE as the .acsm file link remains pointed at the .epub file on the desktop pc and not transferring over to the ereader.

Using the Kobo internet access, I cannot access BoB as their mobile site just freezes on me - this could be an answer for me if I can get access via the ereader and miss out going via the desktop - otherwise I'lll be loading these files back onto the ipad.

Very frustrating and will probably dictate where I buy books from in future (ease of download versus cost)

If I end up with a solution I will post!

[sjpt]

If you ever manage to get the Kobo registered with your AdobeID, you can then 'sideload' books onto the Kobo by copying from PC to Kobo using a file manager such as Windows Explorer.  You don't need the .acsm, just the .epub files.

[SuziWeb]

Have tried this following your reply sjpt. thanks for the input but still no luck for me.

I'm on a Mac, may make a diff? the files on ADE point to the epub or pdf file in the digital editions file on the mac. when I tfr to Kobo via ADE the epub or pdf files appear to tfr over as the item info shows the file in volumes/KOBOereader/filename.epub (or.pdf) (the same as the other non DRM books I have). Book can be accessed via ADE but as soon as I try on reader, I get the same Oops not authorised message.

Its so frustrating! I've tried moving file to another directory, copying onto a USB then moving back to ADE, moving straight from USB to ereader - all end up with that same message.

Close to throwing the whole lot through window!!

the ereader and ADE are both under the same Adobe ID so I cant understand why they wont read.

Will keep trying!

[sjpt]

Last couple of suggestions.  Both based on the fact that devices sometimes get half authorised/registered but somehow not quite correctly.

First is easier.

1. Start ADE with the Glo plugged in.
2. Hit cmd-shift-E to ADE.  This will remove the registration from the Glo.
3. Restart ADE.
4. Re-register the Glo with your AdobeID.

If that doesn't work, this is more awkward.

1. Deregister as above and end ADE
2. Look at the contents of the Glo showing up as an external drive, using the Mac file manager (browser or whatever it is called)
3. Make sure you are viewing hidden files and folders
4. Delete the folder with a name similar to '.adobe-digital-editions'
5. Restart ADE and reregister the Glo.

I have heard that step 3 is awkward on the Mac; one suggestion is at http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-see-hidden-files-in-mac-os/

With luck, the first will have worked anyway ....

[Togo1518]

In case persons following this thread didn't see my post earlier today on my own thread about problems I was having between Glo and ADE/ DRM content:

Before performing the factory reset and re-setting up your Glo from the factory reboot, FIRST un-install the Kobo Desktop application that's on your computer from your previous installation.

I didn't do this on my first re-setup, and that's when ADE stopping recognizing my Glo even though Windows could see it, and Glo had lost its Adobe authorization for DRM content.  However, on a hunch, I tried again after first uninstalling Kobo Desktop.  On the re-setup following the factory reset, I got a few rather different screens from Kobo Desktop during setup, even though when finished I discovered that it was the same version of Kobo Desktop as what I'd had before.  There may have been something corrupted in the Kobo Desktop from the first ("unclean") reinstallation, which might have been causing the ADE/DRM issues.

If all else fails, try this.  Uninstall Kobo Desktop from your computer.  Then do a factory reset on Glo.  Then re-setup Glo, which will result in an automatic reinstallation (this time a clean one) of Kobo Desktop. Then connect to ADE and authorize the Glo.  It worked for me.

Of course the factory reset will remove all e-books on your Glo and all your annotations, bookmarks, and bookshelves.  But you'll be able to get at your e-books again through ADE, after re-authorizing it (which should happen automatically when you open ADE after FIRST connecting your re-setup Glo to your computer).  It's a nuisance, but it will work, or it did for me.

other advice: once Glo is up and running, NEVER log off your Kobo account from your Glo settings menu (that's what triggered all my problems), no idea why it should be so problematic to do that but it was in my case.  And, if you buy content from Kobo's ebook site, don't use Kobo Desktop to sync or download the content to your Glo, go to your Purchased Items folder on your on-line Kobo account and install the book into ADE by running the link you get from the "Download epub drm" button next to the item in your Kobo account purchases list, and then drag it into the Kobo shelf in ADE after you've connected the Kobo to ADE.  It doesn't take any more time to do this (I found Kobo Desktop excruciatingly slow in syncing and updating new content anyway) and in my experience it's much more reliable to do the transfers via ADE, once you can connect to it.

Don't bother syncing content on multiple devices via Kobo website or apps, it was a nightmare between my Glo, Wifi and iPod app, and caused me far more grief than it was worth IMO.  If you want to sync bookmarks across devices, do it manually, not via Kobo's software; it's safer manually, and given the problems that I encountered, it would actually have taken me much less time and with more satisfactory results in the end.

[hefinw]

Was just about to embark on this suggestion and began first by uninstalling the kobo desktop already on my laptop. Instead of proceeding as outlined I went into my Adobe ID where the book I borrowed from my library was sitting. My glo e reader was connected and I right clicked the book and found I was able to send it to the reader. (previously this had been greyed out) Lo and behold there it was sitting in the glo ready to be read. So I didn't need to do a factory reset etc by which I would have lost a purchased book.  Hope this makes sense. Don't know why it worked but it seems to be connected to the uninstalling of the Kobo desktop set up and then re-trying the downloading of the library book from the laptop (authorised) computer.

[Togo1518]

Hi longvale1.  That is very interesting.  If you haven't already done so, I urge you to report this to Kobo customer support.  I've told them my experiences and some of my concerns about Kobo Desktop, and I've found their tech people very responsive, they told me they were passing my comments on to their software development team.  I think what you've found may help them to identify what the problem is with that very quirky and problematic Kobo Desktop software (which I find I have absolutely no need for once I've set up my Kobo Glo, I can do all the purchasing I need from the kobo.com website and install via Adobe Digital Editions; I haven't tried the wifi ordering on Glo yet so I don't know if that causes any problems).  I'm going to pass along your finding to my local public library, because I know the librarians are getting complaints from people who are having problems getting library DRM ePub books onto their Kobos.  When contacting Kobo support be sure to tell when whether you're on a Mac or a PC and what version of the operating system you're running, though I'd hope if you forgot that they'd ask.  But the people who answer emails or web queries aren't usually the tech support types and might not think to ask that.

[hefinw]

Hi Togo 1518,     Thanks for your feedback.  Your mention of Libraries having complaints about Kobo.   That's ironic because I chose  a Kobo reader rather than a  Kindle because I had read the latter was incompatible with my local library here in Western' Australia, but Kobo was ok!!. I initially  tried to download the library book thru the Kobo wifi feature but I was unable to proceed to my Library's  login in page because there was no 'next'  button available on the screen. That's why I ended up downloading it onto my Kobo desktop with the ensuing problem!       So I don't know whether I might have some similar problem with purchasing a book from Kobo direct through the reader       .( Going on the net thru the reader is not a good experience. I find it's tortuous and a bit "gluggy" trying to type in necessary details.)

I also  find the black "Connected and Charging" screen on the reader very disconcerting when I was trying to download the library book onto the reader from my laptop.  (PC running Windows 7 Home premium 64bit).  It basically doesn't tell u what's going on during the download process and one is left wondering until its disconnected and switched on whether the download was a success or not!!    However as you suggest I will pass on my experience along with the thread of the conversation with u to Kobo for them to work on.

[G_J_A_22]

Hi, did you sort out your prob? If so, how? I did the same as you - following the WA library info. I was previously OK downloading and opening ebooks, on a Laser EB720 (after a lot of probs) but now, on a new Kobo Touch, I continually get "Oops, can't open etc" after downloading books. With this Kobo Touch , I factory reset it and started again but no success with lots of ebooks, but I succeeded in downloading several ebooks from WA library on the Kobo which open OK, but still can't get around the file opening problem on Adobe - even the Adobe Digital Editions free sample books won't open, with message "Windows can't open etc etc", "Unknown File".

[Manfred_Austria]

Hi, yes I solved it for myself.

Please send me an email (look at my member area) and I will explain it.

[hefinw]

Hi I thought I would try downloading a free sample edition from adobe -(Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) to see how I would go. I "Run" the file as opposed to saving it etc. I then transferred the file to the Adobe digital editions  2 program  Library. I highlighted it there and right clicked to send it to my kobo which was plugged into my laptop. It loaded fine.  I take it you have "authorised" your computer with Adobe. (See help in Digital Editions page)  I'm not sure of this but I don't think all e books need to be "authorised" for downloading?

I haven't read "Manfreds" reply

[G_J_A_22]

Thanks. The Kobo is on hol for a week. When it comes back I will give it another go. Yes computer is auth. I have had no probs until recently.

Thanks.

GA