Kobo won't open library book because eReader was previously deauthorized [2018]

[tmw5795]

I have a Kobo Glo and I am now getting the following error message "Your eReader is not authorized to open this book. Because you previously deauthorized your eReader, you need to reimport the book using ADE". I have tried reimporting the book, and even returning the book and then reborrowing it before reimporting it to my Kobo. I have tried deauthorizing the reader and then reauthorizing it before reimporting it to my Kobo. Deauthorizing and reauthorizing my Kobo worked a couple of times, but not any longer. I have uninstalled my version of ADE and downloaded and installed the latest version. I have contacted Adobe and they checked my Adobe account and authorizations and was told that I still have unused activations and my authorizations appear to be in order. I can read my books on my MacBook using ADE, and I can even read them using ADE when I click on my Kobo icon in ADE sidebar and open the book. ADE seems to be working as advertised, but my Kobo is not cooperating. I have contacted Kobo as well and they say it's an ADE issue and will not discuss it further. I have not done a factory reset on my Kobo as I don't want to lose all my purchased eBooks. I have checked out a few threads regarding similar issues, but none with my particular error message. Any suggestions are appreciated as I feel I have tried everything, save a Kobo reset, or trashing the Kobo altogether. Thanks

[Martin Gerhold]

I have been tearing my hair (what hair?) out for literally hours on this: I did not fully read the above response (I was getting fed up), but had a look (with W10 file explorer) at the file structure on the Kobo when plugged in, and found a load of adobe-related folders with numerical names, and what looked like Adobe ID codes inside.  I deleted all ot these, and maybe other ones as well (they are now gone, and I didn't think to screen shot the contents before deletion - after all, nothing else so far had worked, so why should this?).  I then started ADE on the PC, authorised it, then inserted the Kobo and authorised that, then copied a 'new' book across - and it worked.  I went to bed, hapily reading a book I am fairly sure I read years ago (on paper) - oh well.

I shall attempt to upload an image of the current folder structure - it doesn't seem to conatin the same stuff that I deleted, but gives an idea.

If in doubt, delete every folder on the Kobo that is ADE-related!  If this ever happens again, I wil attempt to show what needs to be deleted more carefully.  For now I am happy.

PS This is certainly a Kobo issue, and they should fix it.  One can hardly expect Adobe to know what the Kobo stores inside itself.  They (Kobo) must have discovered the cure that I found, surely?

Good luck, Martin

[Martin Gerhold]

...and a few days ;ater, the fault was back - oh well, I tried.

[KaraMoose]

Have you tried making sure the 'new' book you transfer at the same time is non-DRM?

[Martin Gerhold]

I don't know why transfering a non-protected book would help, but as it happens I have just today tried copying some - they copy across OK and can be read - but previous and subsequent protected books cannot be read.  I have tried more tricks:

* deleting the activation file in F:\.adobe-digital-editions, then re-authorising

* copying protected epub files manually from PC to F:\Digital Editions using File Explorer

* Uninstalled, cleaned registry and re-installed ADE v4.5, then re-authorise both PC and Kobo

Nothing works.  I am getting fed up now!  I will try your suggestion (the order differs), but am not confident...

[Martin Gerhold]

Mine is now working - but I couldn't tell you why.  I am now using ADE v3 (tried 2, 3 & 4.5 more than once) and keeping my fingers crossed.  I think the issue is related to with Microsoft .Net, as several refs to that appeared in the W10 event log when the failures occurred - so perhaps a Windows update changed something?  I have nearly thown my Kobo in the bin.  Our library was using Cloud Library for a while, and that worked OK, then they switched to another provider, who uses ADE.

[Mimi456]

Thank you so much for these detailed instructions!  They worked wonderfully for my old Nook, downloading books from our public library.  I HAD been successful with downloading books from the library until about a month ago (June 2020) and suddenly Adobe Digital Editions decided that my Nook was not ok for "copying" from my computer.  This work-around did the trick!

[defaultve94fr5dq607]

I have an original Kobo Aura, and despite all these tricks, I could only get ADE 4.5 to work intermittently. In the end I uninstalled it and installed ADE 2.0. It worked perfectly first time and I have been able to download my library books again easily.  For my purposes, I can't see the difference between 2.0 and 4.5, so I am happy. - and it took much less time than faffing around authorising/ deauthorising my Kobo and computer.

[lindenn82264927]

I had the same issue with this on a Kobo Aura with library downloaded books

. I tried authorizing downloading a new book, reauthorizing and all of the other fixes posted on line. Nothing worked  until I went into settings on my e-reader, then device information, then update check. As soon as update check ran it loaded all of the missing book information and the books were present and readable. Also, if you have an overdrive account set up you can search for books using the search function on your e-reader and download them directly to the e-reader. Never an issue with this but the selection may be different than what you can find on your library site.

[MaryinOttawa]

Do you get the feeling Rakuten would prefer that you purchase books rather than borrow them?
I am living the same nightmare as everyone else and I cannot believe this fiasco has been going on this long. I bought a Kobo in October and spend hours in order to finally load one book onto it. Yesterday I gave it a try and hit that same darn message "Your eReader is not authorized to open this book" and so on. I spend hours trying to figure it out and then found this group. How on earth has this problem been going on since 2016? I only bought the Kobo to read library books, otherwise I would have gone with the Kindle. I have worked my way through the instructions to delete this, load that, remove authorization, add authorization and so on. It simply doesn't work. I now have to either return it to Amazon by the end of January, throw it in the garbage or perhaps try downloading 3.0. How utterly ridiculous.

[OzGirl]

Sorry Mary, This is just part of the joy of owning a Kobo! I have downloaded Adobe 3.0 in the past and that did work. Following my instructions above - especially downloading a fresh book - usually works. Unfortunately, ereaders are not a big marketing item anymore so there's not many brands to choose from. I guess lots of people use their tablets. Looking on the internet, it would seem that some Kobos have OverDrive library built in. Not mine, unfortunately (Glo). Have a look.

https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017677053-Borrow-eBooks-from-the-public-library-using-you....

I have had my Kobo for a very long time and sometimes I can go for a whole year without hitting the problem. When this one dies, I'll probably buy one that downloads from libraries over wifi. I'm not going down the Kindle path. I accept Kobo doesn't care about me much although I do buy the odd book off them.

[Weronika98A4]

I found another way to fix this. I was trying to transfer my 14 days Book A loan from the Open Library to my Kobo Wireless eReader Version 1.9.12 but it was giving me the error. I tried everything mentioned in this thread (de-authorising, resetting my eReader, downloading a new book, deleting the old one), nothing worked. 

I then downloaded another book (Book B, 21 daysloan) from a different library (I used London Libraries Consortium). I transferred that loan to my eReader and it worked.

I re-plugged my reader and transferred Book C loan from the original library (the Open Library). I picked a public domain book (with expired copyrights) that was available to download and keep forever (not a loan).

I transferred Book C using ADE to my Kobo, unplugged it and it was working fine.

Finally, I re-plugged my reader and transferred Book A (a loan) to my eReader. I unplugged it and it worked as well 🙂

I suspect one of the below fixed the problem:

1. Using the same library, downloading a book that's not a loan and that you can keep indefinitely

2. Borrowing a book from another library 

Let me know if this helps

[tineke23415199qdwi]

I have a Kobo Libra H2O on which I can read every book, but library books. De-authorize and authorize etc doesn;t help at all.

Too bad!  Any good tips welcome! Thank you.

[Chris5E18]

I also grappled with all the problems you are having and, after much research, I decided to buy a Kobo Libra which has an app for Overdrive which connects directly to your library without having to fight with Adobe Editions.  Now I am reading again with no issues and Adobe Editions is history.

[defaulttjzoh2qr4b01]

Thank you SOOOOO much.  Hours of agony finally over 🙂

[ItsLucy]

THANK YOU! I've been struggling with this problem for HOURS, tried all the other solutions listed (de-authorise, reinstall, install ADE 3.0 - everything) and nothing worked. I followed point by point this process and...voilà! All solved! 
Just a quick note should someone find themselves having the same issue: the authorisation request wasn't prompted and the computer automatically authorised my KOBO. Not sure why, but anyway this solution worked.

[Tara24559991so7b]

Just wanted to say, what finally worked for me after trying to unauthorized, re-authorize and re-download for hours and hours (with a Kobo Libra H2O) was doing a factory reset on my Kobo by going to Settings>Device information>Factory reset

hope this can help someone!

[Paul24951965o6ui]

Thank you. It worked for me!

[OzGirl]

Hello again, I thought I'd start a fresh post as the old problem has happened again. I'm starting to think it happens when I delete all my library books from ADE and the Kobo device.

Anyway, this time:

1. Deleted failed book from ADE.

2. Deleted everything from my downloads folder just for the heck of it.

3. Borrowed and downloaded a new book and my original book.

4. Dragged both the new book and the original book onto my Kobo at the same time.

Hey presto! It works.

I am now going to keep one expired book in ADE and on my Kobo and see if that helps.

Cheers and good luck!

[OzGirl]

This time. I'm on a different laptop so had to download the latest version of ADE. Same problem with the 2 books I'd borrowed. (At one point ADE display 266 books I've borrowed over the last several years. Deleted them all.)

1. Deleted ADE books from downloads.

2. Deleted everything off my Kobo (Remove from Library).

3. Borrowed a fresh book (3 book total)

4. Downloaded my 3 books.

5. Dragged them all to the Kobo AT ONCE.

Worked. 😉

[OzGirl]

And again! Only this time I wanted to keep 2 of the books, which, for reasons obscure, had worked whereas the other 2 didn't. So I deleted everything off Kobo, downloads and ADE except my 'keepers'. Downloaded my original books again plus a fresh one. Dragged all 3 to the Kobo. And it worked! I notice there's lots of  ''Top ereaders for 2022'' lists on the web now. Might be time for a trade in. Life's too short.

[Daniela257435593t4v]

THANK YOU!!! This totally worked! Omg, like the others who posted replies in this thread, I wasted hours trying to unauthorize and reauthorize my computer, Kobo, deleting and re-downloading the library ebook in question. It really seems like the solution is to add a non-DRM book in between! Too bad the official Kobo and ADE "help" pages don't tell you this. (Also, it's been four years since your solution post and this is still a problem.) Thanks again!

[Adolf260700615ay1]

thanks, finally got it working

[Howard27231270xk77]

I work in IT and it took me a while to resolve this issue. I have tried de-authorizing/re-authorizing both desktop and Kobo eReader, factory reset the eReader (with limited success), uninstall and re-install ADE (same version 4.5.11), return my library ebook and borrowing again and download epub but nothing seemed to help.

Issue started after I reset my desktop so I concluded it must be the ADE version because I never had this issue in the past. Fortunately I was able to find ADE 2.01 from my backup, installed it and de-authorized/re-authorized both desktop and Kobo, borrowed the same book that had the issue opening on eReader, downloaded epub and copied to eReader and voila, issue resolved.

Moral of the story: there seems to be something in ADE 4.5.11 that is causing the issue.

[Luke27390058ex8h]

I have been going through this issue and nothing worked. The only solution that ended up working was deauthorizing my computer, deleting all books from ADE, uninstalling ADE 4.5 and installing version 3.0 instead, then going through the normal steps of authorization and adding books. The installer for ADE 3.0 can be downloaded here:https://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/digitaleditions/ADE_3.0_Installer.exe

[liamb63814261]

I eventually got it fixed.

1.  Got a new ID by getting an Overdrive account, and authorising ADE 4.5 with that.
2. Logged into my library and downloaded my borrowed books
3. After copying them to my device I opened them in ADE from the Device (the copy of the file on the device)
4. Disconnected my Kobo Glo and read the books on there.

I'm not sure which step solved it. I think the most important thing is to open it in ADE from the device. Doing that I was able to open books that were previously closed to me. Sometimes the covers still don't show, but at least you can read the books.

You'll need to re-download any books you had tried to copy to the device before. If you have changed your authorisation you will need to return and re-loan the book.