Moving "My Digital Editions" folder

[_walt_lammert_]

I am trying to move the "My Digital Editions" folder from the default location under "My Documents". When I do so, I have to add my ebooks back to the library (which is OK), but Digital Editions also then adds a "My Digital Editions" folder with a manifest.xml file back under "My Documents".

Is there anyway to change the default location of this "My Digital Editions" folder?

[Guest]

<p>Nope, sorry. ADE expects and enforces that your library file (manifest.xml) in will be in that location (<user>\My Documents\My Digital Editions on Windows, ~/Documents/Digital Editions on Mac). Also any files that are purchased through ADE or annotations that you make will be placed there as well.</p><br /><p>However as you noted Digital Editions does support the adding of files that are not in that location.</p><br /><p>Jim Lester<br>Adobe Systems</p>

[agile_resourcefulness15A7]

First, thank you for that straightforward and honest feedback. It has saved me a lot of time.

That said, I add my voice to all the others. I keep a folder in My Documents which is backed up online and synchronised between my laptop and PC. Ideally I would keep My Digital Editions in there rather than have to back them up separately.

I notice that this forum thread is quite old. I don't suppose it's something that has been changed? (I suspect not, as I am having exactly the same problems others have expressed...)

[luis p.d65597905]

Things have worsened enough. By now, OneDrive has been added to the library folder path: instead of  above indicated path <user>\My Documents\My Digital Editions, now it uses A MORE SIMPLE path such as <User>\OneDrive\Documentos\My Digital Editions. As a consequence, it is hard to scroll through pdf, not only slow,but eternal.

[_Harrie_Frericks_]

Jim,

This is my major gripe with Digital Editions at this time. I think it's a bad choice to have the My Documents/My Digital Editions hard coded in Digital Editions. As you may be aware, many programs seem to "dump" their data in the My Documents folder. I recently cleaned up my My Documents folder and I believe I had to remove some 30-40 useless directories with useless data by hand, half of them from programs I no longer use.

This is real problem if you want to carefully backup your data. It would be easiest if I could tell my backup software to simply backup the entire My Documents folder, but this would copy a lot of unnecessary files, take up a lot of unnecessary space on my backup drive and take a lot of time.

Because of the "dump" nature of the My Documents folder I'm using a new personal folder that contains all my personal files that I want to backup. I'd like my ebooks to be in that folder tree. This is by far the simplest way to backup because it only takes a single command in my backup software.

I sincerely hope the next edition of Digital Editions will allow the user to set the default directory, as BTW any mature program does.

Thanks,

Harrie.

[_freddycat_]

I'm always irritated when control of my computer file arrangement is dictated by a vendor, so this one ticks me off. I keep my ebooks from all sources in a Library folder on my "G" drive, not my "D" drive Data folder. I'm trying this method and so far it works:

Go to Microsoft.com and search for Sysinternals and then download the free Sysinternals suite. Unzip it and they're all utilities ready to run from a Command Prompt window.
The Junction command works (at least on) NTFS drives to direct references to one folder (and its subfolders!) to another of your choosing, on the same computer (not over a network). In my situation I only had to type the following at a command prompt:

C:\Program Files\Sysinternals> junction "d:\My Digital Editions" "g:\library\adobe digital editions"

I did have to re-load already downloaded digital editions from the new location (I pointed to my "real" location of G:\library\adobe digital editions" and they came up). If you're left with duplicate, but "missing" links, delete them in Adobe Digital Editions so only the correctly linked version shows up.

Haven't used it a lot yet, but so far so good.

(You can also unlink with junction, junction -d "d:\My Digital Editions" "g:\library\adobe digital editions")

[mswiercz]

Even though the post from freddycat is a couple of years old, it is still a viable solution. Here it is 2009 and ADE still will not allow moving the library from what I can see. Microsoft's Junction tool did the magic.

If users can circumvent the My Digital Editions directory location with symbolic links on Unix and Mac, and junctions on NTFS disks on Windows, why does Adobe still insists on generating artificial aggravations by "hard coding" the library location. Make it configurable and eliminate a small amount of frustrated users; small relative to those with more pressing application problems. It save money, time, and most importantly reputation.

[Pearl_R]

I could not agree more. I am on a company computer and only allowed 500 Mb in the My Documents folder due to server restrictions. And so a potentially fantastic time saving feature turns into a fiddle because every time you download something you then have to manually transfer it to another location.

Adobe might be wise to think what this means for companies having their employees having to manually reload their reading material each time they acquire some information.............

Pearl_R

[Guest]

Just curious.  Is ur G drive hard wired, or is it an external drive? 

I'm also wondering if I could move my whole ADE setup to my external drive, so that it boots and runs from there.....

[_Ian_MacLean_]

+1 - what sucks is you have to go looking to find that your library is under there. The average Joe user isn't going to be able to find it.
My locally imported files stay where I want them. But if I want to use digital editions to copy files from my Sony reader I have no choice as to where they end up. Unless I want to go and move them after the fact.

I find the "Nope, sorry. " response to be flippant and frankly a bit disrespectful.

You might want to treat your users with a bit more courtesy especially since they are making the effort to come here and provide valuable feedback.

[_frankybravo_]

I've read there is no way of changing the default location of the "My Digital Editions" folder from "My Documents"..

You must be aware that anyone using a company laptop will loose their normal "My Documents " when they are not on the company network..

I use eBooks mostly for professional purposes.. when I try to read any of my ebooks (which are on my c: drive)without conecting to the conpany network they are not available, because you're "My Digital Editions" dir is not available ..

I think should consider making this directory location configurable .. as it stands I'm being forced to use Adobe Digital Editions because of DRM .. but I cant access my technichal books both at home and in the office .. really not good enough...

[amanda_french]

This is a problem for me, too. I hate, hate, hate it when programs put things in my Documents folder without asking me and then won't let me move them. Please allow us to set the folder location.

[Guest]

I have deleted "Digital Editions" from my PC again because of this issue.

If any program doesn't allow me to keep my documents folder arranged the way I want it too look, it has to go.

[expnd]

+1 on annoyed with ADE for dictating locations. this kind of draconian drm is irritating and totally adequate justification for piracy.

[Guest]

I'll just add my voice again and second the above post.

It's the only program that I can use for my purposes and it.

Irritates.

Me.

To say the least.

[RGlowitz]

I would like to add my voice to allowing users the ability to change the default directory for Digital Editions. I too find it frustrating that I cannot place documents where I want.

[Guest]

I would also like to add my support. I use ADE to backup ebooks that our library subscribes to. It irritates me to no end that every time I add an ebook to ADE I have to copy the entire folder to our shared drive for backup purposes. If I could just set it to save to somewhere that is backed up each night, it would make my life infinitely easier.

[KLMyers]

Mark me as another voice strongly protesting the rigid location of this folder.  Not even iTunes is that bad.  Major headache for backups, and a bad idea in general.

[RichardP86]

Same problem. Adobe please resolve. Useless for Peeps on corporate computers.

[richj00000]

+1 on this

Hey Adobe - quit buying new companies and support the software you have.  Just a thought.

[elonex-ereader-user]

Just bought my first ereader Elonex 500, not the most sophisticated device .. no wifi...but it has colour display the reason I bought it preference to any other device. I also have the same complaint against Adobe. I tried the sysinternal fix suggested by a previous poster. Unfortunately I could nt get it to work, probably I got the syntax wrong.

However it seems I can save my books where ever I want to on my PC - in my case an external hd, so far I only see the png files and and annotations getting saved to Adobes default folder. This meets my needs since my only cornern is hard disc space. I cant see why this will impact on my use of the ereader itself.

I cant test this assumption but I cant see why those using corporate drives would not also be able to save their books to separate locations, with pngs and annotations staying on their corp drive.

I simply download to the location of my choice and then open with Adobe no complex manipulation involved.

This does not appear to interfere with the transfer of books/images/annotations to my ereader, other devices may not be so 'kind'.

Im happy to answer any questions if I can.

[janke1353]

Wow, this is just plain dumb.  I'm having the same problem with needlessly backing up files that don't need to be backed up.  It's a waste of space and time.

There are several good reasons to allow the user the choice of where to store the content.  I was amazed to find out that there is no option here.

Please fix this.

[motormiller135]

I second the motion.............

[Guest]

+1

[angelo_muratore]

Please, have a look of what is written in the FAQ:

"How do I enable content portability?

The first time you run Digital Editions, you are prompted to authorize the application by entering an Adobe ID. If you don't have an Adobe ID, you are provided with a link to get one. Then, when you purchase an item online or borrow one from a library with Digital Editions, the item is automatically "tied" to your Adobe ID, rather than your computer. This way, you are free to move your items to up to six computers and six devices that have been authorized with Digital Editions."