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?

[agile_resourcefulness15A7]

@ Angelo – thanks for that, but sharing across devices is not the problem (for me, at least). For me, it’s the fact that we are not ‘allowed’ to have the folder anywhere other than in ‘My Documents’.

As far as I know, that one still hasn’t been resolved.

From: angelo.muratore

Sent: 28 October 2011 05:55

To: Lindsay Bruce

Subject: Moving "My Digital Editions" folder

Re: Moving "My Digital Editions" folder

created by angelo.muratore<http://forums.adobe.com/people/angelo.muratore> in Adobe Digital Editions - View the full discussion<http://forums.adobe.com/message/3994702#3994702

[amanda_french]

What smith_lj said. The problem discussed in this thread isn't moving the content, it's moving the folder that Adobe Digital Editions creates. I want a preference that I can set so that I can choose where the folder with the content is located, please.

[angelo_muratore]

You are right, I am using Digital Edition since few weeks.

I also seen difficulties in reading a book, writing notes in a bookmark on one computer. Then change the computer and ... beeing able to find the same notes.

It's very hard.

Unfortunately I haven't my personal ultra-portable computer, there are some computers, shared with all the family members, in the different places of the house.

You are right, having the possibility to move the "My Digital Editions" folder in a pen drive or in an external hard driver would greatly simplify ... having always my notes with me.

[MadMax8699]

Guys,

Not sure if this is what you want but works for me.

My setup is:

C:\ - This is for Windows 7 (64bit) and programs.

D:\ - Optical Dirve

E:\My Documents - This is for my user files

F:\My Documents - This is a backup of the E drive files

Suggest you do backups before proceeding.

My eBooks downloads are located at E:\My Documents\My Digital Editions.  Being in this location it's easy to have a Robocopy script which simply copies from E to F drive.

Anyhow, as you have noticed, the default location is C:\Users\{NAME]\My Documents for the My Digital Editions.

Here's how I fixed it for me.

In Windows Explorer, go to Libraries --> Documents --> My Documents.

Right click on this and choose Properties.

Click on Location tab.

You will notice the entry currently reads "C:\Users\[NAME]\My Documents"

Click on the Move button.

Navigate to your document location which in my case is E:\My Documents

Click ok.

At this point you will get a warning asking if you want to copy files from the old location to the new location (hence the warning above about backing up).  Basically any folder and files in the old location (C Drive) will go to the new location (in my case E drive) so if you already have folders or files in the destination drive which are different, you may lose them when you say "Yes". Suggest you manually check and rename any folders that are similarly named in the destination so they aren't overwritten.

When you have finished, your library should show you your documents in the library.

Install Adobe Digital Editions.

In my case, since I had ePub files etc in E:\My Documents\My Digital Editions, when ADE started up, all my books were showing.

Any future purchases where I click on the download link and choose "Open with Adobe Digital Editions" get put in this directory and appear on my bookshelf.

Hope that helps guys.  Not sure what those that have corporate accounts can do, but perhaps that might help.

[Guest]

Thanks MadMax. That helps to move the entire "My Documents" directory to another drive. But it doesn't solve the problem of determining where the "My Digital Editions" directory will go in relation to "My Documents".

The purpose of having a "My Documents" folder in Windows is to have a single location to store user documents, NOT to store application metadata. As someone earlier noted, when backing up personal documents, you don't want to include application support files.

As for myself, I can't stand the "My xxx" name automatically given to personal folders, whether by Windows, Adobe, or other default software installations. I want to organize personal files and documents in a way that makes sense to me and using names less juvenile sounding. I would prefer to have a single "digital book" directory under "My Documents" where I could locate the default location for the Adobe Digital Editions, Calibre, Kindle, and other libraries.

In Windows 7, for example (where I've already moved my default location from C:\ to D:\):

CHANGE DEFAULT FROM:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

D:\Users\Mostovic\Documents\My Digital Editions\

D:\Users\Mostovic\Documents\Kindle Content\

D:\Users\Mostovic\Documents\Calibre\

D:\Users\Mostovic\Documents\My This\

D:\Users\Mostovic\Documents\My That\

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

D:\Users\Mostovic\Documents\eBookLibraries\Adobe\

D:\Users\Mostovic\Documents\eBookLibraries\Kindle\

D:\Users\Mostovic\Documents\eBookLibraries\Calibre\

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can do this with Kindle & Calibre. Not so with Adobe, where one "dumb" size is supposed to fit all.

Book lovers tend also to love their autonomy. Lacking this essential functionality, Adobe essentially insults the Adobe Digital Editions customer base. And "insult" is the appropriate word here since these forums document the fact that customers have been asking for this functionality for years without adequate response.

[Anders Törnkvist]

If your goal is to have the contents in My Digital Editions stored in another directory, I have a temporary solution.

1. Close Adobe Digital Editions, if the program is open.

2. Move My Digital Editions to the new location in Explorer, for example by selecting the directory, pressing Ctrl+X, opening the new location and pressing Ctrl+V. I used Books\My Digital Editions as my new directory. It is, however, okay to rename My Digital Editions to whatever you would like.

3. Open cmd by (Windows Vista/7) typing "cmd" in the start menu, right-clicking on the program cmd.exe and selecting "Run as administrator". If you have Windows XP, you can open cmd by holding the Windows key and pressing R (Run), entering "cmd" and then selecting "OK".

4. Go to My documents by entering the following command:

• cd "%userprofile%\Documents"

5. Make a link in My documents to the new directory, by entering the following command. Don't forget to change the second path to your new directory. (It should be absolute or relative to My documents.

• mklink /D "My Digital Editions" "Books\My Digital Editions"

6. Hide the link by entering the following command:

• attrib "My Digital Editions" /L +S +H

Good luck!

Anders Törnkvist

anderstornkvist.se

[rb007]

Thank you Anders. This provided me a good solution.

+1 in adding my name to the list of supporters for Adobe to make this seemingly simple usability enhancement.

[Feaniel]

I am basically deleting this software for this really annoyoing reason. I have a Mac, so I doubt any of the trick here will work.

[Frustrated in AZ]

When you ask for help, it helps us to know what platform you're running,

what level your OS is at and a bunch of other things. Don't blame the

messenger for your oversights.

============

[Feaniel]

I didn't looked only here of course. And I was looking for mac in my query. But see, I found some other free reader and as usefull of ADE, where I can have a minimum of control over it. And I didn't ask for help. I wrote a message here because I wanted to let them know there were another users unhappy because of the lack of this feature. Even though I doubt they ever change it, knowing the age of this thread, I thought it was still important for me to let this feedback.

[martini2679]

Feanial #31: Apparently you found another free book reader that solves your problems. It would be really good if you let us know which reader you are now using, so that others can try it too. ADE is not perfect, and if you've found something that does everything that ADE does and more, then everyone would be grateful if you were to share that information.

[robertvanbregt]

This workaround will work on a Mac by using symbolic links through the "ln" terminal command.

1. Close ADE
2. Move folder to new location
3. Open terminal
4. goto Documents folder with command "cd ~/Documents"
5. create symbolic link with command "ln -s <new location> './My Digital Editions' "

[martini2679]

Kudos to robervanbregt (#33) for providing the symbolic link pointer. I just want to suggest to all the frustrated people above that symbolic links can provide users with a tremendous amount of flexibility in where they store their stuff and can help with all the problems described above, and more, so people shouldn't ignore them just because they sound a bit tricky in facty they aren't too hard to manage at all.

For mac users there is a good little utility called SymbolicLinker that makes it really easy to create symbolic links with just a right click on the folder name. I recommend it. Something like symbolic links have been in windows since Vista - see #28 from Anders for the manual instructions; there is at least one tool (Symlinker) out there that attempts to make it easier, but I've never used it so windows users may have to shop around and experiment until they get one that they like.

Anyway, with symbolic links you can place your Digital Editions folder anywhere you like - secondar hard drive, usb drive, even on a network drive, or in your Dropbox folder. You will still need a symlink file sitting within your Documents folder called "Digital Editions" on a mac (or "My Digital Editions" on windows). That symlink file is tiny, and you can forget about it once you've put it in place.

So this helps if all you want to do is store your books and the index on perhaps a secondary harddrive, or a usb drive, or in Dropbox. However it seems that some people want to hide the Digital Editions folder away somewhere and file their actual books somewhere else. That can be done.

When you download a non-DMR ePub, download it straight to its final destination, and use the add item command in ADE. The file will stay exactly where you put it. No problem.

If you've bought a DRM-protected file, it will appear in the form of a .acsm file that ADE will run and download the ePub file, which will end up in the digital editions folder (which as we've already seen, can be placed anywhere on your system by using a symbolic link). However if you want to go one step further and put your ePub in a separate folder somewhere else, that does need a manual step. Copy the ePub and put the copy where you want it to be finally. This could take all of ten seconds, but if you want to make it quicker, create another symbolic link to the final destination of the file and place it inside the Digital Editions folder. Then you don't have to spend time navigating to the final destination: just copy the file, click on the link and paste the file. Then add the book to your library selecting the version in the new location, and delete the version in the old (Digital Editions) location. Not too hard, unless you download more than a few DRM books a day. (Note you can select multiple books at one time to add them, but I haven't found a way to delete them in a batch.)

True, users shouldn't have to do stuff like this - applications should be designed to meet users' needs, and ADE falls short in this area, as well as in others. But it's not actually a big deal to set up a manageable alternative system that allows you full choice where to put things. And right now I don't know of another application that can help me manage both DRM and non-DRM files the way I want to.

My approach is: on my desktop computer (where I usually buy things) I put everything in a single folder on Dropbox, symlinked from the mandatory Document folder location. I use that Dropbox folder also as my download folder for non-DRM files, so everything is together. On my laptop, I also use ATE but without symlinking to dropbox - I use the default folder location so that the manifest.xml files don't get mixed up, as I have a different but overlapping set of books in each library. However there are no actual books in the default folder on my laptop, they all stay in the Dropbox folder, of course.  This also makes adding a book to Aldiko in my Android very easy. I just navigate to the dropbox folder from the Aldiko file function, go to my digital editions folder and select the file for import.

BTW What's this in the ADE help page about using a USB drive or emailing the file to yourself?  Does anyone actually do that in the 21st century?

[MissPixel]

Thanks for your input, Robert. I just tried it, but I noticed too late that the command includes 'My Digital Editions' whereas the Digital Editions app calls the folder "Digital Editions".

When opening Digital Editions, it still creates a folder "Digital Editions" in /Documents 😞

Would anyone know how to undo or to correct the command in Terminal?

Thanks in advance.

robertvanbregt  wrote

This workaround will work on a Mac by using symbolic links through the "ln" terminal command.

1. Close ADE
2. Move folder to new location
3. Open terminal
4. goto Documents folder with command "cd ~/Documents"
5. create symbolic link with command "ln -s <new location> './My Digital Editions' "

[zachek]

Write the same command but with the actual directory name instead?

[Guest]

Here we are, five and a half years later, still waiting for ADE to do what so many users have asked for. And they wonder why people migrate to Kindle.

[superdude108]

Just popping in to add my voice to the thread.  I seriously can't believe that this simple little thing STILL hasn't been addressed by Adobe after all this time.

[Mark Iliff]

Indeed - 6 *years* after the original post.

FWIW I've reverted to the Sony software that came with my reader. I've used Sony software previously and found it spectacularly bad: worse even than normal hardware-vendor-bad.

Sony Reader is pretty bad, but it's no worse than ADE and it does let you choose your file location. It somehow uses ADE for DRM without ever bringing Adobe's pile of poo into the foreground. I don't know whether it works for other makes of hardware.

[zachek]

2024 checking in. Make that SEVENTEEN years after the original post. Adobe doesn't care obviously. Digital Editions is a mediocre program anyway, and I only use it as a means to an end with the final destination of my epub library being Calibre. I just found my way here while trying to figure out if there was any way to stop getting ADE to keep spawning pesky folders where they are not wanted. 

But hey! TIL about Symbolic links!! Amazing to me I have never heard of these before. 

[sordell2013]

I agree. Forcing people to use a specific directory is less than ideal. I'm using on my personal laptop. I don't keep any files locally. I store them all on my cloud storage. Cloud computing is gaining popularity, a company like Adobe, who just forced all of their Photoshop users to the Cloud Edition, should totally understand this. Kudos to the post using mklink.

[Felix Vanden Heede]

I join the irritated customers....

[LiberalArtist]

2015 and still no solution …

There doesn't even seem to be any way to submit a bug repport for Digital Editions: Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[Geoff Brocklehurst]

I add my voice to this outstanding deficiency as I now own new Mac Pro which can only have one internal drive so have a number of externals dedicated to various media etc. so  I find it very frustrating not being able to select file storage drive within ADE software.

[LiberalArtist]

This doesn't solve my problem, but some UNIX tricks may help with yours. If your external drives are always plugged in and mounted, it's easy:

1. Make sure Adobe Digital Editions isn't running.
2. Move the folder to your preferred location.
3. Open Terminal.app
4. run this command: ln -s /new/path/to/My\ Digital\ Editions ~/Documents/My\ Digital\ Editions (replace the italicized part with the actual new path)

If your external drives aren't always accessible or are on a network, your situation will be more complicated, but you should be able to do it wither with symlinks alone or in combination with autofs (see https://ssl.apple.com/business/docs/Autofs.pdf or run the Terminal command man automount for details).

The inescapable limitation is that there must still be something in your filesystem at "~/Documents/My\ Digital\ Editions", even if it's just a symlink.

Of course, Adobe could fix this if they just had a preference item allowing you to specify an alternate directory!!!

[marting94744036]

Anyone reading this thread in the hope that Adobe will ever do anything about this problem must conclude that it will never happen. Adobe's clients are the book publishers NOT the end users (you and me). With the upcoming large scale migration to Windows 10 loss of eBooks saved in My Digital Editions is likely. So, what to do?

I did consider using Sysinternals Junction as has been suggested on here. However, reading up on this I found warnings about the possible risk of system damage if you are not totally confident in using the command line (I'm not). But there is an alternative. Link Shell Extension is a freeware utility which adds the tools you need to Windows Explorer context menu. There is an excellent article on How to Geek on how to do it here Complete Guide to Symbolic Links (symlinks) on Windows or Linux . I did find a slight problem however. On my edition of Windows (7, 64 bit) the context menu that appears produced by Link Shell Extension has different commands to those described in the documentation. There is no 'Hard link Clone'. I used the Junction command instead..

First of all, shut down My Digital Edtions completely and move the My Digital Editions storage folder to the location of your choice. Then to create a virtual "My Digital Editions" folder, click on the My Digital Editions folder in it's new location to highlight it then right click it and choose "Pick link source" from the context menu. Go back to the My Documents folder on C drive, click it to highlight it then right click it and choose "Drop as > Junction". This will create a virtual storage folder in the original position which redirects My Digital Editions to your chosen new location. The advantage of doing this this way is that if you make a mistake and create a link in the wrong place simply delete the new virtual folder and recreate it with no harm done.