Public Library customers with Kobo ereader authorization issue ADE 4.0 - 4.5, "Oops! This document couldn't be opened."

[eplholly]

Hello Adobe support,

I work at a public library and we now have at least 8 - 12 members of the public (anecdotally more), who are unable to open Adobe DRM epub ebooks on their Kobo ereaders from our Overdrive or Freading services using Adobe Digital Editions versions between 4.0 and 4.5 and Windows 7 - 10. All of the people involved were using their Kobo with ADE successfully until just recently, and all have experienced the following set of conditions and problem:

• ADE 4.0 - 4.5 is authorized with an Adobe ID.
• DRM epub ebooks seem to download properly inside ADE.
• The Kobo appears to be properly authorized and is connected via USB, appearing in ADE.
• When the ebook is transferred to the device, it seems to work properly and no errors appear.
• As soon as the customer ejects the Kobo and tries to open the ebook on the device itself the error message pops up: "Oops! This document couldn't be opened.  This document is protected by Adobe Digital Rights Management (DRM) and is not currently authorized for use with your Adobe ID.  Please sign-in with the authorized Adobe ID and try again."

We began receiving requests for help right with this around the week of November 8th and are continuing to receive new requests for help with this issue throughout January and as recently as today. Our primary ebook vendor has been unable to help beyond supplying the workaround of downgrading to ADE 3.0.

Most of the customers involved are using Windows 7, and Internet Explorer or an alternative browser like Firefox or Chrome - but we've had this issue occur at least once for someone using Windows 8 and twice for people with Windows 10. We also helped someone with this issue using Mac OSX 10.11. This issue has been reported mainly with Kobo Aura HD or Aura H2O, but also with Kobo Glo and Kobo Glo HD. The Kobo firmware has varied, some were using version 3.18.0 - some were using older versions. One frustrating aspect to this issue is that despite having a number of these exact devices on hand for testing, we have been unable to reproduce the issue on any of our workstations. There also doesn't seem to be a clear pattern to the titles involved.

So far, the workaround provided elsewhere on this forum and by our primary vendor has been the only way to resolve this issue for the people affected:

1. The customer de-authorizes the Kobo and ADE 4.0 - 4.5.
2. The customer uninstalls Adobe Digital Editions 4.X.
3. The customer installs Adobe Digital Editions 3.0.
4. The customer re-authorizes ADE 3.0 and the Kobo.

Does Adobe have any way to resolve this issue for customers who wish to use ADE 4.0 and up with their Kobo ereaders?

Is this issue being looked at for an upcoming build or are there any details that we could provide to help?

Please let me know and thanks for your consideration.

Holly

[jwhadley]

I have an iPad pro, but iI recall that Libby and Ontario downloads used to
be a problem. What I do now works, but can be tedious. Renata gave me a
tip that I think will help a lot.
j