What's the procedure for backing up e-books in ADE?

Sameer and Wanda, you've both provided additional information that does

make a difference.

Rest assured that what I said about ADE and its interaction with .ascm

files is correct. What is happening is probably at the source. Sameer

said that he's downloading files from his library. While Wanda hasn't said

that, I'm going to go out on a limb and 'assume' (a dangerous thing to do)

that the source she's using does the same thing as Sameer's library.

That's what it sounds like from reading the posts.

Libraries and many other download sites often use the Overdrive Media suite

of programs for their downloading. That suite needs to be configured to

operate with other software, and that's not required by the programs. The

simplest configuration does NOT look at your computer to determine whether

you have ADE installed or not. That means the technical support function

at the source can just slam in the software and walk away. In those

instances, Overdrive just asks you where to put the download, downloads the

.ascm file, and then closes. Sounds to me like this is happening to both

of you.

Sameer, I was telling you indeed that you should have registered with Adobe

and obtained an Adobe ID BEFORE you downloaded Digital Editions, so that

your copy of DE would have the appropriate information embedded in it, and

the Adobe server would have information about your copy filed on it. And,

because it's possible to bypass this process, ADE could be installed

without registration. And there are 'issues' at times if the ADE copy is

not registered. For example, your download site may be looking for ADE

during the download process, but does not find a 'registered' copy, and

thus assumes that you don't have ADE, downloads the .ascm file and closes.

Both of you may benefit from contacting the technical support function of

your download sites and discussing with them how their sites are supposed

to interact with Digital Editions. If it's a library, then their tech

support can configure Overdrive to interact directly with ADE - IF they

want to do that. A source like B&N already has configurations that support

ADE - I've downloaded many ebooks from them and it operated seamlessly, as

I described. So, Wanda, if you're having these issues with B&N, I'm

thinking that it might have to do with their interface and how it works

with a Mac.

Wada, you mention 'disappearing' ebooks. And you mention not being able to

copy ebooks to your Nook. Mac software upgrades or security settings may

be responsible in part. B&N also upgraded their Nook software - and the

Nook Simple is not on the list of supported devices. You can check THIS

LINK <http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/supported-devices> to see

whether any of the other ereaders you mention are on the list. If the

ebooks are disappearing only on the Mac, I can't help you beyond this

point, because I'm really a PC guy. Takes all kinds.....

The copy problem may be something else. Publishers, distributors,

libraries and authors have the ability to set up 'digital rights' for their

ebooks. Those rights - labelled DRM for short - can prevent you from

copying and printing their works. ADE, just as the other ebook management

systems, has to use these rights to manage the ebook. If you're getting

messages from ADE telling you 'no right to copy here' or something like

that, then it's the digital rights that won't let you do it. There's

nothing wrong with ADE. You can try going back to your source and

discussing this with them.

There's more that we can discuss, but this is a pretty lengthly post, so

let's cut off here and resume if necessary.

All that said, yes 'AZ' is the abbreviation for Arizona.

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