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58

Digital Editions "sucks the sweat off a deadman's back"

New Here ,
Oct 14, 2008 Oct 14, 2008

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I do not understand whether or not Digital Editions is flawed as a result of technical retardation on the part of its developers (unlikely), or because it represents a triumph somehow of the rights of publishers over those that pay for access to that published content.

The reason for doubting that the crippling navigational and other shortcomings of the product as a result of profound programming retardation comes as a result of comparing Digital Editions to Reader, Acrobat, and so forth. I guess it's cool to play at communist until the folks cutting the bigger check object.

I just spent for instance 85 bucks on an electronic text for a law class. The scrolling, inability to copy any text whatsoever, even though I can easily type out what I need in a time-consuming manner, the almost horrificly bad resizing tools and behaviours, I just don't know where to start.

Let me just finish by offering both a hearty and sincere, "thanks for a piece of crap".
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Contributor ,
Mar 09, 2016 Mar 09, 2016

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8 years on, and nothing is the same.

Adobe, how could you? You invented Photoshop, a program that became a verb! This has you standing alongside Google! You invented the PDF! You replaced the film editing studio for Hollywood! You are the number one provider of all things awesome and amazing except book reading!

How could you Adobe? How could you?

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Explorer ,
Jun 20, 2016 Jun 20, 2016

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Photoshop might be a verb. But it, like the verb xerox, it's based on old technology. Unfortunately the verb hasn't improved since it entered the dictionary.

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New Here ,
Aug 09, 2016 Aug 09, 2016

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The joy of feeling paper, fast flipping pages and opening it anywhere in no time.. It is really coming back to me. I'm with Adobe on this one! SAVE THE BOOKS! lol!

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New Here ,
Jul 04, 2019 Jul 04, 2019

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Three years later which is 11 years if anyone is counting; and no improvement.

This can only lead one to deduce the disfunctionality of this software is intentional. Really hard to get behind a company that will pull something like that. I can honestly say that my contributions to Adobe throughout college in the form of SaaS namely Creative Cloud, are in the thousands of dollars. Now working on my Master's degree I run into the same old song doing research. So, I will get what I need from this "loaned" pdf, write my paper and purge my system of this software forever. All they had to do was incorporate the functionality of adobe reader into editions or even make the DRM a sub function of reader or DC. This again, makes one wonder what the end goal of this company is.

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Guest
Mar 16, 2016 Mar 16, 2016

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Just spent the last half hour going through the processes of downloading Digital Editions, creating an Adobe ID, jumping through hoops trying to figure out a way to copy a few lines of text from a PDF I want to quote as part of my research. All to find out I can't copy+paste in DE. fuuuuuuuuu-

Time to undo all of that and delete this shit forever. Absolutely useless. How can anyone defend it? Should've just typed it out from the start, sigh.

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New Here ,
Mar 23, 2016 Mar 23, 2016

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I have to use it in order to download books from my public library. It hangs up EVERY time. Sometimes the book is on my Kobo after I use Task Manager to close it, other times it isn't. When I try to copy the book again, sometimes there's a message saying it's on my Kobo (after I've deleted it). Sometimes the message is that I don't have permission. I've tried reauthorizing Adobe, returning the library book and going through the process again ...

This venting won't solve my issues; however, I feel better for it.

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New Here ,
Apr 05, 2016 Apr 05, 2016

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I consider myself eloquent, but even I couldn't have said that better. I have never, in all my years of software exploration, seen anything as AWFUL as ADE. I "searched" a 250 page book for a specific phrase. It locked up my computer for 15 minutes while it seemed to rewrite the thing in Sanskrit in order to search using the most ancient of methods. Even eyeballing through parchment would have been faster. I just don't understand how some have the balls to release such a - piece 'o crap. 

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New Here ,
Jun 05, 2016 Jun 05, 2016

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I have two complaints with ADE.

#1. I copy a book to my Kobo ereader. I highlight on the kobo. If I open the ePub file on my kobo, in ADE, it erases all the highlighting I've done on the Kobo! ADE should not alter ePub files on devices if it handle the highlighting on them.

#2. I bought my mom a Kobo. I keep getting "this file is locked with adobe DRM" despite having the correct authorization. I went to Kobo's site: it recommends installing an older version of ADE. So now I'm running on 3.0 because 4.5 doesn't seem to work with a brand new kobo. Awful awful piece of software, ADE. This honestly makes me never want to trust Adobe with anything. If they'd be willing to put their name on this piece of garbage, who knows what they kind of software they make.

kobo.com/help - Troubleshooting Adobe Digital Editions

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New Here ,
Aug 30, 2016 Aug 30, 2016

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I just bought a book off ebooks.com. It seems the only possible option for reading the book on my laptop (whether in EPUB or PDF format) is to use DE (and some other reader called Bluefire which I have not tried and do not feel like trying). I thought maybe if I installed Adobe Reader after installing DE, I'd be able to read the book in Reader while DE does its DRM magic in the background. Well, I was shocked to discover I couldn't.

It is simply a disaster trying to use or navigate a book in DE. What is ebooks.com thinking even suggesting their users read their books with such a unusable piece of software as DE is?

I do not often buy books in digital format. In years prior, I had purchased a few programming books from Oreilly.com. The experience was positive. I was expecting the same flexibility here. I guess I'm wrong.

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Guest
Oct 26, 2016 Oct 26, 2016

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Created an account just to voice my displeasure with the rest of you. The lack of basic zoom control and scrolling is absolutely atrocious. I've now found myself attempting to read tiny text in order to somehow not spend the majority of my reading time trying to use the scroll key.

Do not download this software under any circumstances.

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New Here ,
Nov 26, 2016 Nov 26, 2016

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I see a pattern here. People buy e-books for studies etc and this piece of software is the only legit way to view them. Nice move Adobe.

The problem is all the badwill you get from not improving the original problems described by the creator of this thread back in 2009. I mean, all of it is still as bad now as it was then. I am even angry with HP who indirectly forces me to use this terrible software by only allowing me to open their books with ADE.

As other people have pointed out, there are a few solutions though. Converting the files to another format supported by your favorite reader is one. Printing out the whole book is another (dunno if anybody mentioned before?).

I need this literature to take part of virtual classroom education probided by HP, but since the scrolling mechanism is so terrible I will need to print it out just to keep up.

And Adobe, I am sincerely surprised you are still hanging around today. Total lack of respect for the people forced to use your products. Lightroom is another example of software that you took away from the average Joe just bcause you made it a subscription product instead of a one time purchase. I will never spend my money on any of your products and I sincerely hope that no one else will either.

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New Here ,
Nov 27, 2016 Nov 27, 2016

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Hi -

I have read all these posts from the start (2008) and it is now 8 years later.  I can't believe that Adobe still has not resolved these issues.  I am also frustrated with Digital Editions although, thankfully, it is not related to course work or a job.  I just wanted to be able to read a book!

There apparently is no way to download ADE to Kindle.  I had the app on my Droid but gave up because the anti-virus software kept deleting the book I'd downloaded.  The only way to do this is find the actual book (with some titles, good luck) or read it on the phone from the reading site using data or Wi-Fi.  I had ADE downloaded to my laptop but deleted it. 

Adobe obviously doesn't give a crap about goodwill, or the lack thereof, from consumers.  This software is horrible!

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New Here ,
Dec 03, 2016 Dec 03, 2016

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I just installed ADE 4.5.2 (latest from the website) onto a fast Windows 10 laptop. I've used previous versions for many years, and really enjoyed the "alternative" reading view compared to merely opening a file with a PDF reader.

However, this latest version has reduced the user experience to a struggle. Scrolling is unusably slow. Gone is the nice facility to layout the page on the screen as desired - the page magnification now seems to be fixed to a few discrete values like 1, 1.5, and 2. The arrow and page up/down keys all do something but in a fairly unwieldy manner that discourages their use. I believe the old version had the nice "hand" mouse sprite to move the page around - that seems to be gone also.

I'll probably look for alternatives to ADE for checking out e-books, and then move all of my local PDF library to a more friendly home.

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New Here ,
Jan 01, 2017 Jan 01, 2017

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Astounding how many people have found this program to be so disappointing, and for this long, yet with no proper improvements.  Rather than go into the description I had planned to give regarding why I hate this program (it has already stolen over an hour of my time and made me not even want to bother trying to read the book I bought), I will just say I agree fully with the OP's sentiments, and all those thereafter.  Adobe, what are you doing to fix this?! This program is unacceptably bad! Just make it function like a PDF viewer! Is that so hard? This is 2017! Do better!

I've contacted the company I ordered the book from to ask if there is any kind of exchange or refund available, because I honestly can't begin to try becoming used to ADE's interface.   If I can obtain a refund or other solution, I am going to immediately uninstall ADE and will never buy another e-book until I'm certain I won't have to encounter this archaic, wet fart of a program again in so doing. When a person can tell within, literally, the first minute of using a program that it is VIRTUALLY UNUSABLE, it should be scrapped.

If this type of reader is the proposed answer/antidote to tracking down a torrent file or otherwise obtaining a desired file illegally, publishers and software developers are going to have to do better than this.

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New Here ,
Jan 31, 2017 Jan 31, 2017

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why do libraries put up with this poor software when theres better alternatives (pretty much anything is better)

oh there all government run (public libraries or university) and have no incentive for quality or productivity

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New Here ,
Aug 31, 2017 Aug 31, 2017

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Hi, I cannot find where to type a new question. My adobe digital editions 4.5 is taking an extremely long time to scroll. I need help asap.

Thank you!

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New Here ,
May 16, 2018 May 16, 2018

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Last time I buy and DRM PDF ... try to stick in the law and you cant ever read what you purchased.

All these negative comments and I see not one reply or response from Adobe.

Proves they dont care .... so dont buy PDFs that require only their rubbish software to read.

1. Software runs, white screen ... no idea of what is happening

2. After nth try it suddenly allows you to load your ACSM files albeit slowly and crashy

3. You can read a book ... maybe ... if your internet connection is off or slow .... loop to #1

Adobe this is PATHETIC software!!!!!!!

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New Here ,
Sep 14, 2018 Sep 14, 2018

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Just had my first experience with ADE.  Unbelievable piece of crap.  Here we are 10 years after the original post and Adobe still has not fixed this product, or removed it from the marketplace. 

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 19, 2018 Dec 19, 2018

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I agree with everyone, ADE is a joke 🙂

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Engaged ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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The reason is that Adobe really like that application. It is almost as intuitive as Acrobat Reader.

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Engaged ,
Jan 02, 2019 Jan 02, 2019

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That App is representing Adobe's new idea of Quality !

Anyone it seems, aside from Adobe, are noticing that something seriously wrong is going on over there

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New Here ,
Sep 20, 2019 Sep 20, 2019

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It's been 10+ years after the original post and I confirm that ADE is the most disgusting software I have used till date. This shows how adobe "listens" to its customers. The problems mentioned in this forum are not fixed, in fact, scrolling takes 10 to 15 second per page now. Uninstall it before you forget.

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New Here ,
Nov 03, 2019 Nov 03, 2019

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I used ADE to download a digital book from OpenLibrary.org (copied from source, not epub), which I could borrow for two weeks using ADE, only to discover that:

  • I could not get ADE on my iPad to download and open the book.
  • On my Macbook I could download and open the book, but it has no two page view! I can only view one page at a time!
  • In order to use it with another reader, Adobe instructs me to connect an ereader with a USB cable!

I believe this is the most awful, ret@rded, crap piece of software I have ever come across. OpenLibrary has their own web-based reader that works instantaneous and has a proper two page view. How hard can it be Adobe?

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New Here ,
Feb 16, 2020 Feb 16, 2020

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Adobe obviously does not care about us little users, they make there money from huge contracts. This forum is a place for us to scream into the abyss while they ignore it. Its kind of like your spam folder. You see how long this thread is and there is no word.

 

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 19, 2020 Apr 19, 2020

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You have to understand that Digital Editions was created by imbeciles who just want to impede the intelligent human reader who actually pays for books instead of searching in Google for the pirated PDF book to have a good experience with that book.

 

I don't hide my sense of vindication every time someone comes to me and rubs on my face that instead of buying the book like I did they got a DRM-free copy in the dark web, I feel for the author a little bit but hey, it is high time writers wised up and demanded their publisher offered their readers, mostly the paying ones such as myself, a better user experience.

 

By the way, if you guys are losing access to books you bought, use the Small Claims Court to open a case for compensation against the store that sold it to you. It generally works because neither Adobe, the publisher or the outlet who sold the book agree who should come to court to defend the case. Make sure you contact Adobe somehow like via these forums and keep a record.

 

Now, will any of you Adobe Digital Editions fans explain to me how I delete the authorisation linked to an old Adobe Account with an email that doesn't exist anymore and which I can't remember the password? I have tons of books I want to read in an another MacBook Pro running MacOS Catalina but it is locked to this old Adobe Account. 

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