[pokee]

Just opened this ticket with Kobo Support. Let me know if you have any insight to this matter, as I don't expect to hear back anytime soon:

I've had my Kobo WiFi for two months now with no issues. I purchased 3 books from the Kobo website and I read a bit of each of them before taking a break to read some library books. Everything worked great.

While enjoying my library books, I upgraded my Kobo firmware to 1.7.4. I follow the mobile read forums, so I am very aware of bugs and issues that have resulted from this upgrade, but I didn't notice anything on my Kobo that was different. That is, until yesterday when I tried to access one of my purchased books that I hadn't accessed since before the firmware upgrade.

What I discovered was that all three books were LOCKED. Message reads, "The content you are trying to view is locked". WHAT?! I BOUGHT this book! All three books have the same message.

I deleted all three books using the 'delete this book' function on my Kobo, went to the Kobo Desktop App and re-updated the library and re-synched. Same problem. I went back to the Kobo Desktop App and tried the "Update Library" and re-synch again - this resulted in DUPLICATE copies of my books!!! What? How is that even possible!? BOTH copies of each book are now locked. I tried again by deleting one book (and its duplicate) and then re-synching and now something new and special happens when I try to open that book (instead of the locked content message):

1. Freezes when trying to load this book. Cover appears - and loading message appears on the bottom, but no dark bar showing progress appears. Also the blue power light flickers on quickly - then off. Appears to be off! Or frozen...
2. I then press the 'Power' button, and the blue light flashes on and off again quickly and then the "powered off" message appears with the front cover of the book.
3. I press the 'Power' button again, and the blue light comes on and the Kobo goes back to 'books I am reading'.

That seems to be an issue with a locked book that can't even seem to display the 'locked content' message!

Long story short - I've purchased three books that I cannot access on my Kobo - either because they are LOCKED or WILL NOT LOAD.

*Interesting side note: I did try something else - but I don't consider this a solution - but rather proof that the problem is with the Kobo Desktop App: I can download my books from the Kobo website to my PC, open them in ADE, side-load them to my Kobo - and the book is accessible. I should NOT have to go through these steps, though - esp. since some of the properties of the books are lost during this procedure (like the cover art, for example).

Please let me know what I can do to solve this. Am I correct in assuming that my files are corrupt on the Kobo and perhaps need to perform a factory reset? Any other ideas? I've heard that people with Windows 7 (which is the OS I use) may have problems with the Kobo desktop app. Could this be the issue?

Thanks in advance for your help!