Kobo ebook not showing up in Mac Finder

[BoschBabe]

Hello, everyone. I connected my Kobo Libra H2o to my Mac (Catalina) via USB cable, planning to drag a new ebook (purchased from Kobo) from the Finder into Calibre. The newly purchased book does NOT show up in the Finder. If I click the Device icon in Calibre (5.11) to view my Kobo books I do see the book listed. I have done this with other books without any trouble. Am I missing a step? Could this book be stored on the Kobo somewhere OTHER THAN the main memory? Any help appreciated. Thx.

kathy

[davidfor]

Books purchased from Kobo will be in the .kobo/kepub directory. The file name is not obvious, but, it is shown in the device list in calibre when you click on the book. The file name does not have an extension, so you need to add this before adding to calibre. Use either epub or kepub.

But, if the book has DRM, this will not work. The DRM needs to be removed before it can be used elsewhere. The Obok plugin, which part of the DRM removal tools, can do this. It can also be used with books without DRM.

Alternatively, you can download the epub version of the book from the Kobo store. You will still need to handle DRM if the book as it.

[BoschBabe]

Thanks so much. (I already have Obok installed and working.) Will look for the file when I am back at my computer in the morning.

K.

[BoschBabe]

Hello, again. After making my hidden files visible I was able to find and identify the file. (Thanks!) I changed the filename, added the .epub extension, and dragged it into Calibre. When I try to open the file it displays as gibberish. I tried to convert it to another format and got an error (file was corrupted, I think).

Next I installed ADE and tried to download the book from the Kobo web site. Got an error from ADE (Unable to download, Error getting license …) Found instructions online for deauthorizing and reauthorizing the app, but when I installed ADE it had authorized/logged in with a very old email address and now it won’t deauthorize.

When I got the Kobo I decided to try to purchase most of my books from them rather than Amazon for philosophical reasons. However, it is so easy to download and convert ebooks purchased from Amazon and this Kobo/ADE stuff has me wanting to throw my beloved Mac through a window. Unless I am missing some simple, obvious thing I fear I may have to just keep feeding the beast that is Amazon.

Thanks for your assistance thus far (and thanks in advance for any future assistance anyone can offer).

kathy

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BoschBabe

Next I installed ADE and tried to download the book from the Kobo web site. Got an error from ADE (Unable to download, Error getting license …) Found instructions online for deauthorizing and reauthorizing the app, but when I installed ADE it had authorized/logged in with a very old email address and now it won’t deauthorize.

Thanks for your assistance thus far (and thanks in advance for any future assistance anyone can offer).

Which version of ADE did you install? For older versions, you will need to use the command+shift+D keystroke combination with ADE open. Newer version should have a menu entry to deauthorize (Help => Erase authorization). In either case you will need the password for the account. If you don't have the account password, you can try the brute force method and delete activation.dat.

When I did a quick test, after the deauthorize, I still needed to to manually delete the activation.dat file. The easiest way to do this is to use the Finder Go menu, select the Go to folder option and enter /Users/<<your user account name>>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Digital Editions and then drag activation.dat to the trash.

[BoschBabe]

Originally Posted by DNSB

If you don't have the account password, you can try the brute force method and delete activation.dat.

... /Users/<<your user account name>>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Digital Editions and then drag activation.dat to the trash.

I got rid of the activation.dat file (dated 2014) and was able to reauthorize.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

k.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by BoschBabe

Hello, again. After making my hidden files visible I was able to find and identify the file. (Thanks!) I changed the filename, added the .epub extension, and dragged it into Calibre. When I try to open the file it displays as gibberish. I tried to convert it to another format and got an error (file was corrupted, I think).

Which means the kepub had DRM. You need to use Obok to copy the book to calibre as it will remove DRM at the same time.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BoschBabe

I got rid of the activation.dat file (dated 2014) and was able to reauthorize.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

k.

Good to hear that it worked for you.