JBL 16e and ADE Overdrive

[Ken Maltby]

Of course if you don't let ADE build its nest in your JB,JBL, or ALP; in the first place
and have it think that a, say 2GB SD card is your device (based on it seeing a
"device.xml" file written for your device, on that SD card). It, ADE, will build its nest of
files and folders on the SD card and see that as the place to put the ebooks for your
device. You will run out of space in the 100MB of internal memory long before you would
on a 2GB SD card.

Luck;
Ken

[jlg432]

Ken I understand what you are saying but I was just adding some extra info obtained apparently from Adobe concerning ADE's limitations.

I myself run ADE DRM free. If I didn't I would have to have a separate card just for all the ePub/PDF doc's I have. ADE wants to Catalog your whole card when it see's other books that it doesn't have in it's inventory. I don't use any e-book manager for managing my books. I use a self contained folder structure.
Only one or two e-books reside in my "Digital Editions" folder on the JB. I was keeping some DRM books on the SD card but you can easily screw up the manifest file if you make a wrong move as well as your JB's authorization.

Hence the additional ADE info. For those that do use ADE DRM a least they know they can copy the whole folder over and rename it. ADE will just create a new folder the next time you hook up. If any Overdrive ADE books timeout you can always delete them using the e-reader's file manager.

The internal memory is down now to 90.8 megs due to FW .35a and up on the JB. I believe the same must be true for the JBL with it's new FW's.

John

[Ken Maltby]

I was not finding any fault with your post, just adding another approach to the mix.

I find ADE, more even than most DRM, to be much more trouble than any value it might
have. I can understand though, that there would be those who need it to borrow from
their local library. To me, the long waiting periods for the few ebooks I might be
interested in, while I have plenty of unread books to get to, as it is, makes the library
loan very unattractive.

ADE's acquisitive habits and it's potential for net connected abuse of the property
rights to what I have purchased, make authorizing it on my PC something I am Not
prepared to do.

Luck;
Ken

[dougf4]

Question - do you have to use a blank card to upgrade or will one that is populated with other files (books) be OK?

Seems I've seen comments explaining how to navigate to the upgrade folder on a populated card elsewhere but can't recall the specifics.

I'd like to avoid having to go to the store today and buy a new, blank card if I can just use my existing one which is populated with books.

Thanks in advance for any advice/help!

Doug

[Ken Maltby]

There are those who have just added the proper folders to the root of the SD card and
updated without problems. The smaller SD cards are not that expensive and I would
suggest having a couple on hand for such things. No one will guarantee that what you
have on the SD card or the update won't be effected by doing the update on a card
with additional files and folders.

You can always move what you have on the card now, onto your PC's hard drive (It is
often good to have a backup anyway) then format the SD card, to clean it out, and
use that for the update. Afterwards you can just copy the backup folder to the SD
card, and everything will be as it was.

Luck;
Ken

[MmavisO]

I'm trying to get ADE to work on my JBL. Originally, ADE saw the JBL as my Aztak EZ Reader. It saw the books that were on it, and let me move a book onto it. The book appeared to be there, in the Digital Editions folder. But of course, the JBL was never properly authorized so the JBL didn't see the book. I noticed that the file refered to above, the device.xml file wasn't there. So I redid my 16e FW upgrade, following the instructions in the sticky carefully. After the upgrade was complete, and before making any changes of any kind, I looked in the Digital Editions folder for the device.xml file. It is not there. And now ADE does not see my JBL at all. I made sure the JBL was connected to my computer before I started ADE, but nothing. I uninstalled/reinstalled ADE, but it still doesn't see the JBL.

[MmavisO]

It turns out that what ADE sees is my SD card--the one I'm using had been named for my EZ Reader, but no longer has anything on it relating to the EZ Reader. It has been authorized by ADE.

ADE still does not see the JBL, but it does see cards inserted in it. It will transfer books to the card, and the JBL sees the books but can't open them.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by MmavisO

It turns out that what ADE sees is my SD card--the one I'm using had been named for my EZ Reader, but no longer has anything on it relating to the EZ Reader. It has been authorized by ADE.

ADE still does not see the JBL, but it does see cards inserted in it. It will transfer books to the card, and the JBL sees the books but can't open them.

First do the update using the SD card method. Do not connect the USB
cable to do the update. Especially do not do the update with the USB cable
while you have an SD card in the JBL.

As I understand it you need to have ADE see the "device.xml" file in the
".adobe-digital-editions" folder either in the root of the JBL's internal memory;
or in the root of an SD card (or other flash memory). All the devices that
ADE will work with have a file named "device.xml" but each of the files have
information that describe only that one device to ADE. The "device.xml" file
from your old device can't be used to make files readable on your JBL.


The 0.16e update will provide a proper "device.xml" file for your JBL, in the
".adobe-digital-editions" folder it places in the root of your JBL's internal
user's memory. If you have ADE up and running before you plug in the USB
cable connected to your 0.16e updated JBL - without any SD card - ADE
should see the proper file and offer to authorize your JBL. After it has there
will be a JBL folder in the ADE Library section. The authorization process
will have also added an Adobe folder in the JBL's internal memory as well.

Then you can open your new books in ADE and drag and drop them to the
new JBL folder in the Library section of ADE. The now authorized for your
JBL device book will be in the Adobe folder in the JBL's internal memory. You
can then move the book to another folder if you wish.

But as you have seen an SD card can be seen as a device by ADE, the SD
card you mentioned has the device.xml folder for your old reader, so ADE
thinks it is dealing with that reader and makes the file readable on that
reader. You could make an SD Card that ADE thinks is your JBL.

Luck;
Ken

[Blusaber]

I have found since up grading to 16e I only have a single digital editions folder on the JBL which contains the library books I'm reading and a manifest I can not find a device .xml file now and so I can't get ADE to see my card as a JBL as it did in 16b when I copied the adobe-digital-editions folder to the card.

Not a problem since I'll use internal mem for my lib books and the card for my purchased books.

On another note what is the best way to remove the books that came with the JBL I have copied them to an sd card and would like the space back

Gary

[MmavisO]

I downloaded a fresh copy of the update from Ectaco, extracted it, and copied the 3 folders onto a freshly formatted card and followed the steps in the sticky--no usb cable, didn't touch the reader from the time I let go of the right arrow button until the upgrade was complete, reset, pressed on button, wait for it to start and to show the menu. I left the card in until after the JBL had completed its start up and I had selected Books, and...no .adobe file. I think I must have messed things up beyond repair. But it still works for everything except ADE and B&N, so it could be worse.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by Blusaber

I have found since up grading to 16e I only have a single digital editions folder on the JBL which contains the library books I'm reading and a manifest I can not find a device .xml file now and so I can't get ADE to see my card as a JBL as it did in 16b when I copied the adobe-digital-editions folder to the card.

Not a problem since I'll use internal mem for my lib books and the card for my purchased books.

On another note what is the best way to remove the books that came with the JBL I have copied them to an sd card and would like the space back

Gary

The "device.xml" file is one that the update provides in a
".adobe-digital-editions" folder that it puts into the root of the internal
user's memory of the JBL. The Digital Editions folder is one that ADE
creates on an authorized device during the authorization process for the
device. There can only be one such setup for a device. Maybe only one
per a specific device.xml file. (If you are able to use the one device.xml
to create a device in both your JBL and an SD card in your JBL, that
would be interesting and would blow my understanding of how it is
working, apart.)

My understanding is that you would have to have ADE authorize either your
JBL as the device described in the device.xml file -or- an SD card. If ADE
does allow the creation of more than one device from the same device.xml
file, then you could make up to five devices, I would guess.

It could be that the device.xml file provides a valid description only for an
JBL running under the firmware provided in that update. (Or an SD card that
will be used in a JBL running under the firmware provided in that update.)

But there is something odd here. The point of making the SD card be what
ADE sees as your JBL is so that you can use the card in a reader on your PC.
You should not need to connect your JBL to your PC and interact with the
ADE software. You should not have your JBL itself authorized with ADE.
You should not have a Digital Editions folder in the JBL's internal memory.

On the other subject; once you have backed up your JBL's internal memory,
normally by using the USB cable to copy the entire contents to a folder on
one of your PC's hard drives, you can delete everything except the
emptied "Books" and "Pictures" folders. (Your PC can open a window in its
windows explorer of the JBL's internal memory, that it sees as an external
drive.)

Luck;
Ken

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by MmavisO

I downloaded a fresh copy of the update from Ectaco, extracted it, and copied the 3 folders onto a freshly formatted card and followed the steps in the sticky--no usb cable, didn't touch the reader from the time I let go of the right arrow button until the upgrade was complete, reset, pressed on button, wait for it to start and to show the menu. I left the card in until after the JBL had completed its start up and I had selected Books, and...no .adobe file. I think I must have messed things up beyond repair. But it still works for everything except ADE and B&N, so it could be worse.

You probably should also connect the USB cable and backup the JBL's internal
memory. You should also clean out your internal memory by reformatting it.
Then do the 0.16e update. It should rebuild the internal memory's necessary
elements including the ".adobe-digital-editions" folder with the "device.xml"
file.

Luck;
Ken

[jlg432]

MmavisO you will not see the .adobe... folder using the JBL. You have to view it through explorer on your PC. Do not start ADE yet.
The .Adobe... Folder will have a file called device.xlm. It may also have a file called Activation.xlm. You may need to delete this file. I had an issue one where ADE-PC saw my JB but would not allow me to move books to it even though it already had some. If this file is there delete it and start up ADE-PC. I found that ADE-PC saw my JB and then authorized it anew and all went fine. Then you can do move this folder over to your SD card and ADE-PC will think the card is your JB or JBL.

Ken can confirm this but I believe you can only have the .adobe... folder on one device - the card or the JB/JBL. If you keep it on both ADE-PC will screw it up and get confused. This means that you should remove the card and go through a card reader/writer to manage your ade epubs/pdf's.

Let us know what happened.

Note: ADE-PC only allows 6 activations to one account. You can un-authorize a device by connecting it to your PC. Start up ADE. Select your device name (or shelf) and do a "CNTRL+Shift+E". You should then be prompted to un-authorize said device and return that count to your list of available activations.

John

[Blusaber]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

The "device.xml" file is one that the update provides in a
".adobe-digital-editions" folder

Luck;
Ken

There in lies my problem With 16b that folder and one named just digital editions were both on the JBL now after up dating to 16e the ".adobe-digital-editions" folder no longer shows up in explorer I just have the One digital editions folder not both

Gary

[MmavisO]

Here is what I did:

1. Backed up JBL memory.
2. Reformatted JBL
3.Put on 16e FW--just for fun, looked at contents of JBL. No .adobe folder
4. Put contents of memory back on JBL
5. Looked at contents of JBL using PC--no .adobe folder
6. Just for fun, tried ADE with and without a card. ADE did not see the JBL, which I didn't really expect since the necessary folder is not there.
7. Also just for fun, unauthorized one of my ADE devices to "make room" for the JBL.

The last two I did more or less so I could say I had done them, not because I thought it would do any good. What I need, and cannot seem to get, is that .adobe folder. I have even "unhidden" my files, just in case it is hidden. but no such luck. It is just not there.

FWIW: Version Information: Software: v0.16, Patch v16
So 16e appears to be on properly, except that .adobe folder.
Also, is there supposed to be an Upgrade Patch? I have "Patch not found!"