MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Forma Almost ready to give up entirely on Forma

marst · 01-10-2021, 11:16 PM

Before launching in let me try a question first: Is there any known way to download a just-purchased book from the Kobo book site to one's computer, as an .epub file? Now on to the rest...

I'm all but ready to give up on this Kobo Forma. It wasn't cheap, it is often failing, and I'm at my wit's end. Perhaps someone who has experienced the same kinds of problems will know what to do.

Despite our having a pretty fast net connection and good wifi connectivity in this house, the Kobo rarely gets more than one "bar" for its connection to the house network. But even when has 2 or 3 bars, it has flat-out stopped being able to sync to the Kobo site or download any new books. It can't even download existing books that have been removed from the device (but not by me—more on that below). It was getting worse in this way over the last couple of weeks and then two or three days ago I just gave up. The thing never gets past the checking-for-updates stage—it just never connects.

If it were possible to download Kobo books to one's PC, I could at least side-load them by copying them from the computer to the .kobo directory via USB.

This kind of failure has occurred several times since I got the e-reader. Over time, sync slows down, then simply halts. When I've contacted their tech support, the suggestion is always "repair your acccount."

Yeah, that works, and it comes with nasty drawbacks. 1) The reset removes a number of books from the device. Then they must be downloaded all over again. (I did not remove them myself.) 2) All books I've side-loaded are immediately erased and have to be side-loaded again. I suspect this also blows away all of the side-loaded books' highlights. These two problems make the "repair" step unacceptable any longer.

What to conclude? Is Kobo's "ecosystem" poorly designed or poorly maintained? Is this particular device just plain defective?

If anyone can think of solutions _other_ than simply "repairing" the account every time it becomes unable to sync, I will be really grateful for your advice.

01-10-2021, 11:16 PM	#1
marst Connoisseur Posts: 72 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Left coast, USA Device: Kobo Forma; Android tablet w/Mantano Reader	Almost ready to give up entirely on Forma Before launching in let me try a question first: Is there any known way to download a just-purchased book from the Kobo book site to one's computer, as an .epub file? Now on to the rest... I'm all but ready to give up on this Kobo Forma. It wasn't cheap, it is often failing, and I'm at my wit's end. Perhaps someone who has experienced the same kinds of problems will know what to do. Despite our having a pretty fast net connection and good wifi connectivity in this house, the Kobo rarely gets more than one "bar" for its connection to the house network. But even when has 2 or 3 bars, it has flat-out stopped being able to sync to the Kobo site or download any new books. It can't even download existing books that have been removed from the device (but not by me—more on that below). It was getting worse in this way over the last couple of weeks and then two or three days ago I just gave up. The thing never gets past the checking-for-updates stage—it just never connects. If it were possible to download Kobo books to one's PC, I could at least side-load them by copying them from the computer to the .kobo directory via USB. This kind of failure has occurred several times since I got the e-reader. Over time, sync slows down, then simply halts. When I've contacted their tech support, the suggestion is always "repair your acccount." Yeah, that works, and it comes with nasty drawbacks. 1) The reset removes a number of books from the device. Then they must be downloaded all over again. (I did not remove them myself.) 2) All books I've side-loaded are immediately erased and have to be side-loaded again. I suspect this also blows away all of the side-loaded books' highlights. These two problems make the "repair" step unacceptable any longer. What to conclude? Is Kobo's "ecosystem" poorly designed or poorly maintained? Is this particular device just plain defective? If anyone can think of solutions _other_ than simply "repairing" the account every time it becomes unable to sync, I will be really grateful for your advice.