Touch Unable to Rollback Firmware

[MrRoper]

Hi, I have a Kobo Touch N905b that's less than 2 years old. Although I've had the occasional freezing problem from time to time, the device completely froze on me a couple of weeks ago so I did a factory reset, using the factory reset option in the settings.

I was then forced to upgrade to the latest firmware and the device is almost unusable now when I try to read magazines. It freezes very often and during these times it's unresponsive for anywhere between 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

I downloaded older firmware listed here - https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660 - and I successfully installed version 3.3 but the problem is that after it installed and updated, the device prompts me to connect to the kobo software. There's no way around this unless I did something wrong.

What's the point of listing older firmware if there's no way of actually using it? If I'm doing something wrong, please let me know. I followed these instructions:

Installation Instructions for Direct Zip Files

Get a zip file.
Unzip the zip file. This may not be necessary on more modern versions of Windows, as you can access the contents of a zip file without unzipping it.
If going to a previous version, you may want to do a Factory Reset.
If you have any patches installed, you may want to uninstall them. Please refer to any documentation for the patch for more information.
Make sure that the Kobo Desktop is NOT running.
Connect your device to the computer and select Connect on the device (if asked).
Copy the entire contents of the zip file to the .kobo directory on the device. Do not copy the original zip file itself to the device.
Safely remove the device from Windows (or your operating system of choice).
Disconnect the device from your computer.
The device will now install the new software.

Edit: I tried again and this time I was able to load the new firmware and get into the device settings. The problem is that I can't seem to load any books. There's a message telling me that I have to setup my account before loading books. Is there a way around this?

[MrRoper]

When I copy books to my device, they don't show up. Instead, I receive a message informing me that I have to setup Kobo before I can add books. Prior to having this problem, I created a folder in the root directory and placed all my books there. Is there a different folder I can place my books in to force my kobo to recognize them instead of going through the setup as it requested?

If I go through the setup again, it will continuously freeze again.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by MrRoper

There's a message telling me that I have to setup my account before loading books. Is there a way around this?

You can by-pass registration. There are several posts in this forum how to do this. (As an aside, KSM 08 can do this for you.)

[MrRoper]

I'm new to this forum. I did search for info about this before posting and found a few threads (including the one with the instructions that I copy/pasted) but I haven't found anything about bypassing registration.

Can you please post a link to a forum post that has instructions on how to do this?

Thanks.

Edit: Reading up on KSM 08. Thanks for posting that link.

[MrRoper]

I just found a post on reddit about bypassing registration using Sqlite. Does this method still work? If it does, this seems like the safest way to do this without the risk of bricking the device.

edit: I downloaded sqlite and followed Koboyashi's instructions listed here - http://www.mobileread.mobi/forums/sh...d.php?t=171664

I then copy/pasted the firmware for version 1.9.14. I'm not sure if I correctly followed the instructions and modifed the sql file properly or if this old firmware version doesn't require registration but it worked!

I'm going to test my device for a while to see if it still freezes.

Thanks.

[murg]

Originally Posted by MrRoper

I just found a post on reddit about bypassing registration using Sqlite. Does this method still work? If it does, this seems like the safest way to do this without the risk of bricking the device.

Not having seen the post, I can't give an absolute 'yes' to this.

However, if you aren't on the latest firmware (where they changed how the registration table is used), then the technique should work. My Glo HD has never connected to Kobo.

[MrRoper]

Hey murg, I did a factory reset before modifying the sql file. I'm not sure which firmware version it reverted to after the factory reset.

Are there updated instructions for the new firmware?

[MrRoper]

Everything seems to be running smoothly. I wasn't sure if the new firmware was causing all the freezing but so far it looks like the new firmware is the culprit. My kobo hasn't frozen since I rolled back the firmware.

edit: I spoke too soon. It just froze. Argghhh!

edit 2: Overall, it seems much faster and more responsive. I can live with the occasional freeze. Kobo should really provide a tool that would let us choose any firmware that works best on our device.

Thanks to everyone for your help.

[Ripplinger]

Is it a particular few books that it freezes on or all books? A badly formatted book can cause problems like you're experiencing, and that will happen with any firmware if that's the cause.

[MrRoper]

It happens with magazines in pdf format. epub would freeze much less frequently but it happened from time to time. I think that my device isn't fast enough to run the new firmware properly.