Forma How can I download ebooks from multiple libraries w/o signing out & in every time?

[droopy]

I have ebook-borrowing privileges with several public libraries. All these libraries are on overdrive; their URL is in the form of publiclibraryabc.overdrive.com.

I tend to places holds or check out books on my computer or on my smartphone. But I like to do the reading on the Kobo.

On my Kobo Forma, it seems that I can only download books from one library at a time. Is there a way to have my Kobo download checked-out books from all linked libraries without having to sign out and in over and over again?

The instructions on https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/20...kobo-aura-one/ don't work for me. Even if I log into my overdrive.com account and "add libraries" to my overdrive account, my overdrive account doesn't store my library card numbers and passwords.

[Cootey]

The magic of multi-library borrowing is Overdrive's Libby app, not Overdrive's website. It's not intuitively explained anywhere. I borrow from three libraries, and they all download onto my Kobo Aura One because they are all linked to my Libby app.

Download Libby > https://meet.libbyapp.com/
Set up your account and link to Overdrive.
Add libraries in Libby.
On your Kobo, make sure you are signed into Overdrive using your Overdrive account, not a library account.
Borrow books through Libby.
Sync your Kobo.
Tada!

One of your libraries will be the main library. This library will be the only one that your Kobo can interact with as far as renewing, returning, and borrowing from the Kobo store. I get around this by using Libby to manage all my books across the three libraries.

Does that help?

[droopy]

Originally Posted by Cootey

1. Download Libby > https://meet.libbyapp.com/
2. Set up your account and link to Overdrive.
3. Add libraries in Libby.

Hi Cootey,
Thanks for your response.
I've done step 1 and step 3. But what do you mean in step 2? What account? Which device -- the smartphone or the Kobo?

Assuming Step 2 refers to the Libby app, I'm afraid I don't see a way to link Libby to my overdrive.com account. I can add libraries (and libary cards), but can't find a place to even enter my overdrive.com email address and password.

[Vintage Season]

Originally Posted by droopy

Assuming Step 2 refers to the Libby app, I'm afraid I don't see a way to link Libby to my overdrive.com account. I can add libraries (and libary cards), but can't find a place to even enter my overdrive.com email address and password.

I stumbled on a possible clarification this evening, while trying to determine why my own Kobo Aura One LE would sync to multiple libraries just fine, while the Kobo Aura One I'd gifted my daughter would not. According to the "Recent updates" link in the upper-right corner of my library OverDrive pages:

August 19, 2019

The sign-in page has been refreshed with new graphics and a simplified library selector for consortia.

The Facebook and OverDrive account sign-in options have been removed. Instead, all users will need to sign in with a library card.

Note: If you used Facebook or an OverDrive account, you can still access your loans, holds, and other activity by signing in with your library card.

Since I'd previously had an OverDrive account synced to multiple library cards, my new device simply reflected the current state of the OD. Her own OverDrive account was created after August 19, by which point the login page for each of our libraries had already changed.

This underscores the need for a simple way to add multiple library cards to a single OverDrive account.

[droopy]

Hi "Vintage Season",

Thanks for your informative reply.

Guess I could give up now on finding a solution to my OP.

[MGlitch]

Libby is just another front end to overdrive.

The Libby app used to have an overdrive sign in apparently it no longer does. However this seems to be irrelevant for the purposes of this thread.

Step by step process

1) set up an account with overdrive DO NOT login with your library card you MUST create an account (I’m not even sure you can login with your library card but I’ve seen enough to make me suspect you can this WILL NOT WORK for what this thread is trying to do). If you have previously signed in using a card that doesn’t matter just make an account.

Please don’t ask questions about this I have no answers other than this is how it works. I’m not affiliated with Rakuten, Overdrive, nor the team from Overdrive who made Libby.

2) sign in to overdrive the app or website is fine either one but you must use the account you just made. (I shouldn’t need to say this but a nagging voice in my head is telling me to, since the overdrive sign in has seemingly been removed from Libby you will need to use the overdrive app which is still available and does receive updates. I refer you to my statement above if you have questions on why this is)

3) now that you are signed in, add your library cards. However many you have. Go hog wild.


I will state here that to the best of my knowledge the following two steps are optional but they will make the end experience better by far. You are free to skip them if you want but know that the overdrive apps layout for searching for books and determining the library you’re using sucks compared to Libby. This isn’t subjective, the layout and results are objectively worse. And while you should be fine skipping it your experience will suffer for it and you’ll have to navigate it on your own because I will not try and understand how any one could have thought this was a good UI. It physically hurts my brain. I hope I have been sufficiently clear here.

4) download the Libby app.

5) if upon opening the Libby app it truly has no option anywhere to login to overdrive then just follow the on screen prompts to add your library.

Once done with the first one it may or may not prompt you to add another my hunch is it won’t because reasons. If it does then just follow the on screen prompts. If it does not, then tap the little head icon in the top right (I hope to the gods old and new that the UI is consistent between iOS which I’m using and android but Libby seems to have been designed by a UI/UX graduate rather than a kid who took a UI/UX class and had to hand in something for a final grade coughOverdrivecough). You should see an option to add a library, add all of them. Yes even if you added them to overdrive.

Questions on why Libby doesn’t just have an overdrive login are pointless. I don’t know. My guess is because someone who made the overdrive app got a look at Libby and realized they’d be out of a job if you could do everything in Libby and they somehow had the pull to get the login option pulled.

Okay all done adding library cards a second time? Great!

6) Now here’s the easy part. On any Kobo device which supports overdrive go to the home screen. Tap the three horizontal lines in the top left to bring up the menu go to settings then Overdrive

IMPORTANT

The default option is to sign in with a library card. This is NOT what you want to do. At this point you don’t need any library card information. The screen will initially make you think otherwise. It’s misleading you.

Ok you should see an option saying sign in to overdrive. This will pull up a list of near by libraries as long as one of them is one you have a card for you’re 100% good pick that library. If none of them are just use the search option to find one, preferably the one with the biggest collection (I will explain why in a bit)

Select the library you have a card for keeping in mind the above.

Do not enter card information

Under the sign in button there is an ‘or’ then sign in with overdrive. This is the option you want. Tap it. Now login with your overdrive account.

Congratulations if you have successful gotten to this point you are good to go.

If you heeded my advice and set up Libby you can use that to borrow books from any of the libraries you have. Go ahead test it out grab a book from each one of you want. If you decided to skip Libby then may the gods old and new watch over you as you navigate the overdrive app cause I’m not going to.

Now on your Kobo hit the sync button. Any books you borrowed should download regardless of the library you’d selected in this guide.

As to why you should have picked the one with the biggest collection. I’m going to presume you might wanna to use this feature entirely on your Kobo as was intended. At the time I’m writing this there’s no way to switch the library you’d selected without having to sign out and back in again. And the on device search via overdrive will (I believe) only use the selected library. Please note that as stated above any ebook borrowed using Libby should sync to your kobo so this is more of an annoyance rather than a feature breaking issue

That nagging voice is telling me I should specify compatible ebook. In Libby you have the option to get kindle books. If your library has them Libby will assume you are smart and let you borrow them. However Libby is also smart enough to allow you to exclude these books.

But this isn’t a guide on how to use Libby. Please simply navigate through its options look at things push buttons. You won’t break anything without trying.

If you were not able to get to this point in the guide due to overdrive not working with your card, your library not supporting overdrive, you not knowing how to add your card to overdrive I’m sorry. The good news is contacting the library(ies) in question is the solution to all of those to one degree or another. If there was something else that prevented you from achieving this goal please feel free to ask questions. I may or may not have the answers my answer might be that you need to ask ‘insert name here’. I am by no means familiar with how every or even most of the libraries in the countries that support overdrive work. Heck I can’t speak the language of some possibly most of them. The above is just how I got multiple libraries working on my kobo Aura one, my Forma, and the same KA1 but with an aunts library cards when she inherited it.

And just because I feel it needs repeating I don’t know how the behind the screen stuff of overdrive and Libby work. I don’t know how Libby can sync to your overdrive account without logging in to it. I assume it cross references your card. But that’s a random guess. Please don’t ask me to explain why or how any of the above is needed. I’ve done as much explaining as I can.

I’m sorry for the rambling and the snark, it’s 2am and it’s been a long day.

[stumped]

I tried to figure it all out one time, and tried asking overdrive/libby help also
but I concluded that their baffling system is one of the best examples of why people pirate everything instead - it's so much easier !

libby, on android, with just one linked library is quite slick though, and i reckon I must have signed in with overdrive before they removed that option? ( as my own crib notes say that's what I did ). I don't do the kobo direct thing though, just read on android tablets. I have it on 2 tablets and it syncs between them

[droopy]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

3) now that you are signed in, add your library cards. However many you have. Go hog wild.

I'm stuck on the third step.
In the Overdrive app (android) I can add libraries. But I'm afraid I can't see where to add library cards (library card numbers).

UPDATE: After adding the libraries. I tapped on each added library I added, and it took me to the app-version (mobile version) of libraryName.overdrive.com. I then signed in there. I'm guessing this is what your instruction to add library cards means.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by droopy

I'm stuck on the third step.
In the Overdrive app (android) I can add libraries. But I'm afraid I can't see where to add library cards (library card numbers).

Adding libraries is how you add your card.

So if you login to those libraries you should automatically have tied the card to overdrive the same is going to be true of Libby

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by stumped

I tried to figure it all out one time, and tried asking overdrive/libby help also
but I concluded that their baffling system is one of the best examples of why people pirate everything instead - it's so much easier !

libby, on android, with just one linked library is quite slick though, and i reckon I must have signed in with overdrive before they removed that option? ( as my own crib notes say that's what I did ). I don't do the kobo direct thing though, just read on android tablets. I have it on 2 tablets and it syncs between them

Honestly they should just add whatever functionality is in overdrive that’s missing from Libby to Libby and drop the overdrive app. Right now they’re developing for two apps which ultimately serve the same purpose for most people. I think the overdrive app is maintained for devices which don’t support the protocols used in Libby but this is speculation. All I can say is as an outsider looking in this seems like a waste of resources on a not small scale since it’s development of the two apps and a support team for them which likely gets a lot of confused people asking them questions that shouldn’t need to exist.

[droopy]

I did steps 1 through 6 .

For step 5, my Libby app, as you correctly anticipated, did not have anywhere to sign in to an overdrive account. So I just added 2 library cards and my card numbers for them.

For step 6, one library did not have the "Or sign into your Overdrive account", so I searched for the smaller library and, happily, I saw the "Sign into your Overdrive account" text/button/link, which I clicked. I then typed in my Overdrive email address and password, and I successfully logged in.

I then went to the Libby app on my phone to borrow currently available books from both libraries. The books downloaded onto Libby on my smartphone. But when I then pressed the sync button on my Kobo Forma, neither book was downloaded.

[MGlitch]

I can only assume the one library doesn’t support overdrive or something and the book you borrowed was from that library.

At this point I’m afraid you’re in the disclaimer I made about not knowing everything about every library in countries that support overdrive. I would suggest contacting either that library (preferably in person since doing tech stuff over the phone is not fantastic) or Kobo though I will also say Kobo customer support will not know everything about every library, it’d also be unfair to expect them to.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Honestly they should just add whatever functionality is in overdrive that’s missing from Libby to Libby and drop the overdrive app. Right now they’re developing for two apps which ultimately serve the same purpose for most people. I think the overdrive app is maintained for devices which don’t support the protocols used in Libby but this is speculation.....

i think libby was intended to be an easy to use replacement for Overdrive. Overdrive has more features, though honestly i cant remember what they are so I guess they are not that great
One difference could be that libby is a mobile-only app- there is no PC version

[4691mls]

You can't get a library book synced onto your Kobo unless there is a Kobo store version of it available. Usually there is, but occasionally you may run into a book where there isn't a Kobo store version, and then you will have to download the epub onto your computer, hook up your Kobo to the computer, and sideload it with ADE. This has happened to me a few times.

[Vintage Season]

Given the amount of frustration this subject has caused, I revisited it is afternoon… and somewhat to my surprise, actually got it working (at least for my daughter's Kobo Aura One; YMMV with a Forma, since I've never seen one of those to test).

We stumbled upon this approach because my daughter had been using the OverDrive app for years, but had originally used a card login for each library, and only created an OverDrive account two weeks ago. Below are the semi-simplified steps we took, some of which are likely unnecessary, although they were retained simply because the success was repeatable when using them. I'll apologize in advance if any of this is too redundant given all the discourse above, and for the fact that these steps entirely ignore the existence of a Libby app, since neither my daughter nor I use it.

1) Nuke your OverDrive account, from within the Overdrive app. This entails signing out of each library you might already have added, then deleting each library from the stored list, then clicking on the "Manage account" button from within the "Account" menu item and checking the "Libraries" tab to ensure no libraries remain.

2) Remove the Overdrive app from your device.

(If you had the OverDrive app on multiple devices, you might wish to repeat the nuke/delete for each one. We did, to be safe.)

2) Sign out of OverDrive on your Kobo.

3) Add the OverDrive app back to one of your devices, and log in with your OverDrive account.

4) After you have logged in with your OverDrive account, add your library cards to the OverDrive app.

5) Select one of your libraries, and sign in to your Kobo with your OverDrive account. Even when prompted, do not yet add a card number! "Maybe later" means you'll do it later.

6) From within the OverDrive app on your selected device, check out an ebook using the same library you selected on your Kobo.

7) Sync your Kobo. Nothing should happen… yet.

8) Go back into your OverDrive settings on the Kobo, and add the card number and PIN for the appropriate library.

9) Sync your Kobo again. The book you checked out will be added to your Kobo… which is the expected behavior, since it's from the library you selected for the Overdrive login.

10) Repeat steps 2–9 for each additional library from you wish to read.

11) Pick whichever library you'd wish to browse from the device, as your final (re-)login to OverDrive on the Kobo.

12) Check out additional books from each library via the OverDrive app, to ensure each is still working…

… which is probably an awful lot of work, but since my daughter can now synchronize books across five different libraries on her Kobo, it was worth it for us.