B&N removed download option on all books in "My Nook" library

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Yes, now sign out from Kobo Desktop using the drop down menu in the right corner.

I never noticed that. I think I won't.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by SteveK

Blossom - Unfortunately, they already do (or did) require you to be online to read books through their apps. It has been quite some time since I used Nook for Android, but I remember at one point you had to be online at least when you opened the book That's one of the reasons I stopped using them. Another reason is being unable to avoid hyphenated words, sometimes even at the end of a page.

I don't know if they still require online access to open a book, but they did for a while. I'm sure they received complaints from people unable to access their books, and perhaps they've removed this requirement by now. But it certainly wouldn't surprise me if they reactivate this "feature".

SteveK

I remember that behavior, but it doesn't look to be the case at the moment. I have my network turned off and I can open the NOOK app and read books that are already downloaded.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by SteveK

It has been quite some time since I used Nook for Android, but I remember at one point you had to be online at least when you opened the book

I just checked and it nags about not being online when I open the app but if I dismiss the nag it will open even DRM'ed books just fine. It also nags when I close the book and go back to the library. Annoying but not crippling.

I'm not running the latest app, though; 3.4.1.20.

I don't intend to ever upgrade, nag or no nag.

[robko]

Originally Posted by Fbone

On the confirmation screen Kobo warns me that the books will be deleted. I didn't believe them. Now I do.

Whatever you do, don't sign out from your Kobo account.

The key thing here is that you SIGNED OUT. If you just close the desktop it doesn't delete your books, but signing out always has deleted the books off your computer (since the original non-wifi Kobo).

If you sign out, it assumes you want to use a different account so it removes everything associated with the current account.

[robko]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The Kobo Desktop program simply doesn't deal with anything OTHER than the kepub format these days.

It actually has NEVER dealt with anything other than kepubs. Some people have complained about that since it first existed because the wanted to be able to use it for their kepub and epubs.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by robko

The key thing here is that you SIGNED OUT. If you just close the desktop it doesn't delete your books, but signing out always has deleted the books off your computer (since the original non-wifi Kobo).

If you sign out, it assumes you want to use a different account so it removes everything associated with the current account.

Thank you. This is my first install of Kobo Desktop in order to deal with a kepub. I think Kobo could have handled multiple accounts without deleting.

I have multiple Kobo accounts (to purchase gift cards and when I travel) so I needed to sign off and use a different one.

Frankly, all this was only worth it because the kepubs were free.

[robko]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Thank you. This is my first install of Kobo Desktop in order to deal with a kepub. I think Kobo could have handled multiple accounts without deleting.

I have multiple Kobo accounts (to purchase gift cards and when I travel) so I needed to sign off and use a different one.

Frankly, all this was only worth it because the kepubs were free.

Out of curiousity how do other companies (Kindle/Nook/Sony) handle this? Do they allow multiple accounts at the same time? You are right though, in theory it shouldn't be that hard to have 2 or more different sets of data in the background and allow you to pick the one you want.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Yes, now sign out from Kobo Desktop using the drop down menu in the right corner.

Well you didn't mention that. You said the program deletes all your books whenever you close it.

Frankly, the only time I use the Kobo desktop program these days is when I get stuck with a kepub-only purchase by accident. And it immediately gets cleaned/archived, so I don't really need the original hanging around anyway.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by Marcy

I chatted support and said I don't have wi-fi so I no longer can access my books. Not really true as I do have wi-fi and already have them all alfed, but still there have to be people in that situation. Their solution was for me to drive to a B&N store whenever I want to add a book to my nook and use their wi-fi.

Wow, that's astoundingly stupid.

Notwithstanding that no matter where you live, McDonalds is bound to have wifi and be closer than a B&N.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I wonder how many people who buy at B&N don't own a Nook? Those people won't be buying at B&N anymore if it's made difficult for them. I wouldn't think they can afford to lose any customers even if it's not a large number.

I do own a nook but it's a 1st gen and I deregistered it and sideloaded some kids' books on it for my kids to read, as I have newer and IMO better devices.

I do sometimes read nook books on the apps--on my phone, iPad mini, or laptop--but those aren't my preferred reading devices, so my use of them has been fairly slim since I bought my first kindle.

I got over $130 ebook settlement credits from B&N from the lawsuit. I've spent that down, significantly, and been downloading the books and converting them to mobi to read on my kindle.

I'm going to request a check for the next settlement. Even though I adore the idea of having money specifically dedicated to book purchases, I don't want it spent in B&N this time.

I'll probably continue to use their B&M store since it's the only full-service bookstore within a 20 minute drive. But as for nook, I'm done. And that's a shame. I've wanted to see B&N succeed as a large competitor to Amazon (which is necessary for the good of the overall market), and an innovative one at that--they were first with decent-ish pdf flow, user-to-user ebook lending, a frontlit ereader. But overall I've still had much better experience with Kindle (who were right behind B&N in adopting these innovations, and improving on them)

[Joykins]

(In the meantime: downloading my B&N library using the Tampermonkey script took about an hour. 3 files didn't download because of what appears to me to be some sort of file corruption issue that I can't troubleshoot myself. Since neither method is supported, I'll have to complain about not being able to download those files to my phone app.)

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by robko

Out of curiousity how do other companies (Kindle/Nook/Sony) handle this? Do they allow multiple accounts at the same time? You are right though, in theory it shouldn't be that hard to have 2 or more different sets of data in the background and allow you to pick the one you want.

I don't know how Amazon or Sony handles it as I only ever needed one account. I never had to use Nook for PC because of their direct download link.

Since Kobo puts our books in a proprietary format in a SQlite database, I never expected them to actually delete them from the hard drive. I thought the confirmation screen was just to notify you the books wouldn't be available on screen to read. We can have multiple email accounts using the same program.

In the end, it's just another way to have customers use a retailers app or device for the sake of convenience. Any variance creates hours of work and much frustration all to just read a book.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Well you didn't mention that. You said the program deletes all your books whenever you close it.

Frankly, the only time I use the Kobo desktop program these days is when I get stuck with a kepub-only purchase by accident. And it immediately gets cleaned/archived, so I don't really need the original hanging around anyway.

Sorry, out of habit I sign off when I finish using a program or website. I pretend it is more secure.

In Kobo's case I didn't have a choice and had to sign off and switch accounts. I thought the deletion was just immediate on screen access not off the hard drive. Kobo warns that the books will be removed from my "Kobo Desktop" not my computer. Still, to keep re-downloading all the dictionaries? Kobo sent me over 1.2GB of data so I can read one 1.4MB book.

[koland]

Originally Posted by ssholloway

NOOK for Mac works on my mid-2013 MacAir under Mavericks rev. 10.9.4, which is the last update prior to the one that came out this week. If you are on an earlier version, see if updating will help.

And I am really bitter about Fictionwise, too. My B&N archive is full of Fictionwise books.

Humph!

At least you got your FW library transferred.

I tried dozens of times and never got the link needed to do the transfer and finally gave up. I _Think_ I got them all backed up (but would have liked EPUB versions of the ones that should have transferred).

[texasnightowl]

I had about 30 books in my B&N library that I had not already downloaded and moved to "Archive" status on the site. Most of them freebies anyway. Thankfully, the Tampermonkey script via Chrome worked great and they are all safely in Calibre now.

Done with B&N. They've closed 2 of the most convenient stores to me anyway and of the 2 remaining, 1 is an absolute bear to find parking and the other isn't much better.

In some ways I'm sad. I grew up always going into B. Dalton or Waldenbooks every time we went to the mall. Then there was Book Stop (may have been regional), Borders (none around me anymore), Books a Million (none around me anymore), and now, I'm not all that sure B&N has a long future.