My Kobo library screen

[PeterT]

Isn't there also the possibility that a book is in ePub3 format, and then the option to download the ACSM file for use by ADE is disabled?

[davidfor]

There have been lots of comments about books missing in the library. But, have they disappeared from the devices? Or the apps or desktop applications. As far as I can tell, I haven't lost anything anywhere. The new list says 338 books plus 14 previews, the device also says 338 books (none show as not downloaded) and 16 previews. But, there only 9 previews on the device.

The old list doesn't help. That says I have 351 books in "I'm reading". These will include previews. And 312 books in "Purchased". Other than the previews, I'm not sure what the differences are. But, I can see at least one book in the "I'm reading" list that is not in the "Purchased" which is no longer sold by Kobo and that I think was a freebie. That would account for some. Looking at a few more, I think Kobo has changed how they handle freebies. Some of the older appear to be in the purchased lists, but the newer ones aren't. My guess is that at one time they treated them as a purchase, but now don't.

For the mismatch in previews, it seems to be a combination of books Kobo no longer sells and previews of books I have bought. The latter is confused a little more as in at least one case, I added the preview of one version of a book, but bought a different one. In this case, it seems to have been smart enough to remove the preview from the device, or maybe not download it to a new device, but not smart enough to remove it from my library.

From all this, I am reasonably confident I am not missing any books anywhere. But, I wasn't one of the people who came from Sony or elsewhere. For those who are missing books in the new library, are you missing them from the device or app?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Isn't there also the possibility that a book is in ePub3 format, and then the option to download the ACSM file for use by ADE is disabled?

I remember there were problems with ePub3's when they first started turning up. That was fixed, but I don't remember seeing any ePub3 with DRM. I know I have picked up some ePub3 books, but I have no idea now which ones they are, so it would be a pain to find them.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I remember there were problems with ePub3's when they first started turning up. That was fixed, but I don't remember seeing any ePub3 with DRM. I know I have picked up some ePub3 books, but I have no idea now which ones they are, so it would be a pain to find them.

I only have a couple of EPUB 3 books, both with and without DRM, but all are available for download. I still use ADE 1.7.3 and it has no problem downloading DRM EPUB 3 books.

[JSWolf]

I took a look at the old library vs. the new library and in the old library, I do have books not in the new library. These seem be be some books that were transferred over from Sony that Kobo no longer sells or is no longer the same version. I have no idea what's what with that. When I go to the new library, I have more books minus those that are no longer for sale (for whatever reason).

[mathil]

I can download the (only) EPUB3 book I own with no problems. The only books I cannot download with ADE from my library are the so-called FLEPUBs, which according to the Kobo support center are only available with the Android/Apple/WPhone apps.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There have been lots of comments about books missing in the library. But, have they disappeared from the devices? Or the apps or desktop applications.

I keep track in calibre how many books I have from Kobo, and the number in the old library on the website matches that (I don't have any previews). When I first discovered the new library, there were about 100 fewer books. I dug out my list of Sony transfers and added back the ones I could from their product pages. Some of them were already there. After that, the difference was about 20 books. I didn't look at anything for a couple days, and the difference is now down to 7 books. I'm not really sure if they are also missing from any of the devices/apps because I'm still trying to figuring out which books they are. Eventually, I expect the old library will disappear, and anything still missing will be gone from my Kobo cloud library. Not a big deal since there aren't many and I have backups anyway.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

Then it redownloaded the vaporware copies with no extension that you had to read in the Kobo Desktop.

Vaporware?? That word doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. They are just epubs with some extra Kobo tags. If they are DRM-free, you can read them with any epub reader and it will just ignore the Kobo stuff. They don't have file extensions because they're buried in a hidden folder, and nothing but the Kobo app is expected to access them. If you really want the kepubs, you can retrieve them with Obok. Otherwise, if you want the regular epubs, you can get them from the website.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

You can decrypt books directly from a Kobo device with the Obok plugin.

(Incidentally, I've decided Alpha o is living in a parallel universe that is very different from mine. No point in trying to help from here because it doesn't seem to apply over there. )

I hadn't tried that in quite a while so will give it a try again.

He does seem to be living in a universe with very little congruence to the one the rest of us are living in.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by mathil

I can download the (only) EPUB3 book I own with no problems. The only books I cannot download with ADE from my library are the so-called FLEPUBs, which according to the Kobo support center are only available with the Android/Apple/WPhone apps.

Fixed Layout (FLO) ePubs are a PITA. Neither of the renderers on the Kobo eInk devices handles them very well. Very few of the apps I've tried on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android do an acceptable job of rendering them.

Personally, if I want fixed layout, I'd go for PDF.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Isn't there also the possibility that a book is in ePub3 format, and then the option to download the ACSM file for use by ADE is disabled?

I've purchased 5 ePUB3 ebooks from Kobo and the download option was there except for one that was fixed layout.

[lkmiller]

Is fixed layout what they use for emagazines? I was considering getting a subscription to Asimov's from Kobo but didn't want to be stuck reading with the Android app.

[BrodieKobo]

Hi all,

i just wanted to post our official response on the library issue on this thread as I promised I would try to keep the group updated. See below:

“We continually make enhancements to Kobo’s eReading service to offer our customers the best possible reading experience—we pride ourselves on our open platform to ensure passionate readers have access to all their books on wide variety of eReaders and other popular devices. As part of an update to the management section of Kobo libraries online, we encountered a bug that affected a small percentage of customers, where select books were not visible for a short period of time. The books were never removed from these customers’ accounts, and were always available on E-Ink eReaders and reading apps they may have been using. This issue has now been resolved and all books should now properly appear in affected customers’ libraries.”

That said the above doesn't officially answer all of the issues we've seen. Rest assured we are aiming to solve all concerns with missing books and won't stop until all books are visible in the "my library" screen. We're going to be fixing the page to make it simpler to find and restore "deleted books" from your account, and also find the download button (which is currently called "export file" under the "..." sub-menu). We remain committed to openness as a platform and fully support downloading of ePub content.

In the meantime, if you want to re-add a purchased book that has been deleted, please use the following options:

1) visit this page: https://www.kobobooks.com/library/library.html, and visit the trash to recover your deleted book
2) visit the purchase history tab from the my account drop down, and click on the link for the purchased book. That will take you to the item page where you can click "add to library".

Note: If your purchased book is no longer in the trash because you've completely removed it, it is still recoverable from the books item page. However, if you get an error message when trying to visit the page or a message to buy the book, please call the call centre and we'll re-add it to your library. We're working on a fix so you will never have to worry about this again, but it will take some time so we really appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you to everyone who has posted in this thread and been a help voicing your concerns. Rest assured that we are taking this update very seriously and are working around the clock to get right. We're very proud of our work and so do not take bugs lightly, especially our precious books, so appreciate everyone's patience as we sort out what went wrong. We hope out of this update will be a better tool for our customers to manage their libraries seamlessly on the web and apps/ereaders.

If you have any immediate concerns, please don't hesitate to PM me and I'll do my best to response as quickly as possible. I will continue to post updates as they come in on this matter in this thread.

Brodie

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by BrodieKobo

Hi all,

i just wanted to post our official response on the library issue on this thread as I promised I would try to keep the group updated. See below:

“We continually make enhancements to Kobo’s eReading service to offer our customers the best possible reading experience—we pride ourselves on our open platform to ensure passionate readers have access to all their books on wide variety of eReaders and other popular devices. As part of an update to the management section of Kobo libraries online, we encountered a bug that affected a small percentage of customers, where select books were not visible for a short period of time. The books were never removed from these customers’ accounts, and were always available on E-Ink eReaders and reading apps they may have been using. This issue has now been resolved and all books should now properly appear in affected customers’ libraries.”

That said the above doesn't officially answer all of the issues we've seen. Rest assured we are aiming to solve all concerns with missing books and won't stop until all books are visible in the "my library" screen. We're going to be fixing the page to make it simpler to find and restore "deleted books" from your account, and also find the download button (which is currently called "export file" under the "..." sub-menu). We remain committed to openness as a platform and fully support downloading of ePub content.

In the meantime, if you want to re-add a purchased book that has been deleted, please use the following options:

1) visit this page: https://www.kobobooks.com/library/library.html, and visit the trash to recover your deleted book
2) visit the purchase history tab from the my account drop down, and click on the link for the purchased book. That will take you to the item page where you can click "add to library".

Note: If your purchased book is no longer in the trash because you've completely removed it, it is still recoverable from the books item page. However, if you get an error message when trying to visit the page or a message to buy the book, please call the call centre and we'll re-add it to your library. We're working on a fix so you will never have to worry about this again, but it will take some time so we really appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you to everyone who has posted in this thread and been a help voicing your concerns. Rest assured that we are taking this update very seriously and are working around the clock to get right. We're very proud of our work and so do not take bugs lightly, especially our precious books, so appreciate everyone's patience as we sort out what went wrong. We hope out of this update will be a better tool for our customers to manage their libraries seamlessly on the web and apps/ereaders.

If you have any immediate concerns, please don't hesitate to PM me and I'll do my best to response as quickly as possible. I will continue to post updates as they come in on this matter in this thread.

Brodie

When will the sorting problem be fixed? The library page is basically useless to me without being able to sort.

Edit: The incorrect date added is also a problem. When will that be fixed and when will you fix the ability to see all the columns on the web page?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by BrodieKobo

We hope out of this update will be a better tool for our customers to manage their libraries seamlessly on the web and apps/ereaders.

I think if you can get the sorting fixed (& search as some have reported the results not showing everything it should) you'll have a very good library page. It does stink that the date added for some books is now messed up, but I'm not sure how fixable that is/isn't.