Aura H2O 2 FNAC affiliation reset on newer firmware (4.23.15548, maybe before)

[PeterT]

I believe that you get the FNAC affiliate if you purchased the device through FNAC. It's got nothing to do with the account you register with.

I was thinking of suggesting setting the affiliate.conf to read-only but I see earlier in this thread that was suggested.

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It seems that if you have a Kobo account through FNAC, the only way to fix it is to log out (reset the database) and create a Kobo account through Kobo and use that account. The database will be reset and you will have to start over.

This does not appear to be the case. I've had a Kobo account for years that I have used across multiple devices, and yet if I sync my Clara, the affiliate gets reset to Walmart/Rakutan, so I'm guessing there is some unique identifier in the hardware that allows the Kobo servers to determine which retailer the device was shipped to, and it automatically updates the affiliate file accordingly. Why they might insist on doing this I have no idea.

[MustardOrMayo]

Originally Posted by the.Mtn.Man

I'm guessing there is some unique identifier in the hardware that allows the Kobo servers to determine which retailer the device was shipped to, and it automatically updates the affiliate file accordingly. Why they might insist on doing this I have no idea.

I suspect that it's the serial number that's being checked. I have 4 Kobo e-readers, and 3 are on the regular "kobo" affiliate (no affiliate), but one is an Aura that was purchased from Indigo Books, and thus has the "KoboIndigo" affiliate.

When I did a full factory reset (which on models with a dedicated light button, like the Glo and Aura, can be done by holding down the power and light buttons when powered off), the affiliate code got reset back to the former, and some time later, after setting it up and using it for a while, I inspected the "affiliate.conf" file and noticed that it had changed to the latter.

I believe that the reason why the affiliate code keeps resetting, is that some stores may get cuts from book sales, and on those models where there's a logo on the sleep screen, I hope Kobo provides an option to show the book cover on the screensaver like with the non-affiliated ones, as that's a feature I really like.

I believe the logo sleep screen people are referring to, looks just like the plain screensaver that shows when "Show current read" is unchecked, but has a logo in the middle.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by MustardOrMayo

I suspect that it's the serial number that's being checked. I have 4 Kobo e-readers, and 3 are on the regular "kobo" affiliate (no affiliate), but one is an Aura that was purchased from Indigo Books, and thus has the "KoboIndigo" affiliate.

When I did a full factory reset (which on models with a dedicated light button, like the Glo and Aura, can be done by holding down the power and light buttons when powered off), the affiliate code got reset back to the former, and some time later, after setting it up and using it for a while, I inspected the "affiliate.conf" file and noticed that it had changed to the latter.

I believe that the reason why the affiliate code keeps resetting, is that some stores may get cuts from book sales, and on those models where there's a logo on the sleep screen, I hope Kobo provides an option to show the book cover on the screensaver like with the non-affiliated ones, as that's a feature I really like.

I believe the logo sleep screen people are referring to, looks just like the plain screensaver that shows when "Show current read" is unchecked, but has a logo in the middle.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

The sleep screen on my Clara bought from Walmart says "Walmart eBooks". Underneath this in smaller print it says "by Rakuten kobo". There is an option to show the current book cover instead.

I haven't ever attempted to change the affiliation.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by MustardOrMayo

I suspect that it's the serial number that's being checked. I have 4 Kobo e-readers, and 3 are on the regular "kobo" affiliate (no affiliate), but one is an Aura that was purchased from Indigo Books, and thus has the "KoboIndigo" affiliate.

When I did a full factory reset (which on models with a dedicated light button, like the Glo and Aura, can be done by holding down the power and light buttons when powered off), the affiliate code got reset back to the former, and some time later, after setting it up and using it for a while, I inspected the "affiliate.conf" file and noticed that it had changed to the latter.

I believe that the reason why the affiliate code keeps resetting, is that some stores may get cuts from book sales, and on those models where there's a logo on the sleep screen, I hope Kobo provides an option to show the book cover on the screensaver like with the non-affiliated ones, as that's a feature I really like.

I believe the logo sleep screen people are referring to, looks just like the plain screensaver that shows when "Show current read" is unchecked, but has a logo in the middle.

That is what they are talking about. But, for the FNAC affiliate, some of the screen saver options are missing. You cannot change them to display the cover.

And yes, the affiliate can give the store a share of any books bought from Kobo. But, that is confused by where they are bought from. As I stated above, my devices have several different affiliates and they seem to be based on when I bought them as much as were. And at least one of those doesn't exist. But, as I almost never buy books while using the device, which of those affiliates should get the money?

Affiliates also can have a say in firmware updates. They can say whether an update is made available to devices using their affiliate. I don't know if any other than the Rakuten affiliate does this. But, I'm sure some have asked to get the update at the end of the roll-out.

[Rojofo]

Davidfor indicates that some of the screen saver options are missing in the Fnac affiliate firmware.

Is there any way of getting a firmware that does have this menu and installing it on my Fnac bought Kobo ?

Thanks in advance.
Rojofo.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Rojofo

Davidfor indicates that some of the screen saver options are missing in the Fnac affiliate firmware.

Is there any way of getting a firmware that does have this menu and installing it on my Fnac bought Kobo ?

Kobo uses the same firmware on all their devices everywhere. Some function is controlled by the affiliate. If you change the affiliate to something other than FNAC, these options should appear until you should see these options until the affiliate reverts to FNAC. Which is what the thread is about.

Based on what has been said, you would need to go to an older firmware that doesn't replace the affiliate. And I have no idea which that would be.

[Rojofo]

Thank you for this reply, Davidfor.

So there seems to be "something" in the Fnac Kobo that will override any other firmware that I install.

I was thinking of setting up an account with another bookselling Kobo supplier (maybe Smiths in the UK) and, after doing a factory reset, attempt to set the Kobo to that account.


However that would also be useless if the "something" that takes me back to the Fnac is not eliminated by a factory reset and a new account...

An older firmware would solve this problem, I'm sure. But, unfortunately, I would then lose the custom dictionary access provided by recent firmwares and which is somethîng that I need and appreciate very much.


Any suggestions would be welcome! I do want to have my bookcovers back on the sleep page!

[JSWolf]

Is it possible to log in directly to Kobo is you have a FNAC account?

[Rojofo]

Thank you, JSWolf, for this suggestion. This is what I tried to do, as I explained above, after a factory reset. It doesn't work. "Something" brings back the Fnac logo.

[NiLuJe]

Well, then, I'll consider myself lucky that my two FNAC-bought devices are happily sticking to the (manually set) "kobo" affiliate, then. They've never seen hide nor hair of a Kobo via FNAC account, though, they're both on the same pure Kobo one.

(But, yeah, if I factory reset them, I'd expect them to go back to the fnac affiliate).

----

EDIT: @JSWolf: Yes, which is what I meant by my "Kobo via FNAC" comment. c.f., the Kobo log-in page from a French IP.

[Rojofo]

Amusingly, in my attempt to flee the Fnac Logo, I set up an account with Walmart. On success, the Kobo asked me to agree to the Walmart conditions and also to the Fnac conditions !

I had not mentioned Fnac in the setting up process.

Of course, I got the Fnac logo on sleep!
The affiliation was to Fnac. I changed this manually to Walmart and got the bookcover on sleeping.
I did a synchronization and the new settings menu included "show book cover". So I assume this is the Walmart firmware and not Fnac.

I don't know how stable this is. However it may be a solution for those who have the Fnac logo problem and who wish to have the book cover instead.
I will come back and give more information if the Walmart solution proves unstable and I end up with the Fnac logo again!

Until then, I hope this will be useful to other users!

[davidfor]

I have discussed this issue with Kobo with following results:

• There were some changes made a while ago in how affiliates were checked and updated.
• There is a bug in the firmware related to when you signed in and the affiliate not updating. This will be fixed in the next release.
• There is also a bug in the desktop application if you tried that. Again, it will be fixed in the next release.
• The problem affects all affiliates and FNAC is not handled differently in how it is checked.
• If syncing by WiFi, the affiliate is checked every seven days. If you manually make a change, it could last up to a week.
• When the affiliate is checked, is stored in the config file. It is in the "ApplicationPreferences" section with the key "LastAffiliateSyncTime". Setting it to a future date appears to work to prevent the check and it being changed back. The following is about 10 years into the future:
  

  LastAffiliateSyncTime=@Variant(\0\0\0\x10\0%\x94h\x3!>i\x2)

  Putting that in the config file should block the check for a while.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I have discussed this issue with Kobo with following results:

• When the affiliate is checked, is stored in the config file. It is in the "ApplicationPreferences" section with the key "LastAffiliateSyncTime". Setting it to a future date appears to work to prevent the check and it being changed back. The following is about 10 years into the future:
  

  LastAffiliateSyncTime=@Variant(\0\0\0\x10\0%\x94h\x3!>i\x2)

  Putting that in the config file should block the check for a while.

Based on this, it seems like it would be fine if I made a patch to remove the branded lock screens. Is this correct?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Based on this, it seems like it would be fine if I made a patch to remove the branded lock screens. Is this correct?

I suppose so. It would mean that the correct affiliate was there for whatever else it is used for. That is probably better for the affiliate than changing it to something completely different.