Is there any way to update kobo books?

[rantanplan]

When I downloaded my Kindle library I had the option to update books to a later edition. Then I looked up a greasemonkey script that would tell me which of my Kobo books were outdated and had newer revisions. And it works like a charm. But how do I actually update my Kobo books to a later revision? Trying to google it only resulted in guides on how to update the kobo firmware 🤔🤔🤔

[ownedbycats]

Archive the book and then sideload it? I am not sure i understand.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Archive the book and then sideload it? I am not sure i understand.

They probably mean like you can update your Kindle books to a newer version if one exists. I don't know that Kobo has such an option.

[Rand Brittain]

Yeah, it's kind of annoying. A lot of Terry Pratchett books have gotten updates but I don't seem to have a way to get them without buying them again on a separate account.

[PeterT]

You could try getting in touch with customer support. By the way, how can you tell there is a new version?

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Rand Brittain

Yeah, it's kind of annoying. A lot of Terry Pratchett books have gotten updates but I don't seem to have a way to get them without buying them again on a separate account.

What changes have been made to his books?

I have veruy occasionally updated books in my Kobo Library with the assistance of a CSR, it's not something that I see in my library very often.

[Aleron Ives]

Kobo often doesn't treat updates as the same book. You may buy a book listed under book-title-1, but the update will be listed under book-title-2, which is considered a separate book. As such, you would have to buy it again. It's pretty annoying, as leaving reviews on the Kobo store is pretty pointless. As soon as the publisher decides to update the cover image, Kobo is likely to treat the update as a new book, and all the reviews get wiped out.

[Rugbyfan1986]

Originally Posted by PeterT

You could try getting in touch with customer support. By the way, how can you tell there is a new version?

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

If you go into your kobo library on the website, and select a book, it will either show that you have the book, offer you the option to buy it, or say something to the effect of "this book is no longer available".


I am currently going through my list of books so that I can let kobo know which ones I own, but they have removed the flag saying I own them, as I currently when looking to buy a book have to check I do not already own it.

I am currently doing this myself starting from the date I first purchased a book back in 2012, to the current day. I have approx 4500 books, and of the 420 I have checked so far 224 are not showing as purchased (some possibly because the book has an updated version).

This will turn into a labour of love for me, and a headache for kobo cs when I email them the word document I am saving the evidence on.

[Aleron Ives]

What is your goal with this project? You can still download the book you purchased, even if it no longer has a page on the Kobo store. Kobo didn't "remove the flag" saying you own it. A new version of the book got released, and Kobo counts it as a new book, so you don't own that one. You only own the old version that no longer has a page on the store. It seems unlikely that Kobo CS is going to add all the updated editions to your library, when you still have access to the old editions that you bought.

[Quoth]

AFAIK only Smashwords AUTOMATICALLY gives you access to a later version on their store library of what you bought. In fact unlike when Amazon sometimes updates an ebook, you have access to all the versions from the version you bought, onwards.

It's a pain for Publishers to get Amazon agree to update existing purchasers. You have to convince them there was a bad quality issue (format, typos, missing paragraph etc) and the new version doesn't change anything.

I've had 3 versions / updates of Raymond E. Fiest's Magician from the one Amazon purchase and I didn't notice anything wrong with the first one. All were the same as the later paper version. I have that and the original edition too. So I don't fuss now about it.

[ownedbycats]

What I find weird is I have some books in library that outright changed title and I got the changes (looking in my books). What's difference?

[Aleron Ives]

It only counts as a new book if it gets a new URL in the store. Sometimes a new cover will cause the book to change from book-title-1 to book-title-2, in which case it's a "new" book. Other times the update happens in place, and then it counts as the "same" book. Kobo's system is a mess. Perhaps the publisher gets to decide if it's a "new" book or not.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

It only counts as a new book if it gets a new URL in the store. Sometimes a new cover will cause the book to change from book-title-1 to book-title-2, in which case it's a "new" book. Other times the update happens in place, and then it counts as the "same" book. Kobo's system is a mess. Perhaps the publisher gets to decide if it's a "new" book or not.

Yeah the book got a new URL but library still links to it. Maybe it's because it's Kobo+?

[DNSB]

At one time, I got an updated ebook from Amazon. I couldn't see any differences so I converted the old and new copies to text. There it was in chapter 16! The author had changed reined to reigned!