Aura Can't download from Dropbox, freezes on Google Drive

[cptnmo01]

Hello all,

I want to be able to download pdfs and epubs from one of my cloud accounts. Thing is, I don't want to have to type my long passwords, then do the two-step auth on the go everytime.

So I thought about shared folders. I'd have one link to open my "Books" folder on my Dropbox, accessible without authentification, while still discrete. I would use it as my home page and be able to download my books on the go. Very practical, super simple solution.
So I shared my folder, accessibility options show that the files are viewable by anyone with the link. But it doesn't work. I click on the download link but nothing happens. No files are downloaded, whether they're epubs or pdfs, have spaces in their names, whatever. It does download if I login to Dropbox, which is precisely what I want to avoid.

I tried the same thing on Google Drive, but then when I get to the file preview page the Kobo freezes and I have to hit the reset button at the bottom.

Any ideas ? I thought I had a nice solution with Dropbox :/

// Device is Kobo Aura, firmware is 3.12.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by cptnmo01

Hello all,

I want to be able to download pdfs and epubs from one of my cloud accounts. Thing is, I don't want to have to type my long passwords, then do the two-step auth on the go everytime.

So I thought about shared folders. I'd have one link to open my "Books" folder on my Dropbox, accessible without authentification, while still discrete. I would use it as my home page and be able to download my books on the go. Very practical, super simple solution.
So I shared my folder, accessibility options show that the files are viewable by anyone with the link. But it doesn't work. I click on the download link but nothing happens. No files are downloaded, whether they're epubs or pdfs, have spaces in their names, whatever. It does download if I login to Dropbox, which is precisely what I want to avoid.

I tried the same thing on Google Drive, but then when I get to the file preview page the Kobo freezes and I have to hit the reset button at the bottom.

Any ideas ? I thought I had a nice solution with Dropbox :/

// Device is Kobo Aura, firmware is 3.12.

The Dropbox download button widget generated when you share a link doesn't work. Dropbox changed something a while back, it used to work but no longer does. The problem is that the browser receives a garbage filename, and rejects it because it doesn't have an allowed extension.

There is a patch that makes the browser download the file anyway, but the problem is that it saves it with the garbage filename it got from the download button, and so it doesn't get recognised as an ebook. This means you would need to plug into a computer and manually rename the dowloaded file to get it to be processed.

However if the files are pubicly accessible then you should be able to download them by tapping on the url directly. It is just the download button that doesn't work. For example, I can download this free Linux Journal sample from the dropbox link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4475287/LJ209-sept.epub

[cptnmo01]

So, I found a solution : while on the file download page, replace "www.dropbox" in the address bar by "dl.dropboxusercontent", it then prompts the download. Thing is, you should be sure to always download the files you really need because if you say no once to the download prompt, it stops working until the reader is turned off and on again. In any case, that's an acceptable solution for me.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by cptnmo01

So, I found a solution : while on the file download page, replace "www.dropbox" in the address bar by "dl.dropboxusercontent", it then prompts the download. Thing is, you should be sure to always download the files you really need because if you say no once to the download prompt, it stops working until the reader is turned off and on again. In any case, that's an acceptable solution for me.

I reported that bug to Kobo late last year. But, I didn't have to restart the device to get the downloads working again. From memory, returning to the home screen and reopening the browser was all that was needed.

[cptnmo01]

Oh yeah ? Well I thought I had tried that, but apparently not. In any case, thanks for the piece of advice.