Kobo Aura One - Overdrive support

[DonatelloTHM]

Hi everyone ,
I just got a Kobo Aura One from Ebay.
Until now I was using Amazon Kindle devices , but the seamless overdrive integration on Kobo Aura One was the biggest reason I switched to Kobo.
I live in US and unfortunately the device that I got is a Japanese version, and it seems like the Japanese version doesn't have support for Overdrive, yet.
Is there any way I can add the Overdrive function on my device?

Thanks in advance,
Donat.

[davidfor]

There are no differences between any Kobo devices around the world. They use the same device with the same firmware. The differences are based on the account you use and location you connect from. If you Kobo account shows your country as the USA, it should have OD. You can check and change this on the Kobo site. Otherwise, check the affiliates.conf file in the .kobo directory on the device. It might have the affiliate set to "Rakuten". If so, change it to "Kobo".

[DonatelloTHM]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There are no differences between any Kobo devices around the world. They use the same device with the same firmware. The differences are based on the account you use and location you connect from. If you Kobo account shows your country as the USA, it should have OD. You can check and change this on the Kobo site. Otherwise, check the affiliates.conf file in the .kobo directory on the device. It might have the affiliate set to "Rakuten". If so, change it to "Kobo".

That solved the problem , thanks a lot

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DonatelloTHM

That solved the problem , thanks a lot

Just to be clear for anyone who finds this later: Was setting the country in your account or the changing the affiliate?

[DonatelloTHM]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Just to be clear for anyone who finds this later: Was setting the country in your account or the changing the affiliate?

Changing the affiliate made the overdrive function show on the device , but I'm not able to sign in , I have a New York Public Library card, but I'm not able to login , the screen is refreshing and it's returning to the part where you have to choose your library.

[gphotomom]

how do I change the affiliate?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by gphotomom

how do I change the affiliate?

See message #2 in the current thread: Kobo Aura One - Overdrive support #2 for that information.

[gphotomom]

Originally Posted by DNSB

See message #2 in the current thread: Kobo Aura One - Overdrive support #2 for that information.

I saw that post. I've looked and looked and can't find a place to change my country on the Kobo site. How do I change the directory on the device?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by gphotomom

I saw that post. I've looked and looked and can't find a place to change my country on the Kobo site. How do I change the directory on the device?

Connect your Kobo ereader to your computer using a USB cable. If you are using a Windows operating system, you should see a directory called .kobo, if you are using a OSX or Linux operating system, you are going to need to enabling displaying hidden directories (UNIX based OS use a leading period to indicate a hidden directory/file) to see that directory.

Inside the .kobo directory, you will see a file called affiliate.conf. Opening that file with a text editor that respects Unix style end of line (I use Notepad++ with Windows, Linux and Mac OSX can use pretty much any text editor), you should see two lines of text:

[General]
affiliate=Kobo

Change the second line to match the above example to change your affiliate to Kobo.

To change the country, look at the bottom of the Kobo homepage. I've attached a sample of what I see connected to the site to this message and circled (ovaled?) Change country link. Click on the Change country link to change your country.

[gphotomom]

thank you so much for the detailed instructions - this turned out to be very easy to do on my son's PC. I had been trying to figure it out on Mac.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

To change the country, look at the bottom of the Kobo homepage. I've attached a sample of what I see connected to the site to this message and circled (ovaled?) Change country link. Click on the Change country link to change your country.

That's not the one to use. That changes which country you are viewing, but doesn't change country associated with the account. That is done by clicking on "My Account" in the top right and selecting "Account Settings". The country is on the "Payment information". You need to put in a valid looking address in the country of choice. Unless Kobo has implemented geo-locking, that is enough to let you buy books from the new country and I assume to use the OD for that country.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That's not the one to use. That changes which country you are viewing, but doesn't change country associated with the account. That is done by clicking on "My Account" in the top right and selecting "Account Settings". The country is on the "Payment information". You need to put in a valid looking address in the country of choice. Unless Kobo has implemented geo-locking, that is enough to let you buy books from the new country and I assume to use the OD for that country.

Interesting. When I was looking at foreign language ebooks, changing the country and language at the bottom of the page seemed to move books in that national language to the top of my searches. I looked at changing the country under billing address but doing that required clearing payment information which left me unenthused about trying that option.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Interesting. When I was looking at foreign language ebooks, changing the country and language at the bottom of the page seemed to move books in that national language to the top of my searches. I looked at changing the country under billing address but doing that required clearing payment information which left me unenthused about trying that option.

The country in the account settings is about what each publisher can sell in each country. Traditionally, Australia got UK based editions of books rather than the US edition. That was based on the publisher and their contracts. It is still happening here and I frequently see links in the deals forum and find the book is unavailable here, but there is a different version available. And usually more expensive. Amazon do the same, but I think they use the IP address as well to determine the location.

For checking this, I have another account that I never use to buy books. I change the country whenever I want to look for "missing" books or see the deals others are getting.

[IndyUK]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There are no differences between any Kobo devices around the world. They use the same device with the same firmware. The differences are based on the account you use and location you connect from. If you Kobo account shows your country as the USA, it should have OD. You can check and change this on the Kobo site. Otherwise, check the affiliates.conf file in the .kobo directory on the device. It might have the affiliate set to "Rakuten". If so, change it to "Kobo".

Hi

I know this post is old but, I wanted to say thanks for this pointer. I was getting a bit disappointed when I noticed Overdrive was not listed in the Settings menu. I bought the reader especially because according to some reviews it had Overdrive integration. Of course out of the box it didn't have it and I was hunting all over the Internet looking for a solution. Came across your post and bingo!

Thanks

[Tropical reader]

Hi I tried the above with my new Aura one bought from Amazon US this month but it didn't work. Changed the affiliate to Kobo ( used to be bestbuyca) and changed my account to US.
Overdrive has not made any appearance
Is there something new happening I have to do ? I am currently not in the US. Any help appreciated. Or should I return the device and buy another one from somewhere else ?