Glo Kobo Glo "Bricked"

UniqueCar13 · Yesterday, 02:41 AM

I have a very old Kobo glo with technically non functional battery because it dies whenever i unplug it. I have no idea if that correlates to it not working but anyway

As soon as i figured i have i immediately turned it on and i cant exactly remember what happened but long story short it got bricked. I found this forum and attempted to recover it by looking at other peoples issues. Once i figured out i need to use a new disk image for this and needed to make account for this forum i looked for different ways because i did not want to make an account for some reason.

i found this iso on the internet archive

https://archive.org/details/kobo_glo...factory.img.7z

and at least 10 different firmware patches by downloading the firmware while the sd card was still in my computer right after duplicating the card.

I was lucky to even get to a setup screen with most of them.

Eventually i gave up and made an account for the forum and requested an image (which i got in like 1 day

) and attempt to boot it with no firmware upgrade.

I was very happy to finally see a home screen for the first time in forever until i connected it to my pc and it asked my to log out because the kobo was logged into the default email account and i couldn't sync it. Since i thought it would be fine now i tried hooking it up standalone without a pc by selecting the network and putting in the wpa2 details manually and both did not work.

At this point i have no idea what to do hence why i am here as a last resort.

Any help is appreciated very much. Thank You.

DNSB · Yesterday, 04:36 PM

One quick and dirty trick would be to delete the KoboReader.sqlite file and then restart your Glo which should recreate the database with no user entry in the database. This should allow you to continue the setup.

Otherwise, you could try a manual factory reset.

Charge your Glo for at least an hour.
Power it off. If you don't see the Powered Off message, just hold the Power button to the right for 30-35 seconds.
Press and hold the light button.
Slide the power button to the right, hold for a second and release. You may need to do this several times before your Glo powers on.
Continue to hold the light button until the power LED blinks rapidly (discoing).
Release the light button.
You should see a Restoring message on the screen
Once the restore has finished, continue with setup.
Note that the WiFi may not work since the firmware in the image is too old to support current minimum security standards. There is also likely to be an issue with updating directly to the newest firmware. I would suggest after setting up with the Kobo Desktop App, that you deleted the KoboRoot.tgz, manifest.md5sum and upgrade directory and replace them with a older firmware (one report was that they used 3.19.5761, then 4.30.18838 and then let the automatic update run.)

UniqueCar13 · Today, 12:58 AM

Thanks for the quick feedback. I tried deleting it and it did work and after a couple of attempts i was able connect to the internet for the first time through the kobo because whenever i do it on the computer it freezes once completed syncing. As soon as i did the time and whatever it froze on "downloading update please be patient 0% complete". It has been on that for 10 hours plugged in now. Does any of this have to do with the battery or not?

DNSB · Today, 12:11 PM

It might be a battery issue though hard to be certain. You might want to try downloading the latest firmware from Patrick Gaskin's Kobo Firmware Downloads site and do a manual install. Do this without running the Kobo Desktop app while connected to the computer. One question is if you are using a new µSD card? If not, give that a try.

Yesterday, 02:41 AM	#1
UniqueCar13 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2026 Device: Kobo Glo N316	Kobo Glo "Bricked" I have a very old Kobo glo with technically non functional battery because it dies whenever i unplug it. I have no idea if that correlates to it not working but anyway As soon as i figured i have i immediately turned it on and i cant exactly remember what happened but long story short it got bricked. I found this forum and attempted to recover it by looking at other peoples issues. Once i figured out i need to use a new disk image for this and needed to make account for this forum i looked for different ways because i did not want to make an account for some reason. i found this iso on the internet archive https://archive.org/details/kobo_glo...factory.img.7z and at least 10 different firmware patches by downloading the firmware while the sd card was still in my computer right after duplicating the card. I was lucky to even get to a setup screen with most of them. Eventually i gave up and made an account for the forum and requested an image (which i got in like 1 day ) and attempt to boot it with no firmware upgrade. I was very happy to finally see a home screen for the first time in forever until i connected it to my pc and it asked my to log out because the kobo was logged into the default email account and i couldn't sync it. Since i thought it would be fine now i tried hooking it up standalone without a pc by selecting the network and putting in the wpa2 details manually and both did not work. At this point i have no idea what to do hence why i am here as a last resort. Any help is appreciated very much. Thank You.

Yesterday, 04:36 PM	#2
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 54,523 Karma: 182340323 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	One quick and dirty trick would be to delete the KoboReader.sqlite file and then restart your Glo which should recreate the database with no user entry in the database. This should allow you to continue the setup. Otherwise, you could try a manual factory reset. Charge your Glo for at least an hour. Power it off. If you don't see the Powered Off message, just hold the Power button to the right for 30-35 seconds. Press and hold the light button. Slide the power button to the right, hold for a second and release. You may need to do this several times before your Glo powers on. Continue to hold the light button until the power LED blinks rapidly (discoing). Release the light button. You should see a Restoring message on the screen Once the restore has finished, continue with setup. Note that the WiFi may not work since the firmware in the image is too old to support current minimum security standards. There is also likely to be an issue with updating directly to the newest firmware. I would suggest after setting up with the Kobo Desktop App, that you deleted the KoboRoot.tgz, manifest.md5sum and upgrade directory and replace them with a older firmware (one report was that they used 3.19.5761, then 4.30.18838 and then let the automatic update run.)

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Kobo GLO hd bloquée sur "connectée et en chargement"	rorocorti	Kobo Reader	4	01-14-2021 10:26 AM
Kobo GLO HD stuck on "connecting & charging" page	rorocorti	Kobo Reader	4	01-13-2021 09:21 AM
[Kobo Glo] Updated firmware→Calibre:"Kobo database version unsupported"	22217	Devices	10	06-25-2020 07:02 PM
Glo Calibre/Kobo Glo "error communicating with device."	ryuji35	Kobo Reader	81	12-04-2017 05:42 PM
Touch Kobo Touch bricked with the screen "Restarting"	Mallano	Kobo Reader	8	03-02-2015 08:47 AM

Today, 12:58 AM	#3
UniqueCar13 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2026 Device: Kobo Glo N316	Thanks for the quick feedback. I tried deleting it and it did work and after a couple of attempts i was able connect to the internet for the first time through the kobo because whenever i do it on the computer it freezes once completed syncing. As soon as i did the time and whatever it froze on "downloading update please be patient 0% complete". It has been on that for 10 hours plugged in now. Does any of this have to do with the battery or not?

Today, 12:11 PM	#4
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 54,523 Karma: 182340323 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	It might be a battery issue though hard to be certain. You might want to try downloading the latest firmware from Patrick Gaskin's Kobo Firmware Downloads site and do a manual install. Do this without running the Kobo Desktop app while connected to the computer. One question is if you are using a new µSD card? If not, give that a try.

Advert