I recently really really wanted a book but the only place I could find it was on Amazon.com. I can’t stand buying books from them. But I really really wanted this one. So I bought it. Problem is it wasn’t downloadable but only available through their “cloud”. I had to use their app or use a Kindle. I didn’t want either one. I wanted the book I paid money for. I tried several methods of getting the book onto my PC but, when that failed, I requested a refund.
Then someone on Facebook found it for me over on the Kobo website and I bought it there. Now the problem was although it was in the epub format, it had the Adobe DRM on it. This is what I did to remove that so I could read it where ever I wanted. Since, ya know, I paid for it.
So, go buy an ebook from Kobo. Go through the purchase process. They’ll send you a confirmation email. But you can also just go back to the page of the book and click the “View in My Books” link to the left. This will take you to a list of the books you’ve bought there. Right click the three dots to the right of the book. Select “download”.
I already had Adobe Digital Editions on my computer so that part was easy. If I remember correctly, you have to “authorize” your computer. That means registering with them. No bigs. Once the program is running, find the file you downloaded. It may or may not say the title of your book as the name file. Either way, it will end with the .ACSM extension which is Adobe Content Server Message.
When you find it, double click to open the file and Adobe Digital Editions should open. If not, open the program manually and tell it you have a new book. It will translate the book from the .ascm file into an epub. Now comes the fun part!
Right click the book within the Adobe program. Select “Show File in Explorer”. This will show you the epub file. Most likely it is in [User]/Documents/My Digital Editions.
Right click and drag the file onto your desktop or into your Calibre folder. Let go and select “copy here”. Open Calibre and let it find and deal with the book. Upload it to your device via Calibre and voila! Done.
There is a plugin called DeDRM that should bypass the Adobe program but I’ve occasionally had problems with it*. I use it primarily to strip the DRM from all of L’s books she gets from B&N.
Calibre Linkages:
Download Calibre
General Help
Manual
Library Management
DeDRM
How to Use FAQ
Basic Information
Download DeDRM
Adobe Digital Editions:
Latest version
Earlier version (3.0) – see below
*In reading more on the DeDRM plugin, I read to only use the Adobe Digital Editions 3.0. That higher ones do something wonky. Which is why it used to work but doesn’t now. Kinda. Anyway, after much poking, I found where the 3.0 is hidden. It came up as a plain text page but nearly at the bottom is “Downloads Adobe Digital Editions“.