Books spontaneously redownloading on iOS!

[lessthanyouthink]

Custom shelves are available on the iPad and iPhone/iPod . And I wouldn't worry about breaking anything by creating additional ones — they've got absolutely nothing to do with downloads or where your books are stored.

[Cameronpaterson]

Hello - the news for me isn't good I'm afraid. Lessthanyouthink's advice was well thought through, but unfortunately based on the assumption that I didn't already have the app set to 'store all'. It turned out, when I checked the relevant app panel within the iOS System Settings, that I did. (I also did, I must admit, initially confuse this setting with the library download options - doh! Hence my possibly odd seeming questions earlier in this thread.) Following Sharkus suggestion to try switching the value, I changed the setting to permanently store 5, cleared my local data, and redownloaded the five most recently read books, including the problematic 'Vanished Kingdoms'. This morning, I opened the Kobo app on my iPad, read Vanished Kingdoms for a bit, closed it, and it immediately began to spontaneously download yet again! I also noticed that the app appeared to have reset itself to the 'permanently store all' setting.
Since I am assured that there no bugs, glitches or size issues within the app which could be causing this problem, the only remaining conclusion must be that there is some corruption or damage to the original source file for 'Vanished Kingdoms' on your servers and that is what is causing this persistent misbehaviour. That would also explain why this issue only began after I bought 'Vanished Kingdoms'.
So I have now emailed Customer Services asking for a refund on the book again. Let's hope they give it to me this time, instead of making mysterious references to new versions which have yet to appear.

[Cameronpaterson]

Hello again fellow forumites - so finally we have a resolution. Customer Services have now admitted that there IS an error in the source book file on the Kobo servers - specifically there is "missing content", hence presumably the looping spontaneous downloads. I have been given Kobo store credit rather than the refund I had asked for (purely in order to buy the book on Kindle instead as I still want to read it), but store credit is a pretty common retail stunt so I guess I can live with it.
Meanwhile, what happened to app version 5.5? Is this still on its way? CS at one point claimed that this was due for release last Tuesday. (I didn't ask them about it, I should add - it was just mentioned as a possible solution the 'Vanished Kingdoms' glitch).

[lessthanyouthink]

Ah, interesting – I've never heard of a content problem like that before.

5.5 is still coming – I'm not sure why you were told last Tuesday. I would guess you'll see it go live in the App Store within the next couple weeks.

[Sharkus]

As said by my esteemed colleague, 5.5 is indeed on the way. The "Last Tuesday" comment might be a misunderstanding in regards to it's possible submission date to Apple, rather than released on the App Store.

It can be confusing, as when we say we have shipped / submitted the app, some can take that to mean it's available, when in fact we have submitted it to Apple for approval, and then we have to wait for their review process to take place, and that can be anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. At that point it is basically out of our hands.

[Cameronpaterson]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

As said by my esteemed colleague, 5.5 is indeed on the way. The "Last Tuesday" comment might be a misunderstanding in regards to it's possible submission date to Apple, rather than released on the App Store.

It can be confusing, as when we say we have shipped / submitted the app, some can take that to mean it's available, when in fact we have submitted it to Apple for approval, and then we have to wait for their review process to take place, and that can be anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. At that point it is basically out of our hands.

Thanks Sharkus. Don't worry, I understand the App Store approval process (as much as anyone can ever understand it!), but as you suggest, others may not.
I did think the Customer Services' claim of a release on the 15th seemed a bit overconfident given the delays with the last version, but of course I have no idea when 5.5 was submitted. It could have been weeks ago for all I know