New Kobo desktop app slow

[Bluebizzer]

Went to purchase a new book today, and it installed the new desktop app. Unfortunately it now runs terribly slow, and will not allow me to purchase books (tells me it was unable to complete).

I've tried uninstalling and re-installing, and no go, it just runs slow taking 30-40 seconds to register anything, and requires me to manually end task to shut it down, otherwise it just hangs at 'not responding'.

Old version worked fine. What's going on here?

[drozzy]

This is the same problem as reported here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91512

This happens only when you try to use the Kobo desktop edition Without the reader plugged in. Once you plug-in the kobo e-reader to your usb slot it is o.k.

My guess is that it is polling USB port in a dumb manner, very often. I don't know HOW this gets out of the door without any kind of user testing.

[digital_steve]

Yep, plug the kobo in and all is well
I'm with drozzy; it's a massive mistake for whoever missed this in beta testing

[GrahamBM]

I have been in contact with Kobo about this. I gave them full details of my computer. First response from them was a request to provide them with the same information that I had include din first request for help! (It is a 64bit laptop with lots of memory, reasonably fast processor, no problems with oter pas, HS cable internet)

I sent back a somewhat snarky email, but they then responded. They told me to uninstall Kobo Desktop and re-install using a link they provided. I did that. When the "new" Kobo Desktop loaded, it displayed a message saying I did not have the latest version and that I had to download the new version! (I thought I had just done that!

Eventually, Kobo Desktop was back "working". Desperately slow with many "not responding" messages at LH top with rotating "working" windows blue ring icon.

I have sent another email to Kobo describing what I have here.

On my wife's slower Vista 32 bit laptop, I had to install the new Desktop. I did not spend a lot of time on it, but it seemed to respond faster.

In the end, I used the Kobo app on my Blackberry Playbook. It works fine. By contrast, my wife' Kobo Ereader is hopeless. We tried to sync our small library today. It stopped part way and one of the books that it said it had synced only had the cover page and nothing else.

To be honest, I am fed getting up with Kobo. Besides, most books ca be bought in stores for close to same price, so I may just abandon e-reading!

[meeera]

I'm trying to remember the last time I opened Kobo Desktop - I guess it was back before the firmware change that allows Kobo ereader setup without plugging in to the Desktop.

Grab your books on the Kobo website (or directly from the reader, though that's a bit of a pain, or from any other place that sells epubs), and bypass the Desktop altogether would be my advice.

[GrahamBM]

Originally Posted by meeera

Grab your books on the Kobo website (or directly from the reader, though that's a bit of a pain, or from any other place that sells epubs), and bypass the Desktop altogether would be my advice.

The distinction between Kobo Desktop and Kobo website is not altogether clear to me. I guess main difference is that Kobo and laptop can be synced via the usb cable rather than via wifi. Useful perhaps if no wifi is available. Otherwise presumably anything bought on kobobooks.com will automatically sync with the kobo.

Kobo have moved my question re Desktop up to tier 2 and are trying to determine why the Desktop is so slow and the "not responding" message keeps appearing.

I have experienced a further problem:

I took advantage of a Free book download (Due Justice, Diane Capri). No problem with download to laptop or sync to my BB Playbook Kobo app. But it did not show up on my wife's Kobo wifi. I tried many ways to get it there, but somehow it only showed in My Library on laptop and Playbook.

[Ken Maltby]

I would suggest that you checkout the "Apprentice Alf" blog site and get acquainted
with calibre here at MR. Then you can purchase your ebooks from whomever you wish.
You can also break any dependency your ebooks may have on servers on the net. The
same for any requirement that your ereader be "Authorized" by any such servers.

It is possible to truly own the ebooks you have paid for.

You can soon get to the position where you don't need to use any application on
your PC, except for a place that the stores associated with them can download
the ebook file. That even goes for the ADE PC program.

Luck;
Ken

Even Adobe "Gets It":
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...VH93k6OnK3YpnA

[GrahamBM]

I did receive a reply from Kobo re their Desktop app. Here it is:

Thank you for your response and for the information you have provided for us.
We were able to recreate the problem not only in your account but ours testing account as well.
When we inquired about the problem to our Tier 3 department, they have advised that there is a problem with the Kobo Desktop application for users running a Windows environment when browsing categories.
Our development team is now aware of the problem and have been working on a solution. We have been told that the fix will be released as a software update to address this issue specifically. Although we have not been provided with an exact date on when the software update will be released, we know that it will be soon as it is affecting a large range of customers.
We apologize for the inconvenience this might cause you.

[GrahamBM]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I would suggest that you checkout the "Apprentice Alf" blog site and get acquainted
with calibre here at MR. Then you can purchase your ebooks from whomever you wish.
You can also break any dependency your ebooks may have on servers on the net. The
same for any requirement that your ereader be "Authorized" by any such servers.

It is possible to truly own the ebooks you have paid for.

I do have calibre installed and have used it to some extent. I believe the the new copyright laws in Canada make it illegal to modify some of the things you mention, even if you have legally purchased the eBooks.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by GrahamBM

I do have calibre installed and have used it to some extent. I believe the the new copyright laws in Canada make it illegal to modify some of the things you mention, even if you have legally purchased the eBooks.

Certainly we all must do what we feel is the right thing to do, and suffer any
consequences that may result. The same goes for adherence to something
imposed that you feel is not right, there are consequences for that as well.
Such is life, in a modern society.

Luck;
Ken

[BeeTee-Ess]

Originally Posted by GrahamBM

I do have calibre installed and have used it to some extent...

Graham...

Have you tried Calibre's 'Get Books > Stores' option. I have not, but I notice that Kobo is among the eBookstores listed there.

[AustinR]

Originally Posted by GrahamBM

I did receive a reply from Kobo re their Desktop app. Here it is:

So, Kobo at last accept they have a problem! Wonder of wonders. Of course Windows is such an unusual operating environment maybe it's understandable it took them a while.

Having just upgraded to a new PC with Windows 8 I thought I would try Kobo Desktop again. As before, on two different machines, browsing categories was abysmally slow and the app frequently stopped responding.

Several months ago a friend and I contacted Kobo separately about this issue but basically got no sensible response and gave up.

[taming]

I've never used the desktop for anything other than updates, so i haven't noticed how slow categories are. They should fix it, for sure. I wonder though why you might choose to use he desktop app for this sort of thing when you could use the website? Are there other advantages to the app? I don't use the store on my Kobo device either, so I might just not be that kinda gal.

[jackastor]

I have noticed that the Desktop app is ordinately slow. I have also noticed that the wifi sync takes an extreme amount of time to sync as well. As to the desktop software I too have a 64 bit computer Amd Fx 8 core cpu with 32 gigs of memory and tons of HDD space. I wonder if the issue as to it seeming faster on your significant others computer is due to it being optimized only for a 32 bit system?

Regards

Jack

[AustinR]

Originally Posted by taming

I've never used the desktop for anything other than updates, so i haven't noticed how slow categories are. They should fix it, for sure. I wonder though why you might choose to use he desktop app for this sort of thing when you could use the website? Are there other advantages to the app? I don't use the store on my Kobo device either, so I might just not be that kinda gal.

Agree 100%. I too use the website. The annoyance is when the company encourages you to download software such as this which doesn't appear to work very well. I wasted hours trying to figure out what was wrong. Initial responses from Kobo help basically implied I needed to fix things on my PC. To learn that they have a problem with this software interacting with Windows is mind boggling. What sort of pre release testing do they do? And how long do they let things slide before they fix the problem?

Having grumbled I still use my Kobo every day and am happy with it. I just avoid the desktop