Please help with Adobe Digital editions/Sony ereader problem

[baltic]

I would be so grateful if someone can help me.

Two days ago I bought my daughter a Sony Touch ereader for her birthday because she was envious of mine which I have had for a year and love. I had to go to work on her birthday so she was on her own when she set it up and I'm not entirely sure what she has done. As far as I can make out she installed Adobe Digital Editions about a month ago knowing that she was going to get an ereader and downloaded some ebooks to start with thinking she could transfer them to the ereader when she got it. I think she got herself an Adobe ID at the time but as far as ADE goes I suspect she did not authorise her computer with that ID at the time.


When she installed her ereader, ADE prompted her to authorise her computer which she did using the Adobe ID. She also bought some more ebooks which she transferred to her ereader no problem. However she still couldn't open any of the ebooks she bought before authorising. She has only ever used the one laptop and one Adobe ID for all of this so the issue with two separate accounts on two different computers should not apply.


I had a look at all the troubleshooting sites I could find and it suggested deauthorising and reauthorising the computer. That's when it all went pearshaped. She now can't open ANY of the purchased ebooks even the ones she could open previously. The ereader properties said it was authorised for Adobe DRM content and it had the right Adobe ID address. But when she tries to open them it says she is not authorised to preview the book. I have checked she used the same adobe ID and password for everything so it's not that


One of the things one always tries is uninstalling and reinstalling problem software. So I tried reinstalling ADE to make sure we had the most up to date version. But then it didn't recognise the ereader. WHSmith ebooks customer support said to download ADE yet again. I have now hit the too many activations problem. She has submitted a case through the web based support portal to get her permitted number of activations reset because we can't do anything until that is sorted out.


However I don't think that will solve the problem because as far as I could tell the computer was authorised properly but it would not recognise the ebooks downloaded before it was deauthorised and reauthorised. I don't know why it's an issue because it's not as if she has tried to transfer content from or to different computers or devices, she only has the one laptop.


Please can anyone help me sort this out. She is absolutely distraught as she has spent all her birthday money on ebooks she can't now open and as she is a student she can't just afford to write off the loss. And I feel sick about it because I thought she'd be thrilled with her new toy


I'm reasonably computer literate and I have never had any problem with my own Sony ereader (but then I tend to read the ...manual). I use my own ereader with a different computer by the way so I don't think it's a conflict. But I am stumped by this. Her laptop is about a year old a Sony Vaio running Vista Home edition. The registry may be a bit cluttered but although I can reinstall Windows if I have to I have never attempted a registry edit

[dreams]

Welcome to MR and I'm so sorry your first post has to be about a problem.

I really don't have any experience with this. The only thing I do is save threads about various problems (just in case something happens to my set up). It sounds as though you have tried most of what has been suggested in the posts that I have read on MR.

Have you made any progress on solving this yet?

Maybe a more experienced member will think of something that you haven't tried so far.

Good Luck.

[baltic]

Thank you for replying. I have been a member for a couple of weeks and loved the site as soon as I found it.

I tried the Adobe forum as well as here and a very nice member of the Adobe team (Jim Lester) sent me a reply suggesting contacting the seller for a new download or trying to get a new Adobe ID associated with the old content. However he warned me that this would take time because of the Christmas break.

I should have said in my original post that we did try re downloading because both retailers allow up to three downloads (and more if you contact them to get them to reactivate the download) but it still wasn't viewable. So I think trying to get a new Adobe ID associated with the content is the only way forward.

I have never had any problem with ADE but then I use my ereader mainly for classics which are out of copyright so there are no DRM problems. I had no idea it could be so complicated when things went wrong. I'm also a bit disappointed that the DRM is so very tight on ebooks. If she bought a physical book and I wanted to read it when she had finished then she could lend it to me. But because I have my own Adobe ID it seems that I can't read her purchased ebooks on my own ereader.

I had assumed it would be like Itunes where you can share libraries with other computers if they are on the same domestic network. That seems to me to reflect the reality of family life.

I hope Adobe solve these problems. I love my ereader especially for reading while I commute. A few libraries are beginning to offer the facility to borrow ebooks here in the UK and I was looking forward to that becoming more common. Our local library is not very good but the library in the City of London where I work is fantastic and it would be really great if they offered ebooks as well, since it's not that close to our new offices and physically borrowing books is no longer that easy.

[dreams]

Your very nice member of the Adobe team is also a member of this site. We also will have less members with time to participate during the Holidays.

Does your daughter live with you? You could register her Reader on your Sony and Adobe accounts. That way you would have it registered on both your computers under one Adobe ID with ADE. When my mom bought her Reader, I just registered hers on my accounts. We don't read the same type books, but it does make it easy to manage the programs.

[baltic]

I should have guessed he would be on this site as well. Hi Jim!
If I can persuade WHSmith and Waterstones to issue a new licence to my Adobe ID that would solve the problem I think. She is away during term time but home for rather more than half the year.

anyway with Christmas coming she will have some more new gadgets to keep her happy (and me poor)

[kennyc]

Oh My! Sounds like more than one Adobe ID was set up. I think this is going to require Adobe to reset everything and let you start over. Not sure what that means as far as the books, but most likely once things are squared away you can re-download them.

[baltic]

I did wonder whether she had set up more than one Adobe ID (it would explain some of the problems we are having) but she swears not. She only has one email address that she uses and she says that is what she used to authorise her computer. I checked by trying to set up another Adobe ID with the same email address and it said it was in use. I also checked there was no existing Adobe ID associated with her old MSN email address and there wasn't because it let me set up a new ID (which I haven't used because this was after we were barred from activating ADE). And that would not explain why ALL the purchased content became unavailable after we deauthorised and reauthorised including some that was definitely bought using the same Adobe ID.

I don't know what she has done but I'm not letting her loose unsupervised again!!. She may be highly intelligent but I'm the only one in the family who seems to read instructions

[kennyc]

I know the new Sony Library software is a bit different in that I've heard it will set up an Adobe ID (or allow you to set up one) that is different or in addition to the one you might already have. I didn't run into this with my upgrade, but I think others have.

I know what you mean about following the install. Though I've been guilty of a few mess-ups myself but they are usually because I assume something rather than reading.

[Jim Lester]

BTW here's the thread on the Adobe User To User forums that I'm responding to.

Because I'm still not really sure what exactly happened here (this is like a game of "telephone" where the story is changing slightly on each telling ), I'm tending to agree with KennyC, that unfortunately more support than can be given on any the forums will be needed.

[baltic]

I wonder if that is what happened? Do you know of any other threads where this was discussed, as I didn't come across this issue when I was searching for help online? Although I do remember reading somewhere that you don't strictly need ADE itself with the new Sony Touch

I have confidence we (or rather I - it's been firmly handed over to "family IT support" aka Mum) will get there eventually with all the help I'm getting. At least I have found lots of good sites including the Adobe forums and this one!! (sorry don't know how to do smilies)

[pilotbob]

A couple of things while reading this thread come to mind.

The original problem of being able to read on the PC and not on the device and you talk about authorizing the PC but you never mentioned authorizing the reader. Both the PC and the Reader need to be authorized to the Adobe account.

Also, you never said if she installed the Sony software. If you install the Sony software on a machine with ADE it uses the current Adobe ID for your ebooks. But, if you install it on a machine without adobe ID I think in the back ground it creates an Adobe ID from you using the same password that you set up for your Sony account.

you also don't say where you bought the ebooks.. (or I missed it). Did she d/l the ebooks again after installing the Sony software?

This all sounds very strange.

BOb

[kennyc]

There was some discussion in this thread, but it may just confuse you more.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ighlight=adobe

I think the main thing is to try getting reset at Adobe and start over. Install Adobe DE and make sure that works if purchasing/downloading from a store (or library) other than Sony.
Then install (or uninstall and reinstall) the Sony Library software.

But Jim is on the case, so follow his lead, he's the expert here.

[baltic]

The UK version of the reader software does not have a link to the Sony store (as it is not available in the UK we have to buy through Sony partners like Waterstones and WHSmith). From what I have read you seem to need to go to the Sony store to authorise the reader in the US.

I'm trying to piece this together and I agree she has done something very strange. She may have installed ADE anonymously originally - she can't remember but let's assume she did. The new Sony Touch installs the Sony software automatically, it no longer comes on disc. So it is possible that it set up another Adobe ID before she authorised the computer. But when she registered her Sony (which is possibly different from authorising it) she used the same email address and password as she used for the Adobe ID she set up when she authorised the computer in ADE.

I will post this on the Adobe forum as well because it might help someone else and it means that Jim will have the whole story in one place

[baltic]

All fixed and I can't thank Jim enough.

Thank you, too, everyone who was kind enough to reply.

Happy Christmas and happy ereading

[kennyc]

Uhhhh.....you can't just say that. You have to tell us how you fixed it!