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Topic: Moving Books from Adobe Digital Editions to Calibre?

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MamaDragon3 avatar
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Subject: Moving Books from Adobe Digital Editions to Calibre?
Date Posted: 2/26/2015 10:07 PM ET
Member Since: 8/18/2008
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How do I move books from ADE to Calibre, or can I?  Seems like there has to be a way.  I have a NookColor, and can get books onto my Nook from ADE, or books from my computer/Calibre to my Nook, but how to I get them from ADE to Calibre?

Hoping there's an easy way...?

EmilyKat avatar
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Date Posted: 2/27/2015 2:21 AM ET
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Select to download the book into ADE on the computer. (Also add the Calibre add on from the off site listing to remove the DRM.) Then use the big red add button in the corner of Calibre to move the book in. It will bring up a list of documents. There should be an ADE folder. Maybe Digital Editions? (I also have a Kindle folder.)

Oh. You can move a group of books at once. Select them all. I actually often have to select the one at the top of the folder, then select the group below the divider. Some type of meta data or cover image will divide my folder into two groups. 



Last Edited on: 2/27/15 2:25 AM ET - Total times edited: 1
gingerkitty avatar
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Date Posted: 2/27/2015 8:47 AM ET
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ADE saves them in a folder on your computer called "My Digital Editions".  You just have to find that on your computer, for me a folder in my Documents folder.  Just navigate to that folder like Emily describes above from Calibre to import the books.

If it's a DRMed book, you have to open it up in ADE first to actually get it downloaded to your computer.

EmilyKat avatar
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Date Posted: 2/27/2015 4:55 PM ET
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Yes. It is important to open it in ADE first. Your ADE will have the key code for any DRM. Then move it into Calibre. Some books will actually be in an Adobe format without DRM. 

Now, for big brother facts. Some versions of ADE actually record and report all books to Adobe. Yucky. I did not get a Kindle just because I did not want my reading habits reported to marketing. 

booklover6 avatar
Date Posted: 2/27/2015 6:05 PM ET
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I just got a Kindle Voyage. I turned the wifi on once to register. I side load my books. They will never know what's on there, as I have no plans to turn wifi back on.

Altogether different with a Kindle Fire of course.

What's irritating: I got an epub library book through 3M. Using the 3M desktop app I loaded it onto my Kobo Glo. Yes I can load it into Calibre but the results are garbled. The quotation marks are different symbols, for example. So I can't read it on my new Voyage no



Last Edited on: 2/27/15 6:13 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
gingerkitty avatar
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Date Posted: 2/27/2015 7:47 PM ET
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I haven't turned on the Wifi on my new Kobo Touch to even register it.  I just sideloaded stuff onto it.  Now, if I could figure out how to delete content I'd be happy.

EmilyKat avatar
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Date Posted: 2/27/2015 7:58 PM ET
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Can you "recycle" content in Calibre when you choose to view the eReader content?

Other wise, I have to manually delete each item on the Reader.

gingerkitty avatar
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Date Posted: 2/27/2015 8:04 PM ET
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That's what I was looking to do Emily, manually delete the book from my reader.  I googled it and figured out how to.  I delte a book from my reader once I've read it.  Well, except for a select few.

I don't even anticipate registering my Kobo or turning on the Wifi.  I'm so used to sideloading everything with the Sony (which has no Wifi) and I never did register that one.

MamaDragon3 avatar
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Date Posted: 2/28/2015 9:42 AM ET
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OK, will try this later today and will let you know how it goes.  I like Calibre much more than ADE, so prefer to use Calibre whenever possible.

EmilyKat avatar
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Date Posted: 2/28/2015 2:38 PM ET
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I really like how you can set Calibre to your own choice of sorts. I just use ADE to move books through.

gingerkitty avatar
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Date Posted: 2/28/2015 4:15 PM ET
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Me too Emily.  I just use ADE to download the DRMed EPUBS so I can get them into Calibre.

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Date Posted: 2/28/2015 8:33 PM ET
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What's irritating: I got an epub library book through 3M. Using the 3M desktop app I loaded it onto my Kobo Glo. Yes I can load it into Calibre but the results are garbled. The quotation marks are different symbols, for example. So I can't read it on my new Voyage no

weird.  was it just that one book, or is this a consistent problem for you?  i download the epub books from the 3M desktop app regularly, and haven't had any formatting problems with them.  once they're downloaded, they've been just like any other book in ADE.  [though i don't mess with fonts or anything.]

EmilyKat avatar
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Date Posted: 2/28/2015 8:53 PM ET
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I make sure to load it into ADE or the store's app, then move it into Calibre. One of the stores has it's own brand of DRM. Maybe B&N? Make a mistake of once loading a locked book directly into Calibre. Yucky. 

sasfras72 avatar
Date Posted: 3/21/2015 12:06 AM ET
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I have never understood this process. frown  Do you have to purchase Calibre? I picked up some ebooks on Dreamspinner, but couldn't figure out how to get them onto my Kindle, so they're just sitting in my Dreamspinner account.
 

EmilyKat avatar
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Date Posted: 3/21/2015 1:58 AM ET
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Calibre is a share ware program. It is free, but asks for donations.

ADE is a free program from Adobe. They make their money on selling the DRM. You need to make an account and register your computers and eReaders. That said, Adobe is really focused on the corporate customer. Rather confusing to find your way around their site. 



Last Edited on: 3/21/15 2:02 AM ET - Total times edited: 1
gingerkitty avatar
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Date Posted: 3/21/2015 9:03 AM ET
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Calibre is free.  Download and install it on your computer.  Then, download your ebooks from Dreamspinner Press to your computer and add them to Calibre.  Once they're in Calibre, you can convert them to whatever format you need for Kindle.  Then, hook the Kindle up to your computer and sideload the books.

I don't know if Dreamspinner adds DRM to their ebooks.  If they do, you'll have to install the de-DRM plugin for Calibre first.

There are some excellent video tutorials for Calibre and how to use its features out there.

EmilyKat avatar
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Date Posted: 3/21/2015 8:50 PM ET
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Most Kindles want Mobi format. But Calibre can convert from ePubs to Mobi.

booklover6 avatar
Date Posted: 3/22/2015 9:55 AM ET
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Actually AZW3 is a better format than mobi.

For my Kindle Voyage, I side load everything, and I embed my font of choice into the AZW3, then on the device, select "publisher format." I can't stand any of the Kindle fonts provided. I tried downloading some Kindle Unlimited books to my Voyage last night. They are gone, now. If I decide to read them, I will do so on my Fire HD 6. Two of them have "locked in" fonts that can't be changed at all, and they appeared very light on the Voyage. They are better on the Fire. Still don't know if I will read them, though.

EmilyKat avatar
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Date Posted: 3/22/2015 1:37 PM ET
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I thought AZW3 was only available from Amazon? Dreamspinner Press lists mobi.
 

gremlin avatar
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Date Posted: 3/23/2015 2:50 AM ET
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you can convert to AZW3 using Calibre, if you want to.  it's more flexible, you can edit the file like you can with an EPUB, which you can't with MOBI.  i haven't tried it yet, since i've pretty much got it down on what changes i need to make to the epub to make the MOBI look like what i want, but i never minded the default font on the Kindle.

though thinking about it, the next time i'm having trouble when converting a book that uses different fonts to differentiate voices, maybe i'll try AZW3 and see if that's better by default.

booklover6 avatar
Date Posted: 3/23/2015 8:46 AM ET
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Azw3 is better for me because it preserves my formatting better. It is basically epub in a wrapper, from what I understand. I edit everything in epub (for my Kobo) and then convert to AZW3 if I want to read it on my Voyage.

sasfras72 avatar
Date Posted: 3/26/2015 9:06 AM ET
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Thanks! You all make it sound so simple. laugh

rhyta avatar
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Date Posted: 9/7/2017 8:52 PM ET
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I have tried to use Calibre and the DeDRM plug in and it didn't work for me.  Apprentice Alf (who wrote the plug-in) have a disclaimer on their site that if you downloaded any of your books in ADE 3.0 or higher, the DRM removal tool will not work.  I am very disappointed that has happened to me.  Last year Overdrive changed their platform and I had to upgrade to 3.0 continue to borrow books from the library.  Will have to try another option and I haven't heard back from the Apprentice Alf folks.

Just wanted to let others know about this.  That's what happens when you procrastinate!



Last Edited on: 9/7/17 8:53 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
gremlin avatar
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Date Posted: 9/8/2017 3:41 AM ET
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maybe different libraries have different requirements, but i'm still using ADE 2.0 with Overdrive without problems, and avoiding the ADE upgrade.

unfortunately, the library app that was formerly 3M does require the newest ADE, so i had to stop using that, but at least that's only partial collections at two of the libraries i use - and a prior update was mucking things up every time i used it anyway, as it stopped using my existing ADE credentials, and so all of my other library books went away every time i used cloudLibrary and then had to be redownloaded.  PITA, and it never had a decent way to look at what was newly added anyway.

gingerkitty avatar
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Date Posted: 9/8/2017 8:48 AM ET
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I have ADE 3.0 and have never had an issue de-DRMing any book.  I installed it when I got my new laptop, hmm, 3 or so years ago?  Since it's never been an issue, I haven't worried about it.

Stripping DRM from library books is frowned upon since you didn't purchase the book, just borrowed it.  I don't think the Alf folks will help with that at all.