I've just bought a Sony PRS-505 and loaded Adobe Digital Editions within the last few days.  Regrets - I have a few ...

Decided to pick up a "free" book from Adobe which resulted in a file URLLink.ascm being placed in "My Documents".  Tried "Add to Library" in DE but the .ascm file does not show in DE.  Further to this, having read Jim Lester's comments (seems to be the mainstay of this forum), I tried to go into "Read" mode in DE.  I cannot do it.  Clicked the "Read" icon and tried Ctrl+l.  Should I uninstall DE and re-install and, if I re-install will I have to authorise the computer again.

Please advise - thanks

To : Jim Lester

Thank you for your prompt reply.  I have now downloaded the book to PRS-505 but I had to do this in a different way.

Tried double-clicking the .acsm file in "My Documents" which, of course, just resulted in thw Windows dialogue saying this type of file not recognised.  So I dragged and dropped the .acsm from "My Documents" into ADE and from there transferred to PRS-505.

I'm obviously still not sure how to use ADE but have a workable solution.

Thanks again

ive pretty much had the same problems accecpt when i click on the ascm file and it go into abode digital editions and its says  Error getting license.. Server communication problem: E_ADEPT_10 ... i dont know want that means put ive everthing to get it working and it wont ..  can someone help me please or tell me want im doing wrong

Jim, no thanks for the condescending tone. We are asking why ACE books cannot be read by other apps like, e.g., Acrobat Reader. I will save you the answer: it's because Adobe said so. Period.

I posted today a new thread on the same subject, with emphasis on the the misleading use by Adobe of the name "PDF" and the file extension ".pdf".

I'm angry too, but in a more constructive way. I bought my two ADE textbooks from eBooks.com. I complained and asked for a refund, they answered yesterday saying I will get refunded (when?).

As for ebooks, I am much wiser now. From now on, I will purchase ebooks only via my iPad. That way, I know they will be compatible. So far, I was successful with the Amazon Kindle app, the Kobo app and the iBooks app from Apple. If and when Adobe writes apps for the iPad, I will have a look again.

And, of course, the iPad can read garden variety PDF files (i.e. not screwed up by DE), which is great for professional publications like scientific papers.

As for you study books, I remember being a pennyless student not so long ago and share your frustration. You should discuss this with your school librarian. I think they can loan ebooks to students. But I think your best bet is still second hand paper textbooks.

Manny in Canada

emmanuelm@rogers.com

This system adobe has sucks! I am in the same boat and trying to get a refund.

Jim,

I have ADE 1.7.2. and have downloaded a .acsm file, however when I attempt to open that file with ADE I get the message "Sorry, the file you are attempting to open cannot be opened by digital editions" . . . . . . why is that please sir?

paconyc99, I hear you.  I purchased an ebook as well last week and I STILL can not get the book to open.  I have created a thread here at Adobe

E_LIC_NO_DISTRIBUTION_RIGHTS

Where the error message I am getting is

Error getting license
License server communication problem: E_LIC_NO_DISTRIBUTION_RIGHTS

I've got no response yet.  I have authorized my PC as well.  The .acsm is not blocked as one poster suggested.  I renamed the My digital Editions/restore folder to restore2. I dragged and dropped the .acsm file onto the ADE.  I double-clicked the .acsm file -- ADE opened with the same error each time.  I opened IE8 and dragged the .acsm file onto the browser, ADE opened and gave me the same error.  I can not get this file to open and I don't know why.  Is my copy of ADE unlicensed or something?  I contacted Simon & Schuster.com where I purchased the book in effort to find out if THEY are the ones causing the licensing error.  No word from them yet.

I really don't know what to do.  I will never purchase another ebook if it requires ADE to read/open/unlock (whatever) it.  It's like I've purchased something from one place and someone from another place is telling me I can't have it.

I'm seeing so many posts here at Adobe alerting them of this issue -- not being able to read/open .acsm files.  While I understand the protection, I agree with you that those of us who have legally made a purchase should be able to have what we have paid for.  If I am purchasing a book online, it's because I want quick access to it, otherwise, I'd just wait for it to be shipped via snail-mail.

When I download books from overdrive on loan from the library they go to the computer fine.  I use sony library to sync and put on a PRS 600.  The problem is that only the most recent book can be read.  The others indicate -protected content-  At times I am able to return or delete the last book and read another but other times not.  I can read all these on the computer no problem.  I want to be able to take several ebooks with me and read as I choose.  Why can't I?

CAT509

I have exactly the same problem. If you ever get it figured out let me know. Mine was working perfectly and then just suddenly quit. Drats!

This Overdrive outfit is supposed to get back to me in the next few days. If they have a solution I'll let you know. From past experience with Adobe it may be as simple as deleting a preference file.

Cat509,

As I said in an earlier eMail, I too had exactly the same problem. Here is how I resolved it. First I deleted ADE. Then using Finder I went to the Library>preferences and found an Adobe preference file with the extension .plist. I deleted that file also. Then I re-installed ADE from the Adobe website and guess what....success!

Try it and see if it works for you.

I was hoping that this would work, because I had not deleted that file in the

library preferences. So I deleted the ADE and that other file with the.plist

extention. I reinstalled ADE and tried to download a book and once again it did

not show up. I even tried to put the .acsm file on the desktop and opened ADE

and tried to add item. The .acsm file is not recognized as a file to import. I

even tried to drag and drop it and it would not work either. The ADE is set as a

default to open the .acsm files and still no go.

Any other suggestions?

Sandy Scott

     "I am a green e-mail!  My presence on the Internet does not harm our

environment."

Sandy.....mine is a MAC also (Macbook Air).

When you try to add a book to your ADE library are the ACSM files there but grey'd out or simply not there at all? Before I did all the reinstallation mine were there but grey'd out. Once I finished the installation process they were black the way they were supposed to be and I could work with them. My library (Overdrive sponsored) kept telling me I had not downloaded the files altho I could see them plainly on my computer.

I'd suggest one more thing and then I'm out of ideas. Try deleting and re downloading the ACSM files. OOPs. I guess you already tried that. I also renamed the import.log to delimport.log so it wouldn't be a factor but I could still get it back later.  I don't think that that had any effect on anything. I renamed it back to import.log after things started working again.

One other thought. When I download the ACSM files they show up in two places. One. of course, is my download folder and the other is in Safari's download folder. I could either in ADE. Probably not anything you didn't already know but I thought I'd mention it.

I know how you feel when there is no one who seems to be able to help you out. Frustrating as the devil. Adobe seems silent about these problems. Overdrive doesn't seem to take the problems seriously and seems to think the problems are the patron's problems. Many times they are probably right, but not always!  I think they need to do a much better job at solving problems.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. If you get it resolved will you let me know 'cause I'm certain the problem will come up again especially since Adobe has, according to rumor, pretty well washed its hands on this product.

Dick L.

I tried deleting anything including that .plist file and all files with anything

to do with ADE and reinstalling and still not luck with the .acsm files. I have

been able to get .pdf files in to ADE that were saved to my desktop. Do you have

any other suggestions on how to get these files into ADE on a Mac?

Sandy Scott

     "I am a green e-mail!  My presence on the Internet does not harm our

environment."

Sandy,

One more thought and I suspect you've already done this; probably dozens of times. Did you simply double click on the ACSM file in either Safari>windows>downloads or in finder>downloads? I feel silly asking the question.

One other question: When I try to add a book from ADE library view ADE opens my downloads folder. When I was having the same problem, the ACSM files were gray'd out and  ADE couldn't do anything with them. Each ACSM file was about 5kb in size so they had downloaded. Once I re installed ADE with the new preference file (com.adobe.digitaleditions.plist) the ACSM files now showed up as black and ADE could convert them to epub or pdf files and add them.to the library.

As I said I feel a bit silly because my guess is that you've done all of these things already. No more ideas.

Good Luck

Dick L

Congrats.....I'm happy things have worked out. Amazing what can happen when people work together!

Dick

Thanks for the info!

Cat509

Are you trying to read your books on the computer through DME or are you reading on a Nook or other mobile device? I do not know of anything for reading on the computer, but the Nook has a way to highlight and type in notes. Not very easy to do but it can be done.

Sandy Scott

     "I am a green e-mail!  My presence on the Internet does not harm our environment."

Thanks for the reply. Don't have a Nook...am trying to read on my computer.

Is this feature going to be added at some point? I understand the need for

DRM but not being able to highlight and take notes doesn't make much

sense...especially since this is a textbook/technical type book.

And I tried someone's suggestion below about the Barnes & Noble reader but

it doesn't open the ACSM file which is all I got when I purchased the ebook

online...no PDF.

The eReader cannot open an ACSM file but it can open an ePub file. Adobe Digital Editions is used to convert the downloaded ACSM file to ePUB format.

The following may work for you. It does on my MACs - both laptop and desktop. I doubt Windows based computers are much different.

Download ADE from Adobe. Once installed and authorized, click on your downloaded ACSM file and ADE should start up and convert the ACSM to an ePub file which will appear in the library view. You should also find the epub file in your digital editions folder. You can then open it in eReader or ADE and read it directly on your computer. eReader allows all the stuff you want to do.

No need for a Nook.

There appears to be several programs around that can read the epub format.

Incidently I think the ACSM file is just a license that allows you to read the epub file. I don't know if ADE actually converts the file or if it simply downloads the epub file.

Hope this helps.