Change the directory of the digital editions library

[Jan1657]

I want to change the standart directory "C:\Users\...\Documents\My Digital Editions" for the library to a custom one. Is it possible?

[Jeff A Wright · Accepted solution]

Moving this discussion to the Adobe Digital Editions forum.

Jan it is not possible to customize the location of the My Digital Editions folder within Adobe Digital Editions.

[sjpt]

As Jeff says, ADE is too unhelpful to allow this.

If you are a little technical, you can do it using symbolic directory links.

1. Move the "C:\Users\...\Documents\My Digital Editions" to wherever you want it, for example "d:\My Digital Editions"
2. You might make a safe copy as well, just in case.
3. Open a command prompt as administrator.  Type cmd in start menu, right click on cmd.exe and 'run as administrator'
4. Run the command    mklink /d "C:\Users\...\Documents\My Digital Editions" "d:\My Digital Editions"
5. Quit the command promt with exit
   

[Cameron22133190hfp2]

This is a great solution, thanks so much! For Mac users, here's the equivalent:

1. Make a backup of your Digital Editions folder.
2. Assuming you have iCloud Drive set up, move the Digital Editions folder to iCloud Drive (wherever you like).
3. In Terminal, create a symbolic link in your Documents folder, directing to the iCloud version:

ln -s /Users/[username]/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com\~apple\~CloudDocs/[whatever_location]/Digital\ Editions /Users/[username]/Documents

Note that it works perfectly on Mac OS Monterey, but only partly for Mojave. On my Mac running Mojave, it didn't manage to find the library, and only a couple of books appeared and worked properly (those purchased directly via Adobe account).

To work well across both Mac OS versions, what worked for me was keeping everything local on the Mojave-running Mac, except for the Annotations folder. I then created a symbolic link for that folder only:

ln -s /Users/[username]/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com\~apple\~CloudDocs/[whatever_location]/Digital\ Editions/Annotations /Users/[username]/Documents/Digital\ Editions

 That seems to be working fine.

Note that you can drag folders from Finder into the Terminal window, to save having to type all that.

Really disappointing that Adobe doesn't bother to include such basic functionality, provides no support for ADE, and yet continues to hold a monopoly.

[Cameron22133190hfp2]

PS I got carried away describing the fix I was looking for, and forgot the OP's actual question.

If you only want to change the folder's location, it's even easier:

1. Still make a backup of your Digital Editions folder 🙂
2. Move the Digital Editions folder to the new location.
3. In Terminal, use this command to set up the symbolic link:

ln -s [new_location]/Digital\ Editions /Users/[username]/Documents

Note that the new location has to be the full file path. The easiest way to enter the folders' paths is to type ln -s (but don't hit enter), then drag the new file folder from Finder into the Terminal window, then drag the Documents folder the same way. The new folder, wherever it is, should still be called Digital Editions, though, so ADE thinks it's looking in the expected place.

[AmonRa]

Does this still work? I might be doing something wrong, but just tried these steps and the folder is being recreated in the original location.

[AmonRa]

Forgot to say: I am trying the Windows version.