I cannot download epubs to ADE from Google Play. I get error 2038. I can download from Project Gutenberg. What can I do?

[fogbrain]

The last two books I purchased from Google Play will not download to Adobe Digital Editions on my iMac running OSX 10.9.5.  To see if the problem affected all epub downloads instead of just Google play books, I tried downloading books from Overdrive and Project Gutenberg.  There was no problem.  It seems to me that this outcome suggests that the problem is with google, not ADE and not my iMac.  Is that a reasonable conclusion?  If not, I would appreciate any advice.  If so, how do I convince Google that the problem might be on their end.  The support people at Google don't seem to have a setup that they can use to test a download to ADE.

[fogbrain]

I found a workaround.  When I try to download from Google Play site to ADE I get error 2038 telling me of an I/O network error, and the download fails.  The error message gives me the URL for the book I was trying to download.  If I enter that URL directly into my browser it launches a process that looks exactly the same as if I had chosen the "Download ePub" option, but this time it works. I guess that means that the part that is broken is the "Download ePub" functionality in Google Play.

[fogbrain]

In my last message, when I said I found a workaround, I was only partially right.  The method I described allowed me to download the book to my imac, and it opened in ADE.  But ADE was just reading it, and had not added the book to the library.  The good news was that I was able to use ADE functionality to add the book to my ADE library.  So far so good.  But apparently the copy that now resides in ADE does not allow copying to an ereader device.  So, my problem is only partly solved.  I can successfully download the book and make it a part of my ADE library.  But I cannot transfer it to my kobo - which was the objective of the whole exercise.

So I am hoping that I have given enough info to Google that the company can decide that the issue is not with ADE and can give some attention the issue.

[Deborah_Craytor]

I am having the same problem, although the error message I am getting is different:  Error getting License.  License Server Communication Problem:  E_STREAM-ERROR.  When I tried from a different computer using an older version of ADE, I got the same 2038 error code you got:

Tiny_Sunbirds_Far_Away:

IO Error on Network Request.

Please check your network connection and try again.

Network Path:

https://books.google.com/books/download/Tiny_Sunbirds_Far_Away.epub?acsid=urn:uuid:a709a12b-3f13-2a5...

Event Detail:

Error #2038

I can't try your partial workaround because I am not at my work computer today; when I tried it on this computer, I get the following error message:  Unable to open Tiny_Sunbirds_Far_Away.epub.  Errors were encountered in this item C:\Users\user\Downloads\Tiny_Sunbirds_Far_Away.epub.

Like you, I can download without difficulty from Overdrive and Kobo.  I hope somebody here can help; otherwise, I'm going to stop purchasing from Google because, although I can read my books in the Google Play app on my tablet, I can't back them up to my desktop (which makes me very nervous ever since Barnes & Noble made it impossible to back up ebooks purchased there).

[fogbrain]

I have had several conversations with Google Play support, and the answer has not swerved from saying that this is an ADE problem, and that I have to look to Adobe for support.  Fat chance of that, as far as I can tell. So, I guess nothing is going to happen and, like you, I will look elsewhere to buy epubs.  Fingers are crossed, but with no expectation of anything.

[fogbrain]

After reading on mobilereads forum I downloaded ADE version 4.03.  Now download works

[noone9999]

I didn't see anything on mobileread about 4.03.  Mobileread says 2.0 will fix this.  It's a very bad idea to install 4.03.  4.03 is able to use a new drm which will not allow me to read my purchased books on my Sony ereader because my Sony cannot use the new drm.

[fogbrain]

I cannot answer your question.  4.03 worked for me on my nook and my kobo, but I have not tried it with my old Sony Pocket.

[noone9999]

It works now, but the new drm could be turned on at any time. When the new drm is turned on it won't work on any older eink reader and probably the newer ones as well.

[fogbrain]

Then either you and some others of us are up the creek, or epub vendors will figure out they need to adapt, or you will need to find a way around DRM.  My concern is that my favorite epub vendor appears to not understand that they have been part of a problem for some of us already.  They were quick to say that my problem was an Adobe problem, without recognizing that they were relatively uniquely having the problem with Adobe.  And they knew so little about Adobe, as I did, that they did not recognize that a not insubstantial number of customers still use 1.7.2 of ADE, which as far as I can tell no longer works with Google ePubs.  (maybe I am wrong on this, but I gave up trying after three download failures)  In my opinion, someone at Google should have learned that an upgrade to something newer than several years old ADE software would quickly solve the problem for some of their customers.  So, if a future change in DRM is imminent, as you suggest, I hope that they will be better clued in to the situations of those of us that like to download to a third party ereader than read on a tablet or phone.  I think it is not an encouraging sign that support people don't have any way to see the problem - they don't appear to have ereaders and ADE with which to test, and therefore better understand, customer problems when downloading for ereader usage.

[Deborah_Craytor]

fogbrain, I don't know if it's relevant or not, but I was running ADE 2.0 when I encountered my Google Play download issues.  Thanks to your suggestion, I did download ADE 4.0, which has worked successfully thus far.

[noone9999]

You don't need 4.x, the latest 2.01 works.  I had 2.0.67532 on my laptop and couldn't download from Google, and updating to 2.01.78765 worked.  Download from  Adobe Digital Editions downloads

[tedweinstein]

This solution works. Spread the word.

noone9999 Jun 9, 2015 8:50 AM (in response to fogbrain)

You don't need 4.x, the latest 2.01 works.  I had 2.0.67532 on my laptop and couldn't download from Google, and updating to 2.01.78765 worked.  Download from  Adobe Digital Editions downloads