Kobo sage - worthless without Libby

[Bilipso]

Title says it's all
Currently leaving in Israel reading books in Hebrew. Local digital libraries support overdrive
But my Kobo really doesn't. All permutations of:
Overdrive, Libby, in built kobo browser and Adobe a and prayer and tears - failed. Only thing that would work is by some miracle injecting the Libby app to kobo.
It's such a new and beautiful device and his worthless to me. Ever so dependent on your infinite knowledge humbly Ophir

[MGlitch]

From the homescreen-‘more’-‘settings’-‘overdrive’

I suggest making an overdrive account and associating any library cards with that, then logging in to your overdrive account on your Sage. It prompts you for your library login but below this is an option to login with your overdrive account. You still have to pick a library to get to the login step.

Any search on the Sage will use that library. However if you have multiple cards you can use Libby to borrow from any of the libraries and then sync your Kobo. This works for the most part, it won’t work if Kobo doesn’t have the book you borrowed. Of course you can always sideload it using the traditional steps to do so.

[DNSB]

Looking at Kobo's site, I found the following item: What country is OverDrive available in? though I would quibble that it should be What countries is...

You should be able to use ADE to download the books from your library and copy them to your Sage. An alternative would be to use calibre and the ACSM input plugin to download the books directly into calibre and then send them to your Sage. Both of those solutions pretty much require you to have a valid Adobe ID.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Looking at Kobo's site, I found the following item: What country is OverDrive available in? though I would quibble that it should be What countries is...

You should be able to use ADE to download the books from your library and copy them to your Sage. An alternative would be to use calibre and the ACSM input plugin to download the books directly into calibre and then send them to your Sage. Both of those solutions pretty much require you to have a valid Adobe ID.

OTOH: The original poster said OverDrive is available in Israel.

Currently leaving in Israel reading books in Hebrew. Local digital libraries support overdrive

I looked at the same page as you, but wonder if it just has not been updated?

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

OTOH: The original poster said OverDrive is available in Israel.

I looked at the same page as you, but wonder if it just has not been updated?

I was presuming the same. Though it’s also a possibility that Kobos list is really a list of where they support overdrive via the device. Though the text would be rather misleading if that were the case.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Looking at Kobo's site, I found the following item: What country is OverDrive available in? though I would quibble that it should be What countries is...

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

OTOH: The original poster said OverDrive is available in Israel.

I looked at the same page as you, but wonder if it just has not been updated?

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I was presuming the same. Though it’s also a possibility that Kobos list is really a list of where they support overdrive via the device. Though the text would be rather misleading if that were the case.

Overdrive is available in a lot of countries that are not in that list. What that list shows is the countries in which Overdrive is available AND supported on Kobo devices. To quote from Overdrive: Common Questions:

OverDrive Compatibility

The built-in OverDrive feature for Kobo eReaders is only compatible in:
Canada
United States
United Kingdom
Australia
New Zealand
Denmark
Finland
Norway
Sweden
Taiwan
Hong Kong
Singapore

The built-in OverDrive feature is only available for these Kobo eReaders:
Kobo Sage
Kobo Libra 2
Kobo Elipsa
Kobo Nia
Kobo Libra H2O
Kobo Forma
Kobo Aura ONE
Kobo Aura Edition 2
Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2
Kobo Clara HD

See OverDrive: Common questions which I didn't bother to link since it is linked in the article I originally linked.

[lesley9]

Queens Public Library in New York allows out-of-country users to register for an ecard for an annual fee of @US$50. Not sure how Overdrive restrictions play in to this. I know of UK users who take advantage of it but haven't come across people outside of official Overdrive countries. I suppose there's always a way.

[Uncle Robin]

Although the thread title is a touch hyperbolic (true for the OP, not universally), one problem with Overdrive access even in those countries where Koobo offers it is that the edition must be for sale on Kobo. This problem is one reason why in 4 years of owning Kobo in one of the countries listed, I've borrowed from Overdrive exactly twice. My Overdrive libraries have the books, but not the exact edition Kobo is selling, therefore, nada.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by lesley9

Queens Public Library in New York allows out-of-country users to register for an ecard for an annual fee of @US$50. Not sure how Overdrive restrictions play in to this. I know of UK users who take advantage of it but haven't come across people outside of official Overdrive countries. I suppose there's always a way.

I suspect it’d be the same result, I’m guessing overdrive doesn’t show at all in OPs settings.

Not sure if setting up a VPN to one of the supported countries when setting up the Sage would do the trick. Though unless OP already has one or has additional uses for one I don’t see it being worthwhile especially if it needs to be maintained for the Sage to support overdrive. It’s not particularly hard to side load.

[Colonel Cathcart]

I'm in the same boat (=country) as the OP.
No Hebrew books are displayed when browsing/searching. You can't search in Hebrew, not without modding, anyway.
If you borrow books using Libby, only English books are synced, not Hebrew.

[einkerem]

I set up my Libra 2 in USA and overdrive worked. Now it isn't showing up in the settings for what is most likely the already mentioned reasons. Today I am going to try to log in using a vpn wifi hotspot set up via my phone and see if that works. FWIW, I linked my libraries to a general overdrive account but still had to choose the library I most often used. If using a vpn/mock location works, you should also be able to switch libraries. BTW, I also noticed that I couldn't log into Adobe in the setting on my device which is currently using a local Israel ip

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

I'm in the same boat (=country) as the OP.
No Hebrew books are displayed when browsing/searching. You can't search in Hebrew, not without modding, anyway.
If you borrow books using Libby, only English books are synced, not Hebrew.

The basic problem here is that Kobo does not have a presence in Israel. They have country specific stores which can be seen by clicking the flag at the top of the stores web page. And there is no support for Hebrew. It isn't listed on the stores web-page or the available languages for the UI in the device. Books in Hebrew can be read as long as they use an appropriate font.

For a book borrowed via Libby to download to the device, it needs to be available in the Kobo store. And it needs to be the same edition. Which usually means the same ISBN. And, as far as I can tell, Kobo have very few Hebrew books. I tried to find them with https://www.kobo.com/au/en/search?qu...fclanguages=he. That returned 269 results of which 175 where ebooks. Changing the country part of the, the "au", to "us", "uk", "ww" (the non-country specific store) or "fr", did not produce any better results. But, that does not find books written in Hebrew that do not have the correct language set.

If my search is correct, then only those 269 or so Hebrew language books can download to the device if borrowed through Libby. But for you to do that, the library you use must have a copy of the book.

But all this means is that you are getting what was advertised. Kobo does not claim support for all countries or languages. The supported countries and languages are fairly easy to find. If you want to change that, report it to Kobo. Or find a local book store chain and encourage them to talk to Kobo. That is my understanding of how some of the newer languages were added. Or talk publisher for Hebrew books and encourage them to publish through Kobo.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Although the thread title is a touch hyperbolic (true for the OP, not universally), one problem with Overdrive access even in those countries where Koobo offers it is that the edition must be for sale on Kobo. This problem is one reason why in 4 years of owning Kobo in one of the countries listed, I've borrowed from Overdrive exactly twice. My Overdrive libraries have the books, but not the exact edition Kobo is selling, therefore, nada.

I don’t often run into this issue, but when I do, I simply borrow the book with my Kindle instead. I realize not everyone has that option, though. Last weekend I borrowed seven books, most in the public domain, and only ONE of the books synced. So now I can’t say I don’t often run into this issue. Haha

The books existed in Kobo’s store, but the ISBN’s didn’t match. What a pain it was to hunt them down on the Kobo eReader. I wish Kobo would come up with a helpful solution, like a pop up that informs us that the book has no match, but then offers alternatives instead.

Libby/Overdrive also has issues if the books have identical titles. I’ve found that only one of the books will download in those instances.


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[einkerem]

follow the directions in this reddit comment https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/commen...drive_on_kobo/ . I used a family member's address in the US - but i think you can use any address since nothing was confirmed
and entered no credit card info and overdrive is now showing up and syncing with Libby. No vpn, no gimmicks.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by einkerem

follow the directions in this reddit comment https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/commen...drive_on_kobo/ . I used a family member's address in the US - but i think you can use any address since nothing was confirmed
and entered no credit card info and overdrive is now showing up and syncing with Libby. No vpn, no gimmicks.

That's a known workaround and has been discussed plenty of times here. But, it doesn't help anyone who wants to use a library in Israel and I suspect it will not help someone looking for books in Hebrew. Which are the situations being discussed here. Does the library you are using have Hebrew books? And can you borrow them through the device? Or download them directly when borrowed via Libby?