I have no great knowledge of encryption systems. I don’t know much about Python. But I’ve done my best to make the Dark Reverser’s, IHeartCabbage’s, Bart Simpson’s, CMBDTC’s, and others’ work more useful. And now here’s a blog where I hope to pull together links to the latest versions of various decryption code. Comments and links welcome!
I hope that everyone uses these dedrm tools only for personal access to the ebooks they have bought. Large scale distribution of dedrmed ebooks is not a good idea. No help will be given to anyone doing so.
An archive (tools_v4.8.zip) containing the Python scripts, DeDRM apps, and Calibre plugins for Mobipocket (.prc/.mobi), Kindle Mobipocket (.azw), Kindle Topaz (.tpz/.azw1), Kindle Print Replica (.azw4), Adobe ePub (.epub), Adobe PDF (.pdf), B&N ePub (.epub), B&N/Fictionwise eReader (.pdb) as mentioned in the Dark Reverser’s blog & in this blog can be found here:
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-4a2f247e.html
Thanks to some_updates and DiapDealer for putting this together. The archive contains ReadMe files for all the tools.
MD5 (tools_v4.8.zip) = d9ee03e287bf7e7c5269c2454a45ed97
As time goes on, the number of comments here increases, making it hard for new readers to know what’s relevant. So I’m going to be trimming the comments (and sometimes my posts!) every so often, removing threads which have raised issues that have been solved by current versions of the tools.
If you’ve found this post through a google search, do check out the full blog which contains separate posts on the various dedrm tools available. Check the posts and the comments — your question might already have been answered. Also, do check the ReadMe files in the tools archive.
— Alf.
***Before*** posting comments that report issues with the tools, please make sure you are using the very latest version of the tools (at this time it is version 4.8), and that you have fully read our FAQ which answers the most common questions and issues (it is not long!).
Announcing a new release of the “tools”
tools_v4.8.zip
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-4a2f247e.html
MD5 (tools_v4.8.zip) = d9ee03e287bf7e7c5269c2454a45ed97
Changes in this release:
- new version of eReaderPDB tools (erdr2pml.py) that now supports DRM version 11, fixes a bug in sidebars, and now accepts Dictionary formats as well. Contributed by Will – Thanks Will!
- new version of KindleBooks that properly supports generation of SVG page images from pages with complex layout that were previously spread across multiple pages, extends xml to accept new “grid” related tags, added table of contents to SVG version to allow easier navigation when reading in Safari or Firefox 5 or later, fixes bug with too long file names.
- new ReadMe_Linux_Users.txt file added with instructions for using Kindle for PC and Adobe Digitial Editions under Wine with the “tools”. Contributed by
mclien, eyeless, and pete – Thank you all!
- new version of DeDRM 3.1.app that now runs ePubFixer before checking to see if the file is in fact an ePub so that it will work better with horribly non-standard ePubs from Barnes and Noble (plus all of the bug fixes above).
- under additional (non-DRM) related tools, a new version of mobiunpack.py that adds support for NCX generation that has been rewritten to use classes.
Because of these changes all of the following have been updated:
DeDRM_3.1.app
DeDRM_WinApp_2.8
K4MobiDeDRM_v03.8_plugin.zip
eReaderPDB2PML_v06_plugin.zip
eReader_PDB_Tools
KindleBooks
Comment by some_updates — October 28, 2011 @ 4:51 pm |
Will these plug-ins continue to work after installing calibre updates..I belive the newest is version 0.8.39? I have them installed on the version I’m using now, and am not having any problems with them so far..
Comment by whoadammit — February 15, 2012 @ 5:01 pm |
Hi whoadammit,
They should unless Calibre breaks something in a particular release (which has happened rarely) and Calibre is usually very quick to fix any breakage that impacts their own plugins. I update calibre each week with no worries.
Comment by some_updates — February 15, 2012 @ 6:31 pm |
Does anyone knows anything about de-DRM-ing books bought in ITunes Store?
Comment by juanzaragozaalberich — December 18, 2011 @ 11:30 am |
I know it can’t currently be done.
Comment by DiapDealer — December 18, 2011 @ 1:13 pm |
Hi,
Furthermore, nobody here is even working on it. And no one we know of is working on it.
So We strongly recommend never buying any iBooks from the iTunes/iBooks store since they can’t be read on any device except an iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch.
Comment by some_updates — December 18, 2011 @ 3:26 pm |
I am trying to download tools_v4.8.zip. It downloads fine but I can’t unzip it. It says that the archive is in an unknown format or corrupted. I have tried using WinRar 3.51 and Windows own unzipper. Can you help? Philip
Comment by Philip — December 18, 2011 @ 4:05 pm |
Make sure you turn off/disable any download “accelerators” or “helpers” you may have installed and try to download it again.
I just downloaded it and checked with the built-in Windows extraction tool, Winrar and 7-Zip… and everything works as expected.
Comment by DiapDealer — December 18, 2011 @ 4:33 pm |
Hello, I am trying to install the ignobleepub plugin and keep getting the following error: Invalid plugin: no plugin found in [directory]. I’ve opened the .zip file and confirmed that the plugin IS there, so I’m not sure why calibre won’t recognize it. Any suggestions?
Comment by cbona — December 29, 2011 @ 12:38 am |
You must unzip the main archive, not just navigate inside it. The main archive must be unzipped, the plugins should not be unzipped, and you must navigate to the plugins folder and selected the (still zipped) plugins directly, You can’t just select the whole folder of tools.
Comment by Paul Durrant — December 29, 2011 @ 8:35 am |
Hi,
I’m using Calibre (portable) v0.8.31 and installed the v4.8 version of the Kindle plugin. I customized that plugin and entered the 16 digit serial number (without any spaces) of my Kindle Fire. I got a few books from amazon afterwards (DRM protected) and copied the .prc files from my Kindle to my desktop pc. When I try to undrm any of the books I get the following error message:
K4MobiDeDRM v0.3.8 Plugin
Error: No key found. Most likely the correct PID has not been given…
I tried to get the PID of that device with the ..\tools_v4.8\Mobi_Additional_Tools\KindlePID.pyw script but this fails as well with:
Please Wait …
Mobipocket PID calculator for Amazon Kindle. Copyright (c) 2007, 2009 Igor Skochinsky
Warning: unrecognized serial number. Please recheck input.
Error: Kindle PID Failed
What am I doing wrong?
Any help is appreciated
Comment by Highend — January 3, 2012 @ 6:44 pm |
The Kindle Fire is not like the other Kindles, and the tools don’t work with it. You’ll need an actual Kindle, or Kindle for Mac or Kindle for PC or even Kindle for iOS.
Comment by Paul Durrant — January 3, 2012 @ 7:06 pm |
For those that need a good uninstaller program, Revo Uninstaller works very well. It will remove the PC Registry entries. There is a free version here:
http://www.revouninstaller.com/start_freeware_download.html
If it is not acceptable to post links, mods please remove. If so, you can google Revo Uninstaller.
Carol
Comment by Carol — January 4, 2012 @ 6:45 pm |
hello, I am trying to install the plug in following step 7: “. Select one of the zip files in that folder”, the problem is that the plugins contained in the folder “tool_v4.8.zip” have no .zip extension thefore i cant select them via Calibra (there is nothing to select as the open dialog file from calibra looks for xxx.zip files only). could you please help? thank you very much
Comment by pluto — February 5, 2012 @ 8:16 pm |
The calibre plugins are in the folder Calibre_Plugins which is contained in the tools zip file. NB you MUST unzip the tools_v4.8.zip file before trying to install the plugins. Windows is letting you “see inside” the tools_v.8.zip file but that’s not good enough.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 5, 2012 @ 9:05 pm |
pluto said: the problem is that the plugins contained in the folder “tool_v4.8.zip” have no .zip extension thefore i cant select them via Calibra
tools_v4.8.zip is most certainly NOT a “folder.” It’s a zipped archive. You can’t use calibre’s openfile dialog to browse its contents. You need to extract the content of the tools_v4.8.zip file first (right click… “Extract All”). Then browse to the “Calibre_Plugins” folder in the extracted content. That’s where the plugin files are.
It’s really rather unfortunate that the Windows file browser treats zip files just like any other folder. That’s the root cause of most of this confusion.
Comment by DiapDealer — February 5, 2012 @ 9:09 pm |
I think you’re completely missing the point. Calibre will only install plugins from zip files. After you unzip the main archive, the plugins are not in zip files, so Calibre can’t install them.
Comment by DaringDew — February 14, 2012 @ 4:18 pm |
Hi DaringDew,
There are three main problems here:
1. Windows will allow apps to browse inside of zip archives without actually unpacking them first. If inside of a zip there are other zip archives, it will show them as unzipped as well. So what happens is people will unzip the tools_v4.8.zip to create the tools_v4.8 folder but inside of Calibre on Windows they will actually navigate to the tools_v4.8.zip not to the proper tools_v4.8 folder. They can NOT tell they have made that mistake because they do not have file extensions showing and because Windows makes the zip archive appear as if it is unzipped to them. This includes showing any “subfolders” inside that zip as being unzipped as well. So to the unwary Windows user, it appears that the zip archive was unzipped and that everything inside it was unzipped as well so there is no way to install the plugins.
This is why we strongly recommend renaming the tools_v4.8.zip archive (after extracting its contents) to tools_backup.zip. If people do that, they are less likely to navigate to the wrong location.
2. Unzipping the tools_v4.8.zip does *not* unzip separate zip archives that are stored in subfolders in that zip archive. This is the correct working of unzip. But people unzip the tools_v4.8.zip to create a tools_v4.8 folder but then for some reason do not navigate to the Calibre_Plugins folder which is inside the newly created tools_v4.8 folder. The actual plugins are still .zips inside of the Calibre_Plugins folder.
3. Because of points 1 and 2 above, people then try installing the entire tools_v4.8.zip as a plugin and of course that fails.
It is point 1 that causes us the most trouble with novice users who do not understand what unzipping does, who do not have file extensions enabled in their browser, who do not understand that they have navigated by mistake to the zip itself all because Windows nicely lets you look inside of any zip archive without alerting you to that fact (it makes them look like just another folder when viewed from inside of the file open dialog.
Hope this makes things clearer.
Comment by some_updates — February 14, 2012 @ 5:16 pm |
After you unzip the main archive, the plugins are most certainly in zip files. They are 5 zip files residing in the “Calibre_Plugins” folder after the main archive archive has been unzipped.
Comment by DiapDealer — February 14, 2012 @ 6:03 pm |
Hi there, I was wondering – once you remove the DRM from Amazon books and having a mobi instead of an azw – are there any traces left in the file that can lead back to me/my kindle?
Thanks, keep it up.
Tcito
Comment by Tcito — February 7, 2012 @ 7:21 pm |
Probably, but I don’t know for sure.
But since you’re only going to use the DeDRM tools for making sure you have access to/converting your own purchased ebooks, this isn’t a problem, is it?
From previous comments, I can tell you that the developers here have no interest in stripping identifying metadata from ebooks.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 7, 2012 @ 8:02 pm |
I want to buy a kobo reader, but my ebook collection is almost exclusively amazon’s format. Kobo reads .mobi format.I currently use kindle for pc (running through wine). Will this convert them properly? Or should I just save up a bit more and buy a kindle?
Comment by alyse — February 13, 2012 @ 11:48 pm |
From what I hear, the Kobo doesn’t read mobi well.
But to answer your question… yes the standalone tools are capable of removing the DRM from ebooks that are downloaded to K4PC running under WINE. If you’re fairly competent with Linux; know your way around a bash shell; and are familiar with the ins and outs of WINE configuration… check out the Linux Readme in the archive and have a go at it. However… if a point-and-click Linux GUI Desktop is the extent of your expertise… you may have a bit of a steep learning curve ahead of you.
You will not be able to use the calibre plugin to decrypt ebooks downloaded to K4PC under WINE.
Also note that these tools don’t convert anything. They just remove the DRM (with the exception of the Topaz tools).
Comment by DiapDealer — February 14, 2012 @ 1:46 am |
Would these set of tools allow me to use caliber to remove DRM from Google’s ebook? Actually I’m not sure what format they follow, likely not Kindle but not sure if they are using Adobe or something else.
Looks like a lot of excellent work here. I’m just starting. Just got e-reader, a Kindle, in Canada.
Comment by Ken — February 14, 2012 @ 4:03 am |
If Google’s ebooks can be read in Adobe Digital Editions, these tools should be able to do it, but I know nothing about Google’s ebook formats or DRM.
I do know that Apple’s iBooks DRM can’t be removed by these tools.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 14, 2012 @ 9:36 am |
I have an older set of the tools, and need to update them. Can I just download and go through the normal process, or do I need to delete or uninstall some things first?
Comment by JAC — February 14, 2012 @ 5:08 pm |
Hi JAC,
In general, you can just download the current tools and use them to replace the older versions. They do not put anything in the registry and can be deleted at will.
Typically adding a new version of a plugin in Calibre simply replaces the older version but because of mistakes we made with versioning for some plugins and changing the names at times, it is actually safer to use the Calibre menus to remove the old plugins first and then install the new ones, especially if you tools set is quite old.
Comment by some_updates — February 14, 2012 @ 5:38 pm |
Wondering if there is something different that would need to be done for a book borrowed from the Kindle Lending library and downloaded to a Kindle Fire. If I own the kindle, it seems I should be able to borrow the book and read it on any of my devices.
Comment by richjackman — February 14, 2012 @ 11:25 pm |
Hi,
These tools do not work for Kindle Fire devices. If you want to borrow an ebook for a different (non-kindle device) then you should borrow the correct version from the library. In general, we do not support drm removal from rented or library ebooks.
Comment by some_updates — February 15, 2012 @ 1:17 am |
It seems K4MobiDeDRM doesn’t work on all kindle books.
I have no problem using it with most of my books. But cannot remove the drm for this one,
Speed-Training-Martial-Arts-MMA
I am not sure why it’s like this. Other than the file is small (200kb) compared to other books, I didn’t see any difference.
Comment by tony — February 15, 2012 @ 12:55 am |
Hi,
Did your read the plugin README and run the calibredb add command to generate a proper error report? Without it we can’t be much help.
Comment by some_updates — February 15, 2012 @ 1:13 am |
thanks. this was very helpful.
i had purchased a book from kobo bookstore and wanted to be able to read it on my itouch and computer without the need to use the kobo apps. this worked perfectly.
Comment by ryan — February 15, 2012 @ 1:47 am |
Hi, I’ve tried to load the Calibre plugins and it keeps telling me it won’t work. I read all of the comments and questions above and made sure to unzip the main tools_v4.8, but NOT the specific Calibre plugin zip files. I get the following error message:
ERROR: ERROR: Unhandled exception: InvalidPlugin:No valid plugin found in C:/Users/Roxanne/Desktop/tools_v4.8/tools_v4.8/Calibre_Plugins/K4MobiDeDRM_v03.8_plugin.zip
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “site-packages\calibre\gui2\preferences\plugins.py”, line 176, in add_plugin
File “site-packages\calibre\customize\ui.py”, line 377, in add_plugin
File “site-packages\calibre\customize\ui.py”, line 93, in load_plugin
InvalidPlugin: No valid plugin found in C:/Users/Roxanne/Desktop/tools_v4.8/tools_v4.8/Calibre_Plugins/K4MobiDeDRM_v03.8_plugin.zip
Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.
Comment by Roxanne — February 16, 2012 @ 5:30 am |
It looks like you must be using an old version of calibre. The plugin interface changed quite a while back. Update to the current version of calibre and it should work.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 16, 2012 @ 7:49 am |
I updated my Calibre version like you said and IT WORKED!!! I just wanted to say thank you
Comment by Roxanne — February 19, 2012 @ 11:04 pm |
Downloaded a book from Amazon yesterday that I want to mark up in GoodReader. Installed latest version of Calibre (0.8.40) and then installed the Calibre plugins. However, I don’t know where to find the PID using Kindle Reader for Mac OS X? Thanks!
Comment by Jeff Terrell — February 18, 2012 @ 5:50 pm |
There isn’t one. The plug-in will pick up the necessary info from the Kindle for Mac preferences files.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 18, 2012 @ 6:58 pm |
I can’t seem to get my books to convert when taken off of my kindle. I tried the plugin for Calibre without success and then the stand alone program and neither could do it. I entered the serial of my device, so I’m not sure what the problem is. Any help would be appreciated.
Comment by Mitch M. — February 19, 2012 @ 6:59 am |
By Kindle I mean Kindle Fire. Sorry to be ambiguous.
Comment by Mitch M. — February 19, 2012 @ 7:00 am |
Kindle Fire is Android based. It uses a different method of calculating the DRM key than the other Kindle devices, and isn’t supported with the current tools. (Well, except for a manual hack of the Kindle for Android program, described somewhere in the readmes) If your main computer is Mac or Windows based, I’d recommend getting Kindle for Mac/PC and using that as the source of files to decrypt.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 19, 2012 @ 9:52 am |
calibre, version 0.8.21
ERROR: Eccezione non gestita: InvalidPlugin:The plugin in u’C:/Users/Daniela/Downloads/backup-tools_v4.8/DeDRM_3.1.app.zip’ is invalid. It does not contain a top-level __init__.py file
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “site-packages\calibre\gui2\preferences\plugins.py”, line 290, in add_plugin
File “site-packages\calibre\customize\ui.py”, line 339, in add_plugin
File “site-packages\calibre\customize\ui.py”, line 54, in load_plugin
File “site-packages\calibre\customize\zipplugin.py”, line 160, in load
File “site-packages\calibre\customize\zipplugin.py”, line 255, in _locate_code
InvalidPlugin: The plugin in u’C:/Users/Daniela/Downloads/backup-tools_v4.8/DeDRM_3.1.app.zip’ is invalid. It does not contain a top-level __init__.py file
Tried with win32 calibre 0.8.21 and win64 calibre 0.8.40.
Thank you
Comment by please help — February 19, 2012 @ 2:00 pm |
Hi,
You need to navigate to the Calibre_Plugins folder as directed in the instructions.
Please read those instructions carefully and also read the following
http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/hello-world/#comment-24778
And then try again.
Comment by some_updates — February 19, 2012 @ 3:31 pm |
Hallo. Due to inadequate support of windows built-in zip (which does not work with .gz linux-style archives), I have a third-party extension, namely IZArc. There is no evident option to extract non-recursively (please tell me how to do, if I am wrong). I tried of course to recreate the archives after they get unzipped recursively, but no joy. Is there some place where I could download the archives one by one? Or can you suggest a workaround? Thank you.
Comment by please help — February 19, 2012 @ 9:12 pm |
Use the built-in windows right-click/Extract All.
If your IZArc extension has removed/replaced the built-in function rather than adding an extra ability, I think you’re rather on your own.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 19, 2012 @ 9:56 pm |
I ahve tried using Calibre to crack my Kindle books. But when I try and add the file it says it does not contain a top level _init_.pyfile
am i doing something wrong?
Comment by David Quinton — February 19, 2012 @ 2:31 pm |
Hi,
Yes, please see and follow my reply to question 18 above. Following the instructions exactly is important.
Comment by some_updates — February 19, 2012 @ 3:32 pm |
Thank you. Think I have it now.
Comment by David Quinton — February 19, 2012 @ 4:18 pm |
I loaded the plugin in. But when I try and strip it, I get no key found. Most likely the correct PID has not been given. Where do I find the PID, and where do I install it so i can sort this out, please.
Comment by David Quinton — February 20, 2012 @ 3:21 pm |
Hi David,
Where are you getting that e-book from? If it is from Kindle for Mac or Kindle for PC, it should work out of the box. If it is from a standalone older Kindle, then you can simply enter your Kindle Serial Number in the plugin Customization. If it is from Kindle for iOS, then you can use the iOS device uuid to find a fixed PID. If it is from Kindle Fire, then no solution exists so you need to fall back to Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac.
Assuming you are using Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac, you should then take your ebook file directly from your “My Kindle Content” folder and NO WHERE ELSE and drag and drop it on Calibre to get the DRM removed (assuming a DRM’d version does not already exist in Calibre when you try the import).
If that does not work, then you have older pieces of Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac from previous installs hanging around that were never properly deleted. You can try simply deleting the book in question from Kindle for PC/Mac and downloading a fresh copy from your Kindle “Archive”. If that does not work, your only solution for Kindle for PC/Mac is to completely deregister your Kindle for PC/Mac and completely remove any an all old preference files and pieces left over from previous installs. On Windows, the easiest way to do this is to use a third party uninstaller program (see the links earlier in this blog for a good uninstaller for Windows). Once you have completely uninstalled all of the old pieces, install a fresh copy of Kindle for PC/Mac and register it using your original e-mail and password, and then download fresh copies from your Kindle “Archive” of all of your books. You should now be able to use the Calibre plugins from any ebook you have purchased.
Comment by some_updates — February 20, 2012 @ 3:38 pm |
I am having the same problem….Brand New download of Kindle for PC (New computer, so no previous remnants) Drag and Drop still has PID error. Book has been deleted from both applications and re downloaded. Same problem
Comment by Ryan Sharp — February 21, 2012 @ 11:37 pm |
Exactly the same problem for me, along with the KindleBooks program not being able to decrypt it.
Please Wait …
K4MobiDeDrm v3.9
Error: No key found. Most likely the correct PID has not been given.
DRM Removal Failed.
K4MobiDeDrm v3.9 provided by the work of many including DiapDealer, SomeUpdates, IHeartCabbages, CMBDTC, Skindle, DarkReverser, ApprenticeAlf, etc .
MobiDeDrm v0.32. Copyright 2008-2011 The Dark Reverser et al.
MOBI header version = 4, length = 248
Processing Book: test
No kindle.info files have not been found.
No K4PC 1.5.X .kinf files have not been found.
No K4PC 1.6.X .kinf files have not been found.
Crypto Type is: 2
Error: Encryption Removal Failed
Comment by joedl — February 22, 2012 @ 7:12 am |
That’s interesting. Are you sure you have Kindle for PC installed on the same machine and user account as your copy of calibre? Because the plugin isn’t finding any of the info that should be there.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 22, 2012 @ 7:53 am |
Yes, in fact I repeated the process with a fresh install of both Kindle for PC and Calibre with the plugins on my laptop and still receive the same error.
Comment by joedl — February 22, 2012 @ 9:21 am |
In that case I’ve sure the developers here would appreciate a note of your Windows version, Kindle for PC version, and whether a search of your disk finds /any/ .kinf files on your hard disk, and if so, where they are.
I seem to remember that someone had a problem because their registry was messed up.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 22, 2012 @ 12:54 pm |
Yes,
Just as Paul said, we will need more information:
- Windows Version
- Version of Kindle for PC
- a search of all file names in your home holder (and all subfolders) for any file with the extension .kinf
You should either use good file name search software and be sure to look carefully in AppData or Local\AppData or …
Comment by some_updates — February 22, 2012 @ 4:28 pm |
For me the setup is
Windows 7 x64
Kindle4PC 1.9.0
There is a file .kinf2011 in \AppData\local\Amazon\Kindle\storage
Comment by B — February 22, 2012 @ 4:34 pm |
Hi B,
The file extension is .kinf2011 and not just .kinf?
If that is true, it probably means a whole new .kinf file format with a new DRM scheme that would need to be broken. That is not gonna happen anytime soon as we simply do not have the time.
So if the file extension is .kinf2011 you will need to downgrade to Kindle for PC 1.8.X and make sure to turn off any and all auto-update.
Comment by some_updates — February 22, 2012 @ 4:49 pm |
Yes, the extension is like that!
Can you hint me to a download location for an old kindle version?
Comment by B — February 22, 2012 @ 4:52 pm
Ok, it works with Kindle ver 1.8.2
Comment by B — February 22, 2012 @ 5:01 pm
Thanks, think I have it working now.
Comment by David Quinton — February 22, 2012 @ 2:56 pm |
I have the exact same problem. Clean install of Kindle4PC, newest Calibre, newest plugin and I still get asked for the key!
Comment by B — February 22, 2012 @ 3:47 pm |
Or I did. it works for two. but not the updated copy of a book I got yesterday. I have tried adding the serial number, but cannot find the PID
Comment by David Quinton — February 22, 2012 @ 3:52 pm |
I installed Python, Pycrypto, and unpacked tools_v4.8.zip using Alf’s excellent instructions. KindleBooks tool works really well. One question – how can I get KindleBooks tool to remember my folder settings and Kindle serial number? Every time I close the tool my settings are lost. Its not hard reentering the serial number, but would be easier if the tool remembered my settings.
Many thanks for every ones hard work.
Comment by Bill T. Johnson — February 20, 2012 @ 5:35 pm |
Hi Bill,
If you are on Windows, try the DeDRM WinApp. Unzip it, put it whever you want and create a link to it from your Desktop. You can double-click it to configure it and once configured it can remember your keys and settings. To use it simply drag and drop ebooks on it. It is modelled after the DeDRM 3.app that works on MacOS X.
Comment by some_ updates — February 20, 2012 @ 6:13 pm |
Hi!
A few days ago I asked how exactly to proceed after downloading the zip file for Calibre. I was given a step by step tutorial, and it worked. Since then I had to use a backup, and now have to start from scratch.
I hardly know anything about zip files (or folders, I don’t even know what they are called, and have everything in Dutch) and don’t understand the above given explanation. Would you tell me again please?
I have the zip unpacked, and now have a separate folder -besides the one with a zipper on it- also called “tools v4,8″. Opening that one I see among others “Calibre Plugins.” In Calibre under “Preferences” I see “Plugins”, and clicking on that icon I see “Load pluging from file.” I choose “Download” where I saved the zip and I see both folders again. how do I proceed from there? Or what should I do differently?
Thank you beforehand,
Lode
Comment by Lode — February 20, 2012 @ 6:38 pm |
Hi Lode,
Rename the one with a zipper on to tools_backup.zip and don’t access it again. Always access the extracted version.
Then follow the step by step instruction give in our blog here:
http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/ebooks-formats-drm-and-you-—-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/
They tell you exactly how to install the Calibre plugins.
Comment by some_updates — February 20, 2012 @ 8:52 pm |
Thank you.
I guess I’m not doing something right: I can now install the 5 plugins in Calibre, but can’t make them “stick.” They all look zipped in my Download, and after installing the first one, 8 plugins appear in the Calibre plugin list. But as soon as I hit “Apply” on the top left on the plugin page, they’re all gone. The same with the other 4. When I restart Calibre, they’re not there either.
Comment by Lode — February 20, 2012 @ 10:25 pm |
You are looking for them in the “File type plugins” section of the plugins list?
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 21, 2012 @ 6:35 am |
I wasn’t. Thanks. I see a total of 9 plugins in section. But when I try to convert -or send a kindle book to my e-reader- I first get the message that no suitable format was found on my device and then one saying it is a DRM protected book and cannot converted.
This is strange to me, because when I try to send another kindle book I already had send to my e-reader I get the same messages. (I had send it when Calibre was working fine before I used the backup and installed it again.)
Comment by Lode — February 21, 2012 @ 8:47 am |
PS: The Kindle book I try to send again -to try it out- but cannot do now I still have on my e-reader. I remember that I had by mistake send 2 copies of a Kindle book before, and had both copies on the device. I had deleted one of them. But now I can’t send it again.
Comment by Lode — February 21, 2012 @ 8:53 am |
Lode,
DRM removal only happens when you import the book into Calibre, not when you transfer it to your device. So remove the DRM versions of the ebooks from Calibre.
If these are Kindle for PC/Mac ebooks, then simply try deleting the book from Kindle for PC/Mac and download a fresh copy form your Amazon “Archive”. Then taking the ebook file directly from your “My Kindle Content” folder import it into Calibre. During the import the DRM should be removed (assuming a copy of the book with DRM does not already exist in Calibre).
Comment by some_updates — February 21, 2012 @ 2:30 pm |
Thank you very much for that good explanation. Very helpful.
Glad to be able to read my latest kindle book on the e-reader… : D
Comment by Lode — February 21, 2012 @ 6:16 pm |
Just updated to Mac Lion. I downloaded the 4.8 tools and unzipped it. Opened the DeDRM_for_Mac_and_Win folder and unzipped the DeDRM_X.X.app.zip. The resulting apple script has a slash through it and when I try to run it, I get the message “You can’t open the application DeDRM_3.1.app because it may be damaged or incomplete.”
I’ve tried deleting the tools and reinstalling twice. I’m just not sure where I’m going wrong- any help would be very appreciated!
Comment by Jordan — February 21, 2012 @ 9:25 pm |
Hi,
Just tried it on my machine (Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3) and it works as expected. So fire up Terminal.app and make sure the tools_v4.8.zip you downloaded is not corrupt in any way. Assuming you have copied it to your Desktop do the following in Terminal.app
cd
cd Desktop
/sbin/md5 tools_v4.8.zip
You should see the following md5 checksum exactly:
d9ee03e287bf7e7c5269c2454a45ed97
If you do not, then your download has been corrupted and you should try downloading the tools_v4.8.zip again but this time disable any download accelerators.
If it matches, then the problem must be in how the unzip was done by whatever unzip software you have. So let’s try with the old standby command line version since you already have Terminal.app open:
cd
cd Desktop
unzip tools_v4.8.zip
cd tools_v4.8
cd DeDRM_for_Mac_and_Win
unzip DeDRM_3.1.app.zip
exit
Now try navigating to the tools_v4.8 folder and inside that to DeDRM_for_Mac_and_Win
Then try double-clicking on DeDRM 3.1.app and it should work. If not, that something is very strange about your set-up that is causing the problem. Perhaps you have some strange security software or hard disk drive issues?
This works exactly as expected on all versions of Mac OS X 10.5 and later including the very latest.
Comment by some_updates — February 22, 2012 @ 12:23 am |
The md5 checksum was exactly right so I used Terminal.app to unzip and it worked. Not sure what the problem was since I use my other program to unzip stuff all the time. Thanks so much for helping me out!
Comment by Jordan — February 22, 2012 @ 1:45 am |
Hi Jordan,
Mac unzip programs need to be aware of Mac specific resource forks/files. This is true of the standard unzip programs that come for Macs. If you have installed a third party unzip application, you should probably throw it out as it is not resource fork/file aware and therefore can never be used to unzip Applications and instead will only work for data files.
Comment by some_updates — February 22, 2012 @ 4:32 pm |
FYI: ***Amazon’s Kindle for PC 1.9.0 – breaks the tools***
Amazon has yet again decided to prevent ebook owners from reading their Kindle ebooks on their device of choice and archiving them for future protection in any format that is actually readable. They have changed their local secure storage file format completely. This will take a major reverse engineering effort to fix and one we are not ready to commit to.
So in other words … do not hold your breath.
Your only solution is to downgrade to Kindle for PC 1.8.X and immediately disable the autoupdate feature.
Comment by some_updates — February 22, 2012 @ 5:39 pm |
Hey, not sure if this is old news or not, but just a tip: I got movie a few weeks ago on itunes, and was looking around for a way to remove the drm from it so I could watch it on another computer (seriously…why do they DRM stuff I buy? If I intended to steal or be dishonest, I would have just got the movie from a torrent site to begin with) So I found a little program called Requiem. Requiem is a java freeware program that is made for removing DRM. It took the DRM off my movie…and as an unexpected bonus, I saw it removed the DRM from the drm’d ebooks in my itunes library as well. The version I found was 3.3 (it’s been out a loooong time, not sure if older versions do ebooks too).
Cheers
Comment by barbaricone — February 23, 2012 @ 9:03 am |
I have a bunch of .pdb and .mdb ebooks on my Palm which I am trying to migrate forward (to epub). There is a large handful I have been unable to open in Calibre, for one of two reasons.
1. I sometimes get the following error:
calibre, version 0.8.40
ERROR: Could not open ebook: No reader available for format within container.
Identity is q216KQii. Book type is Unknown
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “site-packages\calibre\gui2\viewer\main.py”, line 64, in run
File “threading.py”, line 483, in run
File “site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\iterator.py”, line 205, in __enter__
File “site-packages\calibre\customize\conversion.py”, line 204, in __call__
File “site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plugins\pdb_input.py”, line 27, in convert
PDBError: No reader available for format within container.
Identity is q216KQii. Book type is Unknown
2. I have been able to open some of them successfully in Mobipocket Reader. I have tried opening them in MR and then importing into Calibre using the most recent file. I get DRM problems. I have all my PIDs listed in the plugin, but it was so long ago that I bought some of them that I don’t have the “last eight digits” of the credit card used. Any suggestions?
Comment by Chimaera00 — February 23, 2012 @ 6:35 pm |
.pdb is usually eReader which, as you say, requires a name and number to decode. However, if you have any .pdb files that can actually be read by Mobipocket Reader, these are (I’m 99% sure) not going to be eReader files, but some early form of Mobipocket.
Try renaming the ones you can read in Mobipocket Reader with a ‘.prc’ extension, and use your Mobipocket Reader’s PID with the Mobipocket/Kindle DeDRM plugin and see if that will do the trick for decrypting them.
Comment by Paul Durrant — February 23, 2012 @ 6:59 pm |
Thank you so much for this tip and directions to Requiem 3.3. It worked here like a champ removing the DRM fro not only my ebooks in iTunes but movies and music too. For those who are looking to do this, it was simple and a very nice interface. If you want to just remove DRM from one file or ebook you just drag that file onto the app. If you want to do all of your files just double-click and start the app and each file is tracked as it is queued, processed and drm-stripped. original files are moved to the trash so make sure you do check each processed file or at least spot-check. I am wondering if anyone who can look at this Java-based app can figure out a way to use the app’s FairPlay-stripping algorithm in a Calibre plug-in? Also it would be nice if someone could contact the program’s author and perhaps include this in all updates of the Tools for us iTune users?
Comment by Thothamon — February 23, 2012 @ 7:22 pm |
One quick caveat on Requiem 3.3. FairPlay adds to a file information as to who is the purchaser. While Requiem does remove the DRM from an eBook it does not remove who bought that copy. So you would not want to upload to a file-sharing service. But if, like me, you just wish to use this to free your eBooks of DRM to read on other devices or readers this is now the way to go I think.
Comment by Thothamon — February 23, 2012 @ 10:51 pm |
Hi I have installed the plugin in Calibre and can see them in the extensions folder but when I try to import an amazon book that I bought to use with kindle for mac I get the “Error: No key found. Most likely the correct PID has not been given… ” error. I get pretty much the same error with DeDRM. I cannot see any solution for this in the comments (unless I’ve missed it) but from the general info on the site I think that what I’ve done should work. Can you give me so guidance as to what I might be doing wrong? Thanks
Comment by Nathan — February 24, 2012 @ 4:51 am |