## Alternatives to kobodl Some people prefer `kobodl` because it's **standalone**, which means you don't need other proprietary software like Adobe Digial Editions or Kindle for PC (that I can't use on Linux). However, there is also a way to do this with [Calibre](https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre) and 2 plugins: * [Leseratte10/acsm-calibre-plugin](https://github.com/Leseratte10/acsm-calibre-plugin) - A plugin that can read Adobe Digital Editions files that Kobo web download produces. * [Satsuoni/DeDRM Tools](https://github.com/Satsuoni/DeDRM_tools) - The (latest fork) popular DRM removal plugin. Now you can just download the `.acm` file from your book list on Kobo.com and load it into Calibre desktop! It **doesn't work with audiobooks** and is a little harder to set up. I will still keep kobo-book-downloader functioning as long as I can, and bug reports are still appreciated! --- ![kobodl logo](docs/kobodl.png) ![GitHub Workflow Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/build.yml?branch=main&style=for-the-badge) ![GitHub release (latest by date)](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader?style=for-the-badge) ![PyPI - Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/kobodl?style=for-the-badge) ![PyPI - License](https://img.shields.io/pypi/l/kobodl?style=for-the-badge) ![PyPI](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/kobodl?style=for-the-badge) # kobodl This is a hard fork of [kobo-book-downloader](https://github.com/TnS-hun/kobo-book-downloader), a command line tool to download and remove Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection from media legally purchased from [Rakuten Kobo](https://www.kobo.com/). The resulting [EPUB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB) files can be read with, amongst others, [KOReader](https://github.com/koreader/koreader). > **NOTE:** You must have a kobo email login. See "I can't log in" in the troubleshooting section for how to workaround this requirement. ## Features kobodl preserves the features from [TnS-hun/kobo-book-downloader](https://github.com/TnS-hun/kobo-book-downloader). * stand-alone; no need to run other software or pre-download through an e-reader. * downloads `.epub` formatted books It adds several new features. * **audiobook support**; command-line only for now. * Use `kobodl book get`. There will not be a download button in the webpage for audiobooks because they consist of many large files. * **multi-user support**; fetch books for multiple accounts. * **web interface**; adds new browser gui (with flask) * [docker image](https://github.com/subdavis/kobodl/pkgs/container/kobodl) * [pypi package](https://pypi.org/project/kobodl/) * [pyinstaller bundles](https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/releases/latest) ## Web UI WebUI provides most of the same functions of the CLI. It was added to allow other members of a household to add their accounts to kobodl and access their books without having to set up python. ### User page ![Example of User page](docs/webss.png) ### Book list page ![Example of book list page](docs/books3.png) ## Installation ### pipx ``` bash pipx install kobodl ``` ### pip ``` bash pip install kobodl ``` ### Pre-built bundles No python installation necessary. Simply download the appropriate executable from [the latest release assets](https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/releases/latest) and run it from the command line. Pre-built bundles are CLI-only (no web server) so use a different install option if you want that feature. ``` bash # Linux wget https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/releases/latest/download/kobodl-ubuntu chmod +x kobodl-ubuntu ./kobodl-ubuntu ``` ``` bash # MacOS (Catalina 10.15 or newer required. For older versions, use the pip or docker install option) wget https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/releases/latest/download/kobodl-macos chmod +x kobodl-macos # Remove the quarentine attribute. I have not paid the $99 apple tax to properly sign this app # Note: You may also need to go into Settings -> Privacy & Security and allow this executable to run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine kobodl-macos ./kobodl-macos ``` ``` powershell # Windows Powershell example wget "https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/releases/latest/download/kobodl-windows.exe" -outfile "kobodl.exe" ./kobodl.exe ``` ### docker > *Note*: for rootless docker installations (uncommon), omit the `--user` argument. ``` bash # list users docker run --rm -it --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \ -v ${HOME}/.config:/home/config \ ghcr.io/subdavis/kobodl \ --config /home/config/kobodl.json user list # run http server docker run --rm -it --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \ -p 5000:5000 \ -v ${HOME}/.config:/home/config \ -v ${PWD}:/home/downloads \ ghcr.io/subdavis/kobodl \ --config /home/config/kobodl.json \ serve \ --host 0.0.0.0 \ --output-dir /home/downloads/kobodl_downloads ``` [Also see the **docker-compose** example file.](./docker-compose.yml) ## Usage General usage documentation. > **Note**: These are commands you type into a shell prompt like Terminal (Ubuntu, MacOS) or Powershell or CMD (Windows). You may need to replace `kobodl` with `./kobodl.exe`, `./kobodl-macos-latest`, or something else, depending on which installation method you chose. ``` bash # Get started by adding one or more users kobodl user add # List users kobodl user list # Remove a user kobodl user rm email@domain.com # List books kobodl book list # List books for a single user kobodl book list --user email@domain.com # List all books, including those marked as read kobodl book list --read # Show book list help kobodl book list --help # Download a single book with default options when only 1 user exists # default output directory is `./kobo_downloads` kobodl book get c1db3f5c-82da-4dda-9d81-fa718d5d1d16 # Download a single book with advanced options kobodl book get \ --user email@domain.com \ --output-dir /path/to/download_directory \ --format-str '{Title}' \ c1db3f5c-82da-4dda-9d81-fa718d5d1d16 # Download ALL books with default options when only 1 user exists kobodl book get --get-all # Download ALL books with advanced options kobodl book get \ --user email@domain.com \ --output-dir /path/to/download_directory \ --format-str '{Title}' \ --get-all # Download books organized into subdirectories by author kobodl book get \ --output-dir /path/to/library \ --format-str '{Author}/{Title}' \ --get-all ``` ### Format string options The `--format-str` option supports the following fields: - `{Author}` - Book author(s) - `{Title}` - Book title - `{ShortRevisionId}` - First 8 characters of the revision ID (useful for avoiding filename collisions) You can use `/` in the format string to organize books into subdirectories. For example: - `'{Author}/{Title}'` creates `Author Name/Book Title.epub` - `'{Author} - {Title} {ShortRevisionId}'` creates `Author Name - Book Title a1b2c3d4.epub` (default) Running the web UI ``` bash kobodl serve * Serving Flask app "kobodl.app" (lazy loading) * Environment: production WARNING: This is a development server. Do not use it in a production deployment. Use a production WSGI server instead. * Debug mode: off * Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000/ (Press CTRL+C to quit) ``` Global options ``` bash # argument format kobodl [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]... # set python tabulate formatting style. kobodl --fmt "pretty" COMMAND [ARGS]... # set config path if different than ~/.config/kobodl.json kobodl --config /path/to/kobodl.json COMMAND [ARGS]... # get version kobodl --version # enable debugging, prints to "debug.log" kobodl --debug [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]... ``` ## Troubleshooting > Some of my books are missing! Try `kobodl book list --read` to show all "finished" and "archived" books. You can manage your book status on [the library page](https://kobo.com/library). Try changing the status using the "..." button. > I see a mesage about "skipping _____" when I download all. Try to download the book individually using `kobodl book get `, replacing `revision-id` with the UUID from the list table. > Something else is going wrong! Try enabling debugging. Run `kobodl --debug book get` (for example), which will dump a lot of data into a file called `debug.log`. Email me this file. Do not post it in public on an issue because it will contain information about your account. My email address can be found on my [github profile page](https://github.com/subdavis). ## Development This project uses [Python Poetry](https://python-poetry.org/). I also personally like `pyenv` and the pyenv-virtualenv addon. I install these with homebrew (MacOS). ```bash # Optional if you use pyenv pyenv install 3.11 pyenv virtualenv 3.11 kobo-book-downloader echo "kobo-book-downloader" >> .python-version git clone https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader cd kobo-book-downloader poetry install # Run command line app poetry run kobodl # Run linting poetry run tox -e lint # Run standalone bundle generation poetry run tox -e buildcli # Run type checks poetry run tox -e type ``` ## Notes kobo-book-downloader uses the same web-based activation method to login as the Kobo e-readers. You will have to open an activation link—that uses the official [Kobo](https://www.kobo.com/) site—in your browser and enter the code. You might need to login if kobo.com asks you to. Once kobo-book-downloader has successfully logged in, it won't ask for the activation again. kobo-book-downloader doesn't store your Kobo password in any form; it works with access tokens. Credit recursively to [kobo-book-downloader](https://github.com/TnS-hun/kobo-book-downloader) and the projects that lead to it. ## FAQ **How does this work?** kobodl works by pretending to be an Android Kobo e-reader. It initializes a device, fetches your library, and downloads books as a "fake" Android app. **Why does this download KEPUB formatted books?** Kobo has different formats that it serves to different platforms. For example, Desktop users generally get `EPUB3` books with `AdobeDrm` DRM. Android users typically get `KEPUB` books with `KDRM` DRM, which is fairly easy to remove, so that's what you get when you use this tool. **Is this tool safe and okay to use?** I'm not a lawyer, and the discussion below is strictly academic. The author(s) of `kobodl` don't collect any information about you or your account aside from what is made available through metrics from GitHub, PyPi, Docker Hub, etc. See `LICENSE.md` for further info. Kobo would probably claim that this tool violates its [Terms of Use](https://authorize.kobo.com/terms/termsofuse) but I'm not able to conclusively determine that it does so. Some relevant sections are reproduced here. > The download of, and access to any Digital Content is available only to Customers and is intended only for such Customers’ personal and non-commercial use. Any other use of Digital Content downloaded or accessed from the Service is strictly prohibited This tool should only be used to download books for personal use. > You may not obscure or misrepresent your geographical location, forge headers, use proxies, use IP spoofing or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any message or transmittal you send on or through the Service. You may not pretend that you are, or that you represent, someone else, or impersonate any other individual or entity. This might be a violation. This client announces itself to Kobo servers as an Android device, which can safely be construed as "manipulating identifiers", but whether or not the purpose is to "disguise the origin" is unclear. > Kobo may also take steps to prevent fraud, such as restricting the number of titles that may be accessed at one time, and monitoring Customer accounts for any activity that may violate these Terms. If Kobo discovers any type of fraud, Kobo reserves the right to take enforcement action including the termination or suspension of a User’s account. In other words, you could have your account suspended for using `kobodl`. **Please open an issue on the issue tracker if this happens to you.**