Can't open non-DRM pdb files on nook

[captobie]

I've been trying to open some non-DRM .pdb files on my nook, but every time I do I get prompted for my name and credit card number.  But, like I said, they are non-DRM and aren't supposed to need this.  They open fine with eReader on the computer and on my Windows Phone, but not on my nook.  Anyone else run into this or have a solution?

[debiant]

I will hopefully be able to tell you tomorrow

[icebike]

Did you put them on the nook with Adobe Digital Editions?

[icebike]

If you are the original purchaser of these non-drm books, just key in the credit card

and be done with it.  (Its a one time thing).

If you keyed in that card on the iPhone and/or eReader previously, it remembers the

card(s).  If it encouteres a drm book, it tries the cards it has.  

So You might be actually opening DRM files without knowing it because the computer

programs already had keys for these.  You can test this on another computer.

[captobie]

No DRM.  I have tested this by loading them on both my phone and on different computers.  There is no credit card associated with the file (at least, there shouldn't be), and the files were previously in a different format and I used Calibre to convert them (again evidence of no DRM).  But just to humor it, I tried entering my card number.  Here's where it got strange... I enter my first and last name no problem, but every time I try to enter the credit card number the nook goes back to its home screen before I can finish entering the number.  Every time.  And trust me, entering any info using the nook onscreen keyboard is not fun (at least for fat fingers like me!).  For now I'll just keep reading those files on my phone. 

[debiant · Accepted solution]

Well if you use calibre, why not just convert it to epub?

[Rutter9]

This happens to me as well. I solved the problem by converting the pdb files into ePub using Calibre.

[captobie]

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debiant wrote:

Well if you use calibre, why not just convert it to epub?

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Well... DUH!  Works beautifully.  Thanks!

[wiredog]

So what do we do about reading pdb files if we're on the road and don't have a box to install calibre on? Check back tomorrow?

[Rutter9]

Well if your loading it before you leave... just convert it before hand?

[debiant]

No problem man. I would still report the problem to tech support though, because they do claim to support non-drm pdb files on the nook faq page.

[crane2]

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icebike wrote:

Did you put them on the nook with Adobe Digital Editions?

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The "latest" ADE doesn't recognize PDB; will only allow PDF & EPUB files to be added to the library; just tried with my dictionary.

[lkmiller]

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captobie wrote:

No DRM.  I have tested this by loading them on both my phone and on different computers.  There is no credit card associated with the file (at least, there shouldn't be), and the files were previously in a different format and I used Calibre to convert them (again evidence of no DRM).  But just to humor it, I tried entering my card number.  Here's where it got strange... I enter my first and last name no problem, but every time I try to enter the credit card number the nook goes back to its home screen before I can finish entering the number.  Every time.  And trust me, entering any info using the nook onscreen keyboard is not fun (at least for fat fingers like me!).  For now I'll just keep reading those files on my phone. 

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Whenever you're tapping the top center of the touch screen (where the numbers are), you have to be careful you don't accidentally hit the nook button.

[Docraj]

This problem persists with V1.2.0. Were it not for Calibre, this would have been a very serious issue for me as I have a good number of books in non-DRM pdb format purchased over the years from Fictionwise and eReader.

[icebike]

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Docraj wrote:

This problem persists with V1.2.0. Were it not for Calibre, this would have been a very serious issue for me as I have a good number of books in non-DRM pdb format purchased over the years from Fictionwise and eReader.

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Just to find out what all this fuss was about I signed up for a Fictionwise account and downloaded a  DRM-Free book (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).  Downloaded it in .PDB format, placed it directly on the nook in my Expansion MicrosSD card under Stevenson, Robert Louis directory.

Ejected the nook and opened the book.  Worked perfect.

Just for grins I grabbed the book, and dropped it on B&N Desktop reader and it opened perfectly there as well.

Worked for me with non-DRM books. 

Are you 100% positive you really know the format it was originally downloaded in?

Are you 100% sure you didn't have the recommended Secure format checked as a default when you downloaed from your book shelf?

What happens if you download some of these again from your FictionWise book shelf?

[cummings66]

It happens, I've got a couple non drm pdb books that do the same thing and my solution was to use Calibre and convert them to epub.  I don't know why it happens, but it does.  For me, yes I know for a fact they don't have DRM.

It's a non issue because I converted them to epub, which calibre will not convert any DRM'd book which tells you two things, the other person and myself both have ebooks that the Nook doesn't like.  Several others on the board in the past have said the same thing happened to them, but it's been before xmas.

[TNS]

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icebike wrote:

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Docraj wrote:

This problem persists with V1.2.0. Were it not for Calibre, this would have been a very serious issue for me as I have a good number of books in non-DRM pdb format purchased over the years from Fictionwise and eReader.

---

Just to find out what all this fuss was about I signed up for a Fictionwise account and downloaded a  DRM-Free book (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).  Downloaded it in .PDB format, placed it directly on the nook in my Expansion MicrosSD card under Stevenson, Robert Louis directory.

Ejected the nook and opened the book.  Worked perfect.

Just for grins I grabbed the book, and dropped it on B&N Desktop reader and it opened perfectly there as well.

Worked for me with non-DRM books. 

Are you 100% positive you really know the format it was originally downloaded in?

Are you 100% sure you didn't have the recommended Secure format checked as a default when you downloaed from your book shelf?

What happens if you download some of these again from your FictionWise book shelf?

---

 Its not all ebooks that have this problem.  I have about 8 that it occurs to.  These same books also originally did not work with calibre.  I contacted support at Calibre and John, who apparently supports the PDB, fixed it very quickly.  He mentioned in fixing them that they have 202 byte headers and are at a very old version of of Peanut Press PDB(later Palm media and finally ereader.com).  You would think that B&N, who now owns ereader.com  and has this working on other platforms, would be able to fix this quickly.  But I guess they so many other problems they were working on that this one will have to wait to 1.3.0. 

For now I have both the pdb's that won't read and Calibre produced epub's on my nook.

[icebike]

So just running these problem children thru Calibre brings them in line with the standard?  

You wouldn't even have to convert to epub, you could just convert from PDB to PDB and Calibre would fix them.

Yeah, I guess it would be nice if nook would read them, but it sounds to me like the old files don't conform to the standard, and some how 1.2.0 became sensitive to this whereas 1.1.1 wasn't.

Could someone post a link to one of these books on the web so that the nook developers could at least have something that demonstrates the flaw?

[darthjochen]

I know this is happening on PDB files that don't have DRM on them.  I wrote a book in word, converted it with no security on it to PDF, then used Calibre to convert to PDB.  From creation to nook this doc was in my control, never put any DRM on it.  Try and open it in PDB on the nook and its a no go, it wants the credit card it.

[icebike]

Which method did you use to get from Word to PDF?  PDF Writer, Distiller?  Which version?

(There is a known problem with the Older Mac version).

Buy the way, have you looked at Atlantis Word Processor?  Reads/Writes MS word files.  On the File menu, it has Save Special, which will write direct to epub.  It will set you back the princely sum of $30, but its pretty nice if you do this stuff often.