Books Need Downloaded Again [ Edited ]

[Maddie302]

My tablet seems to work just fine. The only problem I continually encounter is that books that are downloaded and in my library don't stay downloaded. This seems to be exclusive to public doman books, but today I noticed I had to re-download a paid book - in addition to at least 30 more books. Every few weeks, I have to scroll through my books and look for little green download tags. I'm wondering if I need to be sure to open every book and not leave the NEW banner on it. Would that help? Thanks.

Edited to add: The *new* banner doesn't matter because I just found books that we had started to read that needed downloaded again. It's probably up to about 50 books that had to be downloaded again today, and as one book was being downloaded, I could see another pop up that needed to be downloaded again.  It's not a storage problem as I still have 67% available for B&N and 79% for me.

It's really just a time-consuming maintenance issue, but I'd like to know what's causing it.

[RenaS]

Hi, Maddie --

This is not a "bug" so much as an intentional design feature, introduced for the Nook Tablet (fortunately, the Nook Color does not work this way).  Basically, Barnes & Noble thinks it can manage your files better than you can -- and so it limits how much of your library can be downloaded at any one time.  Don't bother re-downloading the files -- it just deletes other files to make room for the ones you're currently re-downloading.  It's not even a smart deleting program, because it doesn't check to see if the book has been recently opened.  I think it must work strictly off the original download time and delete the earliest ones when it tries to make room.  Or "save" room -- there's plenty of room on the tablet, but they have intentionally limited how much can be used by your B&N library.

Yes, regardless of whether or not you're interested in streaming movies and videos, the Nook Tablet is preserving room so that apps like that can work.  What it boils down to is simple:  THE NOOK TABLET WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DOWNLOAD YOUR ENTIRE LIBRARY (unless your library is fairly small).  Tech support seems puzzled when this outrages you -- well, you can always re-download it, can't you?  You are forced into cloud storage.

There's no way of fighting this.  You can only work around it.  If you buy yourself a micro SD card, and sideload all your B&N books, then you can have access to them without having to re-download them.  Of course they'll show up twice in your library (unless you archive them all).  And sideloaded books are subject to the same problems as all non B&N books -- i.e., you won't have descriptions, and shelving them is useless since that information will inevitably be lost.

Welcome to the Nook Tablet.  (Can you tell I'm just a little bit furious about this?)

RenaS

[laurieb52]

Reina's response is inaccurate. She is misinterpreting the statement in the user guide "only five books can be downloaded at a time". This does NOT mean that only five books at a time can remain fully downloaded on your device; it means when you purchase more than 5 books at a time, the nook will only download five books at once. As soon as those five books are downloaded, you can download another set of five books, and so on. I have over 600 books that have been fully downloaded and immediately accessible on my nook tablet since day one. Those same 600 books were on my nook color, and remain on my nook color as well (gifted to my mother).

There is no bug or intentional design on the nook tablet that only allows 5 books to be downloaded and REMAIN on your nook at one time. The process is the same as it was for the nook color, and for the nook first edition before that.  The only time you should have to redownload a book is  if you archive a book, if you repartition your device, or if you deregister and reregister your device. Occasionally a glitch has occurred for some folks when they received a software upgrade, but it is not a typical occurrence.

Are you sharing your library with someone else on another device who is archiving a book after s/he has read it?  My sister also has a nook tablet and shares my account. When she first started using it, she used to archive a book after she read it, which would require me to redownload the book if  wanted to read it.

If you are not sharing an account with someone else, and you have not recently received the 1.4.2 update, there may be something wrong with your device.

[Maddie302]

Thank you Reina and Laurie for your responses. No one shares my account or has access to my Nook. I only have 1500 books (108 are sideloaded) on my Tablet and just a few apps; no movies. I have plenty of storage space - 67% and 79% respectively.

I scrolled through my library a few minutes ago, and this week, I had green download tags on about 20 books. I don't understand why a book doesn't stay downloaded when it originally came in just fine, and I may have even started reading it.

I've started to make it a habit to go to the Barnes and Noble site and access My Library online. There, I can also download the book to my computer. At least I have a copy then that won't disappear and the books can be sideloaded in the future if necessary.

I do think I may have a problem with my device since no one else seems to suffer from the green download tags.

[RenaS]

I have several thousand ebooks in my library. When you get over a thousand, try downloading them all again.  I can only get about 500 to download before it starts deleting (but, of course it will depend on the file size of the individual books in question).  I'm afraid, Laurie, YOU are the one who doesn't know what she's talking about.

[Katie12608]

I am kind of having the same problem, but not only are books needing to be re-downloaded...or doing automatically when I turn my device back on, but my home screen goes back to a previous setting...

I can change things around on my home page...rearange books, add shelves and things and if I turn it off or it dies (this happened last night) its like I never did any of those things. I am not sure what I need to do but it is getting really frusturating. Its like it is going back to a setting from a few months ago. The only reason I say a few months is because I read The Help a coupld months ago and when my nook gets messed up the message at the top says "Keep reading: The Help"....

[KrissyMarie516]

I have noticed this download issue myself.  I have 700+ books and this happens to my B&N books/magazines now.  I am not sure why, still have memory available, over 55%.

[NookaholicAC]

What? You can download from the B&N library to the computer? I see I have a lot to learn yet as I did not know I could do that.

[KrissyMarie516]

Any info on why this happens?

[bobstro]

With the problems people are having with their online library becoming unavailable, I'd suggest having as much of your library downloaded to your computer as possible! A local backup you can sideload if necessary is definitely recommended.

[Maddie302]

I finally took my Nook Tablet to a B&N. To make a long story short, I insisted on a new Tablet under the extended warranty, and they gave me one - but it was pre-owned. I've had it for several weeks now, and it works perfectly. No more needing to re-download, and it doesn't get *hot* on the back like my first new one did.

[OreJen]

Oh my gosh! My Nook HD + does this!

Because I love books, I bought the 32 GB version. I have close to 3k books, between sideloaded and bought. I was SO MAD it did this that I took it in and got it replaced.

My new one does it too, but I just...gave up and accepted the situation and accepted that this was the way it was. Now, knowing that it isn't a glitch, I feel so relieved, even though I am not any happier about the situation. I consider myself a virtual hoarder. I want ALL my books available whenever I want them.