Hi Anne, I tried doing a search to find if there were any similar issues, and I found a reference posted by someone in Japan at the end of July. From what I gather from the web site description, Kobo entered into a partnership with a Japanese company named Rakuten (which is meant to be an Amazon competitor for books and eBook content in Japan). After that happened, users had to create and log into Rakuten accounts to access their Kobo book contents.
Here's someone's blog post on the topic: • Kobo closed iOS App in Japan (July 20, 2012) http://blog.taiyolab.com/en/kobo-closed-ios-app-in-japan/ I'll excerpt: <begin quote> I’ve signed up on Kobo this June, when Rakuten announced they would release Kobo touch eReader in Japan. And registered on Kobo Writing Life to publish my novel. Reading life solution was good. Today, I found I was not able to sign on Kobo with Kobo account. Rakuten forced to log-on with Rakuten ID not with Kobo account. Rakuten decided all user to use their Japanese huge user-based account Rakuten ID. And, I lose all control of my purchased ebooks and my novel publishing data. I couldn’t find account transition announce at noon, and I’ve removed with using another browser kept last login session. http://www.kobobooks.com/japan_transition I understand Rakuten want force user to use Rakuten ID for their business. Generally, world wide service uses to keep one-through account information, but Rakuten did broke this rule. Rakuten ID user base will break Amazon’s account cloud in Japan, and when Rakute goes to Brazil, France or other country, local based account will be the sledge hammer to break Amazon’s account coverage. Books are not cultural transparent item to sell, then local (sometime legacy) account will be good for sell books. And I’ve been surprised Rakuten stopped to provide Kobo iOS App in Japan. iPhone 4S awarded the most sold cell-phone handset in Japan, and iOS coverage is larger than other countries. Kobo App for iOS was one of the best EPUB reader, I was moved future e-reading by this iOS App. But Rakuten removed App from Japanese App Store today. <end quote> Some thoughts: 1. A search of the iTunes Store on my Mac (after changing country to France) brings up an app named "Kobo by FNAC" that was released on October 17, 2012. Is it possible that you need to download the new app and log in with this latest version in order to access your previously purchased books? • Kobo by FNAC https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/kobo-by-fnac/id480683940?mt=8 The U.S. Store version (also 5.7.1) was released on October 4, 2012 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kobo/id301259483?mt=8 I believe that before the new app was issued, using the URL of the Kobo app from the U.S. Store would automatically take you to the app in iTunes for your own country's corresponding Kobo app. For example, if I change the country of my iTunes Store on my Mac to the UK, Australia, or Canada, and then bring up the URL in Safari, activating the "View in iTunes" link will bring up the app in the iTunes Store. (Use item chooser menu to find the text with "Free" or "Gratuit", then navigate (VO-Left twice) to the "View in iTunes" link or "Afficher sur iTunes" and VO-Space). The other countries (UK, Australia, Canada, etc.) will open to the Kobo app in iTunes. The French store uses a different ID number for the app, and the US link won't bring up a valid app in the French iTunes store any more. 2. Did you try downloading the new app for "Kobo by FNAC" and logging into your account? If they did the migration correctly, they should have brought over your account. 3. It might be that there's some requirement for a tie-in to a new account with FNAC. I don't think that's likely, but it's what happened in Japan. If Archie has a separate Kobo account, does he also encounter the same problem? Let us know how this turns out. Also, Kobo seems to be very concerned with social networking. If you don't get a satisfactory response, consider creating a Twitter account just to air your problems. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Oct 21, 2012, at 05:30, Anne Robertson wrote: > Hello everyone, > > At some point since October 10 when I last bought a book, the Kobo site has > stopped recognising me and will not give me access to my library or allow me > to buy books. I called the help line but they were unable to be of assistance > since they weren't seeing what I see from here. They could find my account > but had no idea why I was being refused access. > > I think the problem is related to Kobo going into partnership with FNAC here > in France, and I'm wondering if the same problem is occurring in other > European countries. I'm absolutely furious about this as I've bought well > over 50 books in recent years. Luckily, I downloaded most of them onto my > computer, but not all of them and I still want to be able to read them on my > iPhone. > > Cheers, > > Anne > <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to mac-access@mac-access.net You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
