Alternatives to kobodl

I used to 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, I have since discoverd a way to do this with Calibre and 2 plugins:

Leseratte10/acsm-calibre-plugin - A plugin that can read Adobe Digital Editions files that Kobo web download produces.
noDRM/DeDRM_tools - The 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, but I think it's overall a better solution and I am not using kobodl personally much anymore. If anyone is interested in becoming a new maintainer of kobodl please let me know by opening a discussion. I will still try to keep it functioning as long as I can, and bug reports are still appreciated.

kobodl

This is a hard fork of kobo-book-downloader, a command line tool to download and remove Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection from media legally purchased from Rakuten Kobo. The resulting EPUB files can be read with, amongst others, 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.

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
pypi package
pyinstaller bundles

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

Book list page

Installation

pipx

pipx install kobodl

pip

pip install kobodl

Pre-built bundles

No python installation necessary. Simply download the appropriate executable from the latest release assets 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.

# Linux
wget https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/releases/latest/download/kobodl-ubuntu
chmod +x kobodl-ubuntu
./kobodl-ubuntu

# 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
./kobodl-macos

# 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.

# 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.

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.

# Get started by adding one or more users
# See `Getting a reCAPTCHA code` below for more help
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

Running the web UI

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

# 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]...

Getting a reCAPTCHA code

Adding a user requires a bit of hackery to get a reCAPTCHA code from Kobo's website. This GIF helps to explain how to do that.

Troubleshooting

I can't log in. My credentials are rejected.

You must have a kobo email login for this tool to work (you can't use an external provider like Google or Facebook). However, you can create a NEW kobo account and link it with your existing account on the user profile page. Go to My Account -> Account Settings to link your new kobo login.

I can't log in. I get a message saying "The page format might have changed"

This happens from time to time, maybe once or twice a year. Kobo changes their login page and makes it hard for the tool to parse out the necessary information. Please open an issue.

I can't log in, there's a problem with reading the captcha

The clipboard interaction doesn't work for everyone. Try supplying the captcha using koobdl user add --captch "YOUR_CAPTCHA_CODE".

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. 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 <revision-id>, 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.

Development

This project uses Python Poetry.

pip install poetry
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 will prompt for your Kobo e-mail address and password. Once it has successfully logged in, it won't ask for them again. Your password will not be stored on disk; Kobodl uses access tokens after the initial login.

Credit recursively to 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 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.