Warning: Kobo may be phasing out the Desktop program
Oct. 10th, 2025 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
me_ya_riSo.
I realized about a month ago that my Mac Mini was not updating. Did a double-check and realized that it was purchased late in 2014.
mmm. Yeah. 11 years. Not really a surprise that it wasn't updating anymore. Surprising part was that it was still functioning, actually, but yeah, it was. Slow as molasses but it (mostly) worked.
But updates were necessary to get the latest version of Vellem with pretty options for forced edges and all the cool new things so yeah, time to replace the Mac Mini with a new (screaming fast by comparison) Mac Mini. This was accomplished. Still need to get the dock I bought separately to work properly (wrong cable? Power not plugged in right? Something else??? do not know yet), but it's a very nice little computer and I'm happy with it.
So I started loading programs onto it and then went for Kobo. Because I like Kobo. I buy most of my ebooks through Kickstarter anymore, but Kobo is my backup favorite and the desktop program is my preferred reading experience, completely aside from the ability to download and backup my books.
There was no desktop app.
At all.
Anywhere. ANYWHERE.
I did about 4 rounds by myself, had the spouse do a couple rounds, got on the chatbot and did 3 more rounds, all of which gave me the web reader, not the desktop app.
I finally battled through the chatbot to an actual human being and got the links to the download files of the Windows and MacOS desktop app.
Which worked! I have my desktop Kobo back, all my books are there, works great.
However.
You need to know that the customer service person was unable to confirm (or deny) that the desktop app was being phased out. They said, quite literally, that they had not been notified one way or the other.
Which!
If you're a Kobo reader and you use the desktop app for backing your books up, you need to turn in a general feedback complaint about this issue.
I got my spouse switched over from Amazon to Kobo on the power of the desktop app and the ability to DeDRM books for backup off-line. If that's going away, it's a big deal.
This feels like a warning shot over the bow of Kobo enshittifying their ecosystem so I'm crossing my fingers and taking steps. Including telling people online.
ETA: The downloaders! Because I should totally share that, shouldn't I?
I realized about a month ago that my Mac Mini was not updating. Did a double-check and realized that it was purchased late in 2014.
mmm. Yeah. 11 years. Not really a surprise that it wasn't updating anymore. Surprising part was that it was still functioning, actually, but yeah, it was. Slow as molasses but it (mostly) worked.
But updates were necessary to get the latest version of Vellem with pretty options for forced edges and all the cool new things so yeah, time to replace the Mac Mini with a new (screaming fast by comparison) Mac Mini. This was accomplished. Still need to get the dock I bought separately to work properly (wrong cable? Power not plugged in right? Something else??? do not know yet), but it's a very nice little computer and I'm happy with it.
So I started loading programs onto it and then went for Kobo. Because I like Kobo. I buy most of my ebooks through Kickstarter anymore, but Kobo is my backup favorite and the desktop program is my preferred reading experience, completely aside from the ability to download and backup my books.
There was no desktop app.
At all.
Anywhere. ANYWHERE.
I did about 4 rounds by myself, had the spouse do a couple rounds, got on the chatbot and did 3 more rounds, all of which gave me the web reader, not the desktop app.
I finally battled through the chatbot to an actual human being and got the links to the download files of the Windows and MacOS desktop app.
Which worked! I have my desktop Kobo back, all my books are there, works great.
However.
You need to know that the customer service person was unable to confirm (or deny) that the desktop app was being phased out. They said, quite literally, that they had not been notified one way or the other.
Which!
If you're a Kobo reader and you use the desktop app for backing your books up, you need to turn in a general feedback complaint about this issue.
I got my spouse switched over from Amazon to Kobo on the power of the desktop app and the ability to DeDRM books for backup off-line. If that's going away, it's a big deal.
This feels like a warning shot over the bow of Kobo enshittifying their ecosystem so I'm crossing my fingers and taking steps. Including telling people online.
ETA: The downloaders! Because I should totally share that, shouldn't I?
Windows:
Mac OSX:
https://cdn.kobo.com/downloads/desktop/kobodesktop/kobosetup.dmg
Go forth and get your Kobo Desktop for as long as you can, everyone!
Go forth and get your Kobo Desktop for as long as you can, everyone!
