As one of the mainstream ebook store in the United States, Google Play Book claims it to be the largest ebooks collection in the world, which offers over five million titles. And the books can be read on Google Play website, Google Play Books app for Android/iOS, and Adobe Digital Editions. Now you may wonder why Google Play books can be read on ADE, while they can‘t be read on e-ink reader or other apps. You will find all the answers in this article. Most important, you need to use tool to get rid of the restriction and liberate your purchased Google Play books. So you will be able to remove DRM from Google Play books after reading this article.
What is an ACSM File
First of all, you need to know what an acsm file is before downloading Google Play Book to your computer. Because the majority of the books you download from Google Play website are acsm files instead of PDFs or ePub books. So it's very necessary to explain what is an acsm file.
A file with the .ACSM file extension is an Adobe Content Server Message file. It's a file download link used by Adobe Digital Editions to activate and download Adobe DRM protected content. So you can only open an ACSM file to get the book content to the ID you've configured Adobe Digital Editions with, and then read the book on any device that's running ADE with the same user ID, without having to repurchase it.
How to Download Google Play Books to Your Computer
Google Play Books is an ebook digital distribution service operated by Google. Users can purchase and download ebooks and audiobooks from Google Play, which offers over five million titles, with Google claiming it to be "the largest ebooks collection in the world". Books can be read on a dedicated Books section on the Google Play website, through the use of a mobile app available for Android and iOS, through the use of select e-readers that offer support for Adobe Digital Editions or through a web browser. But you must download the Epubor PDF book from the Google Play website to your computer in order to read it on ADE.
Step 1download Adobe Digital Editions to your computer and authorize it with an Adobe ID.
Run adobe digital editions, click Help in the menu bar > Authorize Computer with Adobe ID. If you have an Adobe ID already, you can just input your Adobe ID and password to authorize it. If you don't have one, then you need to create an Adobe ID to authorize it.
Step 2go to Google Play Books store, and click My books on the top-left of webpage. Then find ebook title you want to download, click the three dots icon on the bottom-right corner of the ebook cover. Next, select Export > Export as EPUB or Export as PDF from the popup menu to start downloading the book.
Step 3you will get a .acsm file instead of a Epub or PDF file directly. So you need to double click the .acsm file, then ADE will download the book automatically. After downloading the book to your computer, you can open and read it in Adobe Digital Editions.
Tips: you will only get an .acsm downloading link when you download EPUB/PDF from Google Play Books website. Then you must double click the .acsm link to download the content via ADE.
How to Remove DRM from Google Play Books
Nowadays people prefer to read ebooks on e-ink reader to preserve their eyesight or for a better reading experience. However, Google Play books' DRM won't allow you to do that. But no one likes to be restricted. So we got to figure out a way to remove DRM from Google Play books. Then we can read our purchased Google Play books on supported ereader and apps. In fact, there's a well-known DRM Removal software — Epubor Ultimate which can help you gain the full control of your purchased books. You can follow the below steps to liberate your DRMed Google Play books.
Step 1download Epubor Ultimate to your computer.
Step 2add the Google Play Books to the right main window to remove DRM.
All of your Google Play books downloaded via ADE will be displayed under Adobe tap in the left side-bar. Next add the books to the right main window to remove DRM.
Step 3choose the format you prefer to read if you want to convert book format. Then click the convert button to start the conversion.
Tips:
1. Epubor software can automatically detect your Google Play books downloaded via ADE and display them in the left side-bar under Adobe tap.
2. If you want to make the full use of Google Play books, you should never miss Google Play 101: Up to 16 Golden Tips and Tricks You Must Know.
Conclusion
Google Play Books is a great ebook digital distribution service. But the DRM free Google Play books will play a greater role in your reading and studying experience and allow you to make the most out of it.
Hillary Lopez works for Epubor and writes articles about eBooks and eReaders. She explores the best method to help you read eBooks more freely and wants to share all she has got with you.
Weird question:
How does ADE "know" which Google account to authorize the ebooks to?
I logged in with an Adobe ID that has no connection to my Google account.
Download the ACSM and it open just fine in ADE
Then I can transfer it to calibre without stripping the DRM! I can even convert to TXT and other formats.
Furthermore, I logged out of ADE and it won't open the ebooks, but if I go to explorer I can open the epub in Calibre and convert it and read it etc.
What's going on here? This is driving me mad!
1. The .acsm file is the link to download the google play books. So if you authorize the adobe digital editions with your adobe id, it will help you download the acsm file to epub/pdf.
2. Some downloaded epub are encrypted pdf/epub are encrypted with drm and some are not.
3. If you've already install the calibre drm removal plugin, when you add the google books to calibre, the drm will be removed automatically. That's why you can convert them to other format.
Bait and switch. To get it to download a full pdf you will be instructed to pay for a full license of the software -- it is misleading that the article claims you can do this with a free edition of the software.
"Your ebook has decrypted. The file just save 20% of ebook content. Please register the software, then get full content and the valid ebook format."