Last updated on 10th June, 2013
- Apprentice Alf Blog
- Apprentice Alf Dedrm
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- Apprentice Alf Kindle For Mac Keyboard
- Apprentice Alf Kindle For Mac Keys
DRM removal must be accomplished using a separate calibre plugin. (See the Installation instructions below.) DRM removal for KFX format only works with books downloaded using old versions of the Kindle for PC/Mac apps (versions 1.19 through 1.26) and e-ink Kindle device firmware (versions 5.6.5 through 5.12.1). This problem only intensified last year when Kindle for PC gained support KFX and made it harder to download a Kindle ebook that could be deDRMed, but now we have a solution. The latest version of the Apprentice Alf DRM-stripping tools was released last week, and it now works on KFX ebooks. According to the blog post, this is a beta release. These plugins work for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. For ebooks from Kindle 4 PC and Adobe Digital Editions, Linux users should read the section at the end the DeDRMpluginReadMe.txt file. DeDRM application for Mac OS X users: (Mac OS X 10.4 and above) This application is a stand-alone application for Mac OS X users.
Welcome to Apprentice Alf’s blog
This blog is intended to help anyone looking for free and simple software for removing DRM from their Kindle ebooks, stripping DRM from their Adobe Digital Editions ebooks, getting rid of DRM from their Barnes and Noble ebooks, freeing their Kobo ebooks of DRM, deleting the DRM from their Sony eBooks, or decrypting their Fictionwise eReader ebooks.
If you want to find out more about ebooks, DRM and why you will probably want to remove the DRM from your ebooks, see this post: Ebook Formats, DRM and You — A Guide for the Perplexed
If you already know that you want to strip the DRM from your ebooks, you’ve found the right place.
The Tools
To get started on removing DRM from your ebooks, just download the tools archive from one of the links below. Unzip the archive, and start reading.
The latest tools_v6.0.7.zip can be downloaded from
http://limelinx.com/deq2g
http://limelinx.com/deq2g
The latest plugin alternative tools can be downloaded from
http://limelinx.com/e5yi4
http://limelinx.com/e5yi4
- The download link is the green button.
- Do not click on the advert on the right-hand side of the page, even if it says “DOWNLOAD NOW”.
- The download will be a .zip file. If your download is a .exe file do not run it, as you have downloaded the download manager. Make sure that the check box is unchecked
- Make sure Javascript is enabled in your browser.
- No credit card or payment of any kind is required to download the tools.
- If you are worried about the integrity of the tools, listed below is the MD5 checksum.
MD5(tools_v6.0.7.zip)= e31e960f63c1503c952d2874c887fd24
MD5(Other_Tools.rar)= 068e3625be5971caeb3c104b870281c7
MD5(Other_Tools.rar)= 068e3625be5971caeb3c104b870281c7
Apprentice Alf Blog
Changes in 6.0.7
- Fixes wine key creation folder issue.
- Fixes DeDRM of PDFs with broken metadata.
Changes in 6.0.6:
- Fixed up an incorrect function call. (Only relevant Linux Calibre users using Wine)
Changes in 6.0.5: Free microsoft word for mac.
- Fixed a problem that resulted in key issues (thanks, Paul)
Changes in 6.0.4:
- Fixed a problem in the plugin converting earlier preferences (thanks, enno)
- Fixed a problem in the plugin with importing pdb files (thanks, Tina Bird)
- Fixed a problem with unicode characters in path names for the Mac application (thanks, K)
Changes in 6.0.3:
- Fixed a problem with non-ascii characters in Windows user name
- Fixed a problem early versions of Kindle for Mac
- Fix for location of DeDRMed PDF files with Macintosh DeDRM Application
- Fix in Windows DeDRM application for paths with spaces
- Restored ability for calibre plugin to call wine for Kindle for PC decryption key
- Added ability for calibre plugin to call wine for Adobe Digital Edition key
- Hopefully removed any dependency on tinter (although still used if available).
- Updated the readmes
Getting Help with the Tools
If you have any questions about the tools, ebooks and DRM, check my FAQs post Frequently Asked Questions about the DRM removal tools.
If you have any problems with the current tools, please ask for help in a comment on this post. If you are having a problem with an older version of the tools, please first update to the current version, and see if that solves your problem.
Before commenting here, please check the ReadMe file and the FAQs (see link above).
In any bug report or help request, please include
- which tool was used
- which OS you are using
- where the ebook file came from (device or folder)
- any error messages
- a log of the DRM-removal attempt (see the FAQs on how to get a log).
Anti-Piracy Notice
Please only use this application for gaining full access to your own ebooks for archiving/converson/convenience. De-drmed ebooks should not be uploaded to open servers, torrents, or other methods of mass distribution. No help will be given to people doing such things. Authors, retailers and publishers all need to make a living, so that they can continue to produce books for us to read. Don’t be a parasite.
Origin of the Tools
The tools for removing DRM from ePubs were originally posted at i♥cabbages’ blog. The tools for Kindle/Mobipocket were originally posted at The Dark Reverser’s blog. Ives counterbalanced forklift operator answer manual pdf.
They have since been improved by many people, but mostly some_updates, DiapDealer and Apprentice Alf. While there are many sites that redistribute these tools, the most up-to-date versions of the tools are currently released here.
Other Sources
Anyone trying to sell you ebook DRM removal tools for Adobe Adept ePub and PDFs, Barnes & Noble ePubs, Kindle ebooks or eReader ebooks has probably just repackaged (an earlier) version of the tools available here.
— Alf.
E-books that you buy are usually encrypted with 'Digital Rights Management,' or DRM. DRM is copy protection; it's intended to keep you from making a copy of your book and letting someone else have it.But DRM can interfere with uses of the book that are legal. Some of the books I have bought in the Adobe EPUB format, for instance, can't be moved to my iPhone for reading — unless, that is, I strip off the DRM encryption first.
I showed how to do that in an earlier post, iPhone: Reading Adobe/EPUB eBooks. It's a complicated set of steps. Now there's a way that is less complicated.
Unfortunately, the new way is available only to users of Mac OS X 10.5 ('Leopard') and 10.6 ('Snow Leopard') but not to users of any Windows system. That's because DeDRM, as its author Apprentice Alf named it, is in the AppleScript scripting language.
Apprentice Alf, who wrote DeDRM, has gone into retirement, and his original blog post about it has been modified and no longer links to the DeDRM 2.6 download per se. You can instead download tools v3.8 ZIP file from here. It contains DeDRM 2.6. The link I just gave will take you to RapidShare, where you need to click on the Download button under Save File To .. your computer. A popup window will require you to wait a couple of minutes and then click on a second Download button. Then the actual download will begin. It will normally (depending on how you have your browser set up) put the tools v3.8.zip file on your Desktop. Double clicking that file will expand the ZIP file into a tools v3.8 folder. Open the folder. A DeDRM 2.6 AppleScript 'droplet' should be the top item. Option-drag it to the Desktop to make a copy of it there. You can then (after possibly doing the setup I describe below) drag the icons of e-book files that you want decrypted and drop the icons on the DeDRM 2.0 droplet to have the e-books decrypted.
After you put the DeDRM 2.6 droplet on your desktop, you will see something like:
I'll assume you'll leave/put the DeDRM 2.6 icon on the desktop, but you can optionally move it to any folder you like.
To use DeDRM, you'll simply drag an e-book file's icon over to the DeDRM icon, and drop the e-book's icon there. You can also drag the icon of a folder that contains more than one e-book, and DeDRM will decrypt them all. The decrypted e-book(s) will show up in the same folder as the original e-book(s) are in.
Before you start dragging and dropping e-books, though, some setup may be required. (If you want to bypass it and just try your luck now, skip down to Using DeDRM.)
Optional Setup
Double-click on the DeDRM icon to see:
When you click Continue, you'll see:
You can click None for this dialog .. unless you have Kindle e-books in the Mobipocket format from Amazon.com. In that case, you can enter the necessary PIDs (Personal IDs) for your Kindle device(s) here, clicking Add after each one. (How to learn what those PIDs are is a topic beyond the scope of this post.)
If you, like me, want to bypass Mobipocket PID specifications for now, just click None. You can always re-launch DeDRM as a standalone application, using the double-click method, and enter Mobipocket PIDs later.
You'll now see something like:
You can enter, one at a time, any Name:Credit_Card_Number 'key pairs' you use to buy e-books at Barnes & Noble or eReader.com, and click Add. Once you have entered them all, you will click on the No More button which has replaced the None button.
Each key pair represents:
- the name on your account at Barnes & Noble online or on eReader.com
- the number on the credit card registered for that account.
These two items must be entered with a colon (':') — but with no spaces or other characters — between them. If the card number is for an eReader account, you can opt to enter just the last eight digits of the card number. If it is for a B&N account, you will need to enter the whole 16-digit card number.
If you don't want to enter any Barnes & Noble or eReader.com key pairs, just click None in the dialog box above.
Next you'll see:
The intention here is for you to specify any adeptkey.der key files that you may have generated previously. These are key files that, again, you may have generated using a Python script, ineptkeymac_v1.py, as shown in Step 4 of iPhone: Reading Adobe/EPUB eBooks. If you do happen to have any previously generated adeptkey.der key files, you can use the Add.. button at this point to tell DeDRM about them, one by one.
But you don't really need to specify any previously existing adeptkey.der
Apprentice Alf Dedrm
key files! DeDRM can generate the 'local' ADEPT key file you need on the fly for you.ADEPT stands for Adobe Digital Editions Protection Technology, by the way.
The only time you'll need to specify your own existing adeptkey.der key files is in a situation where you in fact have some older Adobe EPUB e-book files lying around, ones that were downloaded when you were using a different Adobe ID/Password combination than you currently use.
For purposes of this post, I'll assume all your Adobe EPUBs were downloaded (possibly using Sony's Reader Library application) with an Adobe ID/Password combination that is still current. So all you have to do in the dialog box above is click on No More. At that point, the DeDRM script merely quits.
Using DeDRM
Now you're ready to use the DeDRM script for real. I suggest you consider moving or copying the DeDRM 'droplet' icon to a folder you've created, named something like DeDRM Folder. Alternatively, you can leave the DeDRM 'droplet' icon right on your desktop.
The next step is to locate in your Mac's folder hierarchy any Adobe EPUB e-book file that you want to strip DRM from:
- If you got the file via the Sony Reader Library application, it's in ~/Documents/My Books/Reader Library/{book title}.epub. (The '~' node stands for the Home folder of the user account you are using on the Mac.)
- If you obtained the Adobe EPUB online in any other manner and then imported it into the Adobe Digital Reader application, you can expect to find it in ~/Documents/Digital Editions/{book title}.epub.
- If your Adobe EPUB e-book can be found in neither of those two locations, you can probably locate it by doing a Finder filename search on the book's title.
You might want to make a copy of the Adobe EPUB in your DeDRM Folder folder (or, alternatively, on the desktop, if that's where your DeDRM 'droplet' icon is) by dragging its icon to that location while holding down the option key.
Using a copy of the adobe EPUB is not, strictly speaking, necessary. However, DeDRM will produce its decrypted output copy in the same folder location (possibly the desktop) as the location of the input original Adobe EPUB that you drop onto the DeDRM icon. So if you want the decrypted version to be created in a more convenient folder location than ~/Documents/My Books/Reader Library/ or ~/Documents/Digital Editions/, it's best to work with a copy that you have previously established in the desired output location.
Now drag the copied Adobe EPUB e-book's icon onto the DeDRM icon and drop it there. DeDRM will open. After a brief delay, you should see something like:
Click Thanks. DeDRM goes away. It's that easy!
If the input file was called The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog.epub, as above, an output file called The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog_dedrmed.epub will appear in the same folder (possibly, the desktop). The filename will be that of the original file with _dedrmed added. The filename extension will continue to be
Apprentice Alf Kindle
.epub.The output file is just like the input file — except that it's no longer copy-protected. It can be read in any application or on any device that can read 'open' (i.e., non-DRMed) EPUB e-books:
- Stanza for the Mac or Windows
- Reader Library for the Mac or Windows
- Adobe Digital Editions for the Mac or Windows
- Any iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch app that reads EPUBs, including Stanza, Kobo, and Borders
- etc.
- Import the open EPUB file into iTunes by dragging it into the Library portion of the main iTunes window
- With the open EPUB now visible in the Books section of the iTunes library, sync your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch
Apprentice Alf Kindle For Mac Keyboard
LibraryApprentice Alf Kindle For Mac Keys
![For For](https://cdn.slidesharecdn.com/ss_thumbnails/bestazwconverter-convertazwtopdfepubforfree-190826075927-thumbnail-4.jpg?cb=1566806621)
You can use a similar procedure to use DeDRM to remove DRM encryption from:
- PDB files that you obtain from Barnes & Noble or eReader.com online
- Mobipocket e-books, such as those from Amazon.com
- Amazon Kindle e-books — provided they're not in the dreaded Topaz format! (You can open your Kindle e-book in TextEdit and look for the characters TPZ0 near the top. If they're there, the book is Topaz and you'll need more powerful mojo to decrypt it.)