Kobo Needs to Make Setting up Their eReaders Simpler
November 15, 2012 
11 Comments
Now that I’ve gone through the process of setting up a Kobo Mini and a Kobo Glo, it’s apparent to me that Kobo needs to completely redo the setup process on their ereaders. Right now it’s so painful it’s downright frustrating, and can easily take upwards of an hour to complete, depending on how many ebooks you have with Kobo.
Seriously, it’s ridiculous. Especially when you compare it with the process of setting up a Kindle, which takes all of about 30 seconds. Kindles come already setup with your Amazon account. Literally all you have to do is turn it on, select a language, and then enter your Wi-Fi password. If it’s a 3G model you don’t even have to do that.
With Kobo, first they make you waste time with manually entering the date and time (why they can’t get that info automatically after setting up Wi-Fi is anyone’s guess) and then you have to enter your Wi-Fi password.
Once that’s complete, the device has to download a firmware update. Basically at this point you have to set the device down for 15 to 20 minutes and go do something else while it completes the process. If you have slow internet it will probably be a lot longer.
After the firmware update is applied, you have to then re-enter your Wi-Fi password again because it doesn’t remember it for some reason, although it does remember the proper time. After that you have the option to login to your Kobo account or start a new account.
The problem here is that if you have an existing account, every single one of your ebooks will automatically be downloaded to your device whether you want all of them or not.
Luckily, I only have a couple dozen titles with Kobo. But could you imagine if you had hundreds of ebooks?
With the Kindle and Nook, your ebooks are archived in the cloud and you can choose exactly which ones to download and when to download them. Even with Kobo’s Android and iPad apps you can pause the downloads if you want, which is still painful because you have to pause each title individually, but at least it’s an option.
Probably the worst thing about setting up a new Kobo ereader is that you cannot bypass the process of setting it up. For instance, you can’t just use it to sideload library ebooks or ebooks from outside of Kobo. You have to have a Kobo account. And you have to have access to Wi-Fi to set it up using the wireless method (obviously). If you don’t have Wi-Fi you have to use a computer and Kobo’s desktop software to setup. I haven’t tried that method; it might take even longer having to track down Kobo’s software and install it and proceed with updating the firmware, etc, etc.
I don’t understand the purpose of making the initial setup take so long. Ebook readers should be designed to be as simple to setup as possible. It shouldn’t take 30 minutes to an hour before you get to the point where you can actually start reading a book. Seriously Kobo, get a clue.
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Well at the least the good news is you only have to do it once. I am looking forward to getting my kobo glo and tracking it down with help from your blog!
It is an annoyance, but since it is a one time setup and I hope to have this for years, probably won’t be a big deal.
Hopefully it’s only once but apparently not always. Someone at MobileRead had a problem where the Glo crashed and then rebooted and required it to go through the whole setup process again, which requires internet access so that can be a big problem if it does it when your on vacation or something and are away from the internet or a computer.
GGRRrrrr! That’s exactly what just happened to me, which meant that I was unable to read anything until I could go through the setup again. This is a bigger problem than normal when you’re traveling in Africa. I was not amused the first time I had to go through the setup, and now I’m FURIOUS!!
I just transferred my books from my Touch to my new Glo and it took about 5 minutes. Most of the time was just downloading the updates which one would expect
My Mini took about 20 minutes to set up with the desktop software (no wifi was used and 35 books were downloaded).
Does the Kobo Glo and Mini have the same annoying border that some of the Kobo devices have? Also, do they have a page-filled function to eliminate the page border?
Not sure what you mean exactly but yeah one of my biggest complaints is there’s a huge section of wasted space at the bottom of the screen, and some ebooks insist on showing the title on every page at the top. Like I said in the Kobo Mini review, Kobo really needs to add a full screen option.
I just got a kobo mini and it has a lot of customizable features for reading including full page (click to fill the text to the width of the screen). You can also adjust margin widths from none, to several increments of margin space. Removing the margins allows the text to go to the edge of the screen.
These options along with the other font and line options means you can get the most out of the smaller screen.
Thanks. That’s good to know. Has either of you play with the Kobo Glo enough to know if it is as customizable as the Mini? I would be surprised if the Glo cannot be customized to eliminate the wasted space, but I just want to know for sure.
You are right, the setup is insane. The wifi doesn’t work (tried on multiple wifi networks). The download only offers a mac download, I have a PC…. Back in the box and get a refund.
Also, I bought a Kobo mini for my son. Set it up using my account, so of course all my books show up in the library, which obviously, are not appropriate for a 10-year old. Couldn’t see a way to bypass account setup (cause I can just sideload books on for him), don’t want to set up an account for a 10-year old who won’t be buying books (esp. if I have to associate a credit card with the account). So back it goes and I’ll find something that let’s me set it up without requiring an account somewhere. I like Kobo’s products and was thinking of getting a Kobo Arc, but I think I’ll just stick with my Playbook.