There’s a little-known trick to expand the available storage space on Kobo ebook readers, including the Kobo Aura HD, the Kobo Glo, Kobo Mini, and Kobo Touch (sorry the Kobo Aura is left out).
The reason why this is possible is because Kobo’s ebook readers have microSD cards built in for the internal storage (except the new Kobo Aura; that’s why it’s left out of this trick).
You can replace the pre-installed microSD card with a larger one, or sometimes you can just expand the available storage space on the existing card. Some Kobo users have found that their Kobo device has a 4GB card installed that is partitioned to only use 2GB. You can use a free program to repartition the microSD card to use the full space.
Since you need to take apart your Kobo ebook reader and take out the built-in microSD card, this does require a bit of technical work, and is the sort of thing that probably voids the warranty, so be forewarned.
All in all, it looks like a pretty straightforward process from the video below. You just need to take out a few screws from the back of the Kobo, and then the microSD card is easily accessible for removal, then you just need to use a couple of free software programs.
I have not tried this myself. It seems kind of unnecessary since most Kobo ebook readers have a microSD card slot, except the Kobo Mini, but a lot people want more internal memory, so here’s a tutorial on how it’s done:
How to Expand Kobo Storage Space
Make sure to check the video description of this video on YouTube for the links to the software downloads.
Interesting article — although I agree with the author — you don’t gain much by doing this because the Kobos already have microSD card slots.
Huh…. Neat and interesting. I’ve got an Kobo Mini and that’s the one that would most benefit from storage expansion.
But I don’t think I’ll bother either, without audio playback the +1000 books I can fit on it is more than enough at a time. More then that just gets unwieldy, that’s what I’ve got Calibre for.
A pretty cool and interesting trick. I wonder if it would support cards with 64GB+?
Might be really useful for some sort of custom boot rom… like android. That would certainly make the Aura HD a lot more compelling.
Great post!!
I’m going to bother with this mod, just I am curious if anyone can suggest an Apple software to extend the partitions, rather than using a windows machine.
The backup phase of this mod is the easy part.
Thanks in advance.
If you’re feeling really bold you could try installing Android on your Kobo ereader. The process is somewhat similar with having to swap out memory cards. Depends on what device you have though… I’ve been meaning to try it on my Kobo Glo when I get around to it.
Help please .. kobo mini top hat installed and configured devices “c” accidentally set the speed for the port from 4800 to 115200 and then the unit died. Notincluded, lights extinguished. Tried flash images, but without effect. Button pressed Recette also without effect. Help me please. May need to somehow bring down the BIOS settings.
I tried this and it worked fine, and then by doing some other messing about, I inadvertently wiped all the partitions on the sd card, and now i have no backup of my kobomini sd . the firmware was 2.6.1.
Can anyone make me a replacement sd card? im not clever enough to do it myself! HELP!
Try the Kobo developers section at MobileRead. That’s the best place to go for stuff like this.
Might be good for the new Kobo Glo HD without SD card slot ;P
Indeed this would most likely work on the Glo HD. It works on the Kobo Aura H2O as well. Funny timing because I just tried it a few days ago on my original Kobo Glo because the card became corrupt and the device wouldn’t do anything. The process worked fine and is really easy to do but unfortunately the touchscreen is not working on my Glo anymore so I couldn’t make use of it.