Google Play Book is one of the world’s most wonderful ebook distribution services. There are over 5 million books in every imaginable category, from the New York Times bestsellers to favorite classics. Due to Google Play DRM protection (used by the publisher to protect the content owner and keep e-books secure from piracy and unauthorized sharing), you are only able to access your purchased books on the Google Play website, or via their mobile app for Android and iOS. If you want to make your book available without DRM, you should definitely try this free DeDRM tool to liberate your legally purchased Google Play Books.
Calibre is a free, open-source, ebook management, and conversion utility. It provides a one-stop solution for all your ebook needs, such as ebook managing, viewing, ebook converting, etc. Though calibre alone can not remove DRM from ebooks, however, it is possible to add a DeDRM plugin to make it happen.
To be able to use the DeDRM plugin for calibre, it is necessary to install calibre first.
Step 1Have calibre installed.
Step 2Download the latest release of the DeDRM plugin package and unzip it.
To get started on removing DRM from your ebooks, first and foremost, download the DeDRM tools archive from GitHub. Then unzip the archive. If you forget to unzip the DeDRM plugin package, you will not be able to load the plugin to calibre successfully. Here's an error you'll get while loading the zipped DeDRM plugin:
Step 3Load the DeDRM plugin to calibre.
Run calibre, from the Preferences dialog, click on the Plugins button. Next, click on the Load plugin from file button.
Navigate to the "unzipped DeDRM tools" and open it.
Then open the "DeDRM_plugin.zip".
Next, click on the "Yes” button in the “Are you sure?” warning dialog.
A “Success” dialog will appear, saying that the plug-in has been installed. Click on “OK”.
Step 4Restart calibre to let the newly add DeDRM tools take effect.
Step 5Remove Google Play DRM.
Now all is set. Just drag and drop your DRMed Google Play ebooks into calibre, and the DRM will be removed immediately.
Tips
1. Your downloaded Google Play books are saved here:
On Windows computer: C:\Users\User name\Documents\My Digital Editions
On Mac: /user/user name/Documents/Digital Editions
2. If you don't know how to download Google Play books, you can follow this guide to download Google Play Books.
3. How to know Google Play books are DRM-Free?
With calibre, one easy way for you to find out whether your Google Play books are decrypted or not is to convert the book to other formats. During the conversion, if your Google Play book is still encrypted, a pop-up window will tell you that this book has DRM.
If you can convert this file, you will notice that there's an ORIGINAL_EPUB file besides the DRM free file. And the ORIGINAL_EPUB file is an encrypted file, which you can leave it alone.
Important Notice From my not tech-savvy perspective, using the third-party calibre DeDRM tools to remove DRM seems a bit laborious. Worse enough, if you have any difficulties following the instructions, the calibre developers will not be able to help since they are not involved in the development of the DRM removal plugin.
So, for non-techie users, commercial software – Epubor Ultimate is the best choice to remove DRM from your Google Play books effortlessly. Plus, Epubor Ultimate detects your downloaded Google Play books automatically. So you don’t need to manually add your Google Play ebooks. For more detailed instructions, you can follow the step-by-step guide to remove DRM from Google Play Books.
Amy Lopez crafts informative articles on eBooks and eReaders, uncovering optimal methods to enhance your eBook reading experience, and eagerly shares her findings with you.
