Recover & Repair EPUB File – Step by Step Manual Guide

This Article illustrates the most efficient manual ways to repair EPUB File using Zip Extraction and EPUB Check Validator to recover EPUB File and fix ebook broken errors easily.

What is an EPUB File?

EPUB File is basically an ebook file format having extension .epub. This file is downloadable and can be easily read by the users on smart phones & android devices. This file format was originally developed by International Digital Publishing Forum, also known as IDPF. It has recently become a widespread medium for reading ebook online by the hardware readers. This format is used by most of the common Reading Softwares like Google Books in Android, iBook on iOS.

The EPUB File is composed and delivered to the users as a single file. This EPUB is like a ZIP archive file consisting of a website composition including HTML pages, CSS styles, images and also its associated meta-data. The latest version of EPUB File is EPUB 3. With the help of HTML5, EPUB can be made interactive for the user with DjVu, animations similar to the web pages on Internet.

The Internet Media Type of EPUB file is: application/epub+zip. This articles describes various ways to repair EPUB File manually to fix EPUB File errors in detail.

Features of EPUB File

Some of the most attractive features provided by EPUB files to the users are mentioned below:

It allows Page Bookmarking
Consists of a Library for customized searching
Supports Document Reflowing i.e it can change the text size according to the display of the screen. For example it adjust the display for highly designed contents to be displayed on Tablets or other devices.
It is similar to the HTML Webpages that supports both the raster and vector images, CSS along with meta data.
It allows user to mark data with Highlighting features
Provides facility of Notes Making for Users while reading Ebook.
It user with Display Editing features such as change font change Text font size and background colours.

All the above mentioned features make the EPUB File interesting for the users.

EPUB Reading Devices & Softwares

Following are few Reading Devices and Softwares

Devices: Few supported Devices are Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Bookeen, Elonex ebook, enTourage eDGe, Smartphones, Tablets, Tolino,Hanlin eReader, iriver Story, Kobo eReader, PocketBook eReader, Rocket eBook, SoftBook, Onyx Boox, Plastic Logic Reader etc.
Softwares : Some of the software that can read EPUB files are Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Digital Editions, Aldiko, Blio, STDU Viewer, FBReader, Google Play Books, iBooks, Lektz, Lucifox, Mantano Reader, Bluefire Reader, Snapplify, Kindle app, Kitabu,Okular, OverDrive Media Console, Sumatra PDF Calibre etc.

Common EPUB Errors:

Most commonly found errors are:

Unable to add document. Errors were encountered in this Item
Unable to Open this Item. The File may be corrupted
Failed to UnZip EPUB File
Book format Error. This book cannot be opened. Try deleting and re-downloading
Corrupt or Invalid EPUB. The EPUB you have opened does not appear to be valid

Reasons : Why EPUB file Does Not Open?

Corrupted Ebook File or Error while Downloading the File: There might be chances that a. Ebook selling website might have made certain mistake while creating a download Link. This might be one of the several reasons that can cause to downloaded file to get corrupted when you attempt to download ebook.
DRM Compatibility Trouble: This problem specifically arises when you have purchased any ePUB file in the past. You might get into trouble if you attempt to use this epub file on a device which does not have the similar compatibility with the new operating system upgraded or reinstalled. This problem may also trouble if you are attempting to re-download an epub file that you have lost or formatted earlier.
Dis-Obeying DRM procedures: DRM may be troublesome for end users when they are unaware of the fact how DRM works, but it can also be dealt easily with minimum number of hardships. If a user desires to read an Ebook which is DRM Protected, user must must first install a particular program which was built for ebook format, and register using free account.
(Note: DRM expands for Digital Rights Management. It is a security feature that prevents an ebook and its corresponding files to be distributed illegally. Due to the copyright protection as well as software piracy reasons most of the resellers are afraid of selling ebooks. )
Using Unhealthy Softwares: You must make sure to use an eReader or software that support the type of Epub file you have purchased. Otherwise it may cause your EPUB File to get corrupted and you may need to repair EPUB file.

Manual Methods to Repair EPUB File

Following are some of the manual ways that will assist you to fix EPUB File errors:

Method 1 : Repair EPUB File Using ZIP Extraction

Since EPUB File is a compressed file rather than being single file. You need to first extract these files

Step 1 : You must first change your Folder Setting to unhide all the files before you begin to repair EPUB file. This process is similar to the method of Zip extraction.
Step 2 : Select Organize option on the top left portion of the Folder window. And choose Change Folder and Search Options.
Step 3 : As soon as new window appear select View Tab.
Step 4 : Scroll down and deselect the option Hide Extension for Known File Types.
Step 5 : Now rename your EPUB File and change the extension as .zip
Step 6 : Finally, Right click the file and Select Extract All file. Choose the desired location where you need to save.

Method 2 : Repair EPUB File Using EPUB Check

You can make use of an open source tool that allows you to validate the EBOB error s and display all the possible ways for detecting the structural errors in OPS, OPF and OCF.

Step 1 : To use epubcheck, run the following command:
"java -jar epubcheck–3.0b5.jar ebook_file.epub"
Step 2 : You can also convert an EPUB file to .mobi To do this and fix EPUB File errors run the command:
"ebook-convert ebook_file.epub ebook_file.mobi"

Alternate Method to Recover EPUB file

If you are unable to recover EPUB File even after attempting the above mentioned manual methods, you can make use of the digital softwares for EPUB recovery to fix EPUB File errors.This is the last option you can find to repair EPUB file easily.

Conclusion

This article is an effort to resolve user queries to repair EPUB File manually with the aid of EPUB Validator and Zip Extraction Method. It illustrates about EPUB File which is an EBOOK File format, Common EPUB errors and how to resolve broken file issues with an effective way to recover Ebook corruption and damaged which are occurring due to various external as well as internal factors.