Not to be confused with the error message: E_AUTH_BAD_DEVICE_KEY_OR_PKCS12

This error message is normally received when attempting to authorise Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) on a Mac computer. It happens when ADE fails to pass the keychain authentication process.

The solution is to bypass the Keychain access and add ADE to your allowed applications list. To do so, please follow these steps:

• Close ADE
• Open the Utilities folder in your Applications folder
• Click on "Keychain Access"
• Click on "login"
• Unlock login by clicking the padlock icon next to it (if it is not unlocked already)
• Enter the password. If you can't remember the password see this Apple support page for resetting your keychain password
• In the main window, on the right hand side, double click on "Digital Editions"
• Click the "Access Control" menu
• Click "Allow All Applications To Access This Item"
• Save changes
• Open ADE and retry authorising the software

Some users, but not all, report having to lock keychain access again after completing these steps. So it is unclear whether it is necessary.

Other users have reported having two Digital Editions folders in Utilities and that they needed to perform the above steps twice, once for each folder, to get it to work.

If you are still having difficulty authorising ADE please contact our support team. Please quote the error message when doing so.