This means you are not opening the acsm file in Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). You are opening it in Adobe Reader which is not compatible with acsm files.

Please double check you have Adobe Digital Editions installed. If you don't, you can download it here. Instructions for installing it can be found here.

If you definitely have ADE installed then you will need to change the file associations so acsm files open in ADE by default instead of any other program (Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader being the most common).

To fix this, first save an ACSM file on your desktop (or somewhere that you can find it):

• Go to your eBooks.com account
• Click "Download"
• Choose "Download in ePub format" or "Download in PDF format" (depending on what is available) and right click on the button, then select "Save target as", or "Save link as"
• Save the file to your desktop, or somewhere that you can find it

Now you have the acsm file saved in an accessible place you can go ahead with changing the file association. The steps to do this are different if you are on a PC or a Mac so please use the right instructions for you.

Associate the acsm file type with Digital Editions (Windows)

• Navigate to where you saved the file. It will be named "URLLink.acsm" or something similar
• Right-click on the file
• Select properties
• Under the “General” tab, near the top, it says, "Opens with…"
• Click the "Change" button
• If Adobe Digital Editions is shown as an option, click on it and then click "OK" and then "OK" again
• If you can’t see Adobe Digital Editions listed as an option, click the little + (plus sign) adjacent to "Other programs"
• Select "Adobe Digital Editions" and click "OK" and then "OK" again
• If Adobe Digital Editions isn't listed as an option under "other programs"
• click the "Browse" option
• navigate to c:\program files\adobe\adobe digital editions
• click on "digitaleditions.exe"
• click "OK" and "OK" again

Associate the acsm file type with Digital Editions (Mac)

• Navigate to where you saved the file. It will be named "URLLink.acsm" or something similar.
• Click on your file to select it.
• Select "Get Info" from the File menu (or press Command-I) to open the Info window for that file.
• Find the section named "Open with".
• Select "Adobe Digital Editions" in the menu or pick "Other..." and navigate to the application.
• Click the "Change All..." button, read the prompt, and click "Continue."

From now on when you click the "Download" button on eBooks.com, the ebook should just download nicely to your computer and open inside ADE.

If this doesn't work you can try opening ADE and then simply click and drag the downloaded .acsm file and drop it on to the open ADE window. But this does not resolve the underlying issue.

Because this issue can involve opening the file in unsupported software, it is possible it could be confused with a different, similar issue where the .acsm file is missing it's file extension so the computer does not recognise it as a supported file type. For more information on that issue please see Error message: Unable to add document. This file's format is not currently supported.

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