Issue Downloading Multiple Talking Books at Once into Bloom Reader

I have a collection of talking books that we have translated into several languages here in Kenya. I need to put the talking books onto 44 tablets for a research project, but am having difficulty getting them to download as a set instead of having to do one at a time. I have saved the bloom files onto google drive, but cannot open the zip file on the tablet. I have the latest version of the app (downloaded May 1) and am able to download from laptop.

How can I gets books to download as a collection all at once?

Ann, you don’t say whether you are wanting to read the books using BloomReader or some epub program. I’m going to assume the target is BloomReader.

I suspect the quickest (and maybe easiest) way would be to first use Publish/Android and select “Save Bloom Reader File” for each book, so that you end up with a folder containing a .bloomd file for each book you want to copy to all the tablets. Then just use any convenient file transfer method (e.g., mount each tablet with a USB cable) and copy all the books into the ‘Bloom’ folder which should be at the root of the tablet’s storage (or the root of its SD card).

Another option is to install them one at a time onto one tablet, and then user BloomReader’s “Share” command to share them all at once to each of the others.

A third option is to set all the devices to receive over WiFi, then publish each book in turn. Over some time, it should get transferred to all the devices, and you could then publish another book. However, I suspect you’d run into trouble with devices going to sleep, and it would be difficult to verify that every book made it to every device. I suspect it would also be slower.

John, thank you for the suggestions.

Would you (or anyone) be able to tell me how to get the .bloomd files onto the tablet storage files? I have found where the Bloom folder is located within the tablet storage, but nothing comes up on the laptop for me to access the tablet when it is attached via USB cord. The tablet is charging when connected to the laptop, but it doesn’t seem to be fully communicating between the devices.

I have 44 tablets that need to be equipped with these books. It would be incredible helpful to be able to download an entire folder of stories at once. I have found that I can download a set of stories from google drive onto the tablet, but they have to still be opened individually for the files to be transferred into the BloomReader.

Thank you!

Hi Ann,
Options for getting bloom reader books on a device without using Bloom itself (wifi or usb) include using an SD card, dropbox, & google drive.

When you connect a device (tablet/phone) to a computer using USB, there should be an option on the device to switch between “charging mode” and “file transfer mode”. It sounds like your device is just in charging mode. What brand of tablet are you using?

Once you are in file-transfer mode, transfer all the .bloomd files into the Bloom folder. This should make them appear in the Bloom Reader without needing to open each of them individually.


I am using PixelC Google Android tablets. For some reason, the tablet won’t communicate with the Dell laptop beyond charging mode. I found on the tablet where I should be able to select the USB connection but it remains unable to be selected. However, when I connect the tablet to my Mac, it does register the device and I am able to download the .bloomd files (taken off of google drive) using “Android File Transfer.” A very smooth and quick process!

If anyone knows how to get the Dell and tablet to communicate, I would welcome the suggestions. But at least I do now have a means to transfer multiple files at once!

Thank you,
Angela