Understanding folio download counts

You can obtain a fulfillment server download report from the Analytics page on the DPS Dashboard.

How does Adobe determine a download?

Downloads are counted in different ways, depending on how and where the DPS content is consumed. They are counted differently for a tablet viewer (iPad, iPhone, or Android device) than they are in the Adobe Content Viewer for the Web (Web Viewer).

Tablet Viewer (without Sections): When the complete folio has been downloaded to the client device, a download is recorded. Failed, paused, incomplete, abandoned or otherwise unfinished downloads are not counted. Any folio that the same user downloads to a different device is counted as a separate download event. Any folio archived by the user and then downloaded again is counted as a separate download event. If the publisher updates the folio and the consumer downloads the update, it is NOT counted as a separate download event.

Tablet Viewer (with Sections): When the first section in a folio has been downloaded to the client device, a download for the entire folio is recorded. Failed, paused, incomplete, abandoned or otherwise unfinished downloads are not counted. Any subsequent sections downloaded are not counted as "downloads." Any folio that the same user downloads to a different device is counted as a separate download event (when the first section is downloaded again). Any folio archived by the user and then downloaded again is counted as a separate download event (when the first section is downloaded again). If the publisher updates the folio and the consumer downloads the update, it is NOT counted as a separate download event.

Tablet Viewer (Free Article Preview): If you enable Free Article Preview in retail folios, downloaded free articles are counted as follows. When the number of downloaded free articles reaches the total number of articles in the folio, it's counted as one fulfillment. Example: A folio has 20 articles and 5 articles are marked as "Free" and included in the Free Article Preview. A folio download is counted when 20 articles have been downloaded. When a user downloads the Preview folio, only five articles are downloaded to their device, so no folio download is counted. If the user purchase the folio, the remaining 15 articles are downloaded and a folio download is counted. Or, if four users download the Preview folio without purchasing the 20-article folio, it counts as one download (5 x 4).

Web Viewer/Article Viewer: If you enable Social Sharing in your viewer app, DPS allows readers to view your articles in browsers using the Adobe Content Viewer for Web ("Web Viewer"). These views count against your fulfillment count as follows. When the number of article views within the Web Viewer reaches the number of articles in the folio, it's counted as one fulfillment against your Fulfillment Bundle.

For example, suppose that you enable Social Sharing in an app that includes a folio with 20 articles. If one person reads all 20 articles of that folio in the Web Viewer, this counts as one fulfillment. Or, if 20 different people each read one shared article, this counts as one fulfillment. In this example, any combination of article views that adds up to 20 within that folio is counted as a fulfillment. This example is for clarification purposes only. See Section 3.4 of the DPS Terms of Use for the specific terms and restrictions related to use of the DPS Social Sharing features and Web Viewer.

When shared articles are consumed on an iPad, they are displayed in the Mobile Web Safari Viewer ("Article Viewer"). Views of shared articles on iPads are counted in the same way as Web Viewer views.

Understanding possible download discrepancies

When users download folios from the viewer library, the DPS fulfillment server (also known as the "Adobe Distribution Service") records successful downloads in its database. This data is used for billing purposes. Adobe Analytics also tracks downloads. It uses different criteria to track downloads, resulting in different download numbers than the numbers that the fulfillment server reports.

Obtaining fulfillment download reports

You can download a consolidated fulfillment report to get information about downloads. If you sign in to the DPS Dashboard using an Admin account, you can click a link in the Dashboard to obtain a consolidated report. The report shows the fulfillment downloads for your account.

Consolidated fulfillment report

The consolidated fulfillment report contains a line for each folio and each week in which a download of that folio occurred. When the publication contains two different folios that represent different renditions for the same logical issue, there are two different lines for the downloads for a given week.


This report is updated once a day even though the aggregation is by week. For the current week, the numbers go up until the week is over. At that point, the week is a prior week, and the numbers for that week will no longer change.

Publication Account. A publication account is the Application role (called Title ID in DPS App Builder) used to publish the folios. Currently, email addresses are used to identify the publication account, but it could change in the future.

Account ID. A string of characters that identifies the publication account.

Folio ID. The ID of the downloaded folio.

Total Billable Fulfillments. The number of fulfillment downloads for a given folio during the reporting period.

Device Viewer Billable Fulfillments. The number of fulfillment downloads to a native viewer application on a device for a given folio during the reporting period. These downloads are a fraction of the Total Billable Fulfillments figure and not in addition to it.

Device Viewer Article Preview Billable Fulfillments. The number of fulfillment downloads to the native application where those fulfillments were preview articles. These downloads are a fraction of the Total Billable Fulfillments figure and not in addition to it.

Device Viewer Article Billable Fulfillments. The number of fulfillment downloads to the Adobe Content Viewer for Web on an iPad tablet. These downloads are a fraction of the Total Billable Fulfillments figure and not in addition to it.

Desktop Web Viewer Billable Fulfillments. The number of fulfillment downloads to the Adobe Content Viewer for Web on an iPad tablet. These downloads are a fraction of the Total Billable Fulfillments figure and not in addition to it. See Web Viewer download counts.

Publication Title. The text that appears in the Application Name in the DPS Admin Tool. If this field is not found, the Publication Name from the Folio Producer panel is used.

Issue Number. The text that appears in the Folio Number field in the Folio Producer.

Download Date. The date on which the download occurred.

Receiving status updates for fulfillment bundles

You can opt in to receive email notifications regarding your account.