Garindan

Q: Not impressed! No edit info, no library management!

I really hope these can be fixed soon. As others have said, not having the ability to edit book info, which was so easy in iTunes, is terrible! And that iBooks moves all your books to a hard to find folder on your internal drive, and renames the files, equally bad.

 

It's great being able to read books on the mac for the first time, but everything else is a step backwards. In iTunes the books were stored neatly in the media folder and could be moved anywhere you wished with the rest of the library, and you could easily edit info, covers etc. Now it's all been taken away and we're stuck with having little to no options again.

 

I hope it can all be fixed soon!

iBook, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 1:46 AM

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Q: Not impressed! No edit info, no library management!

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  • by kiripap,

    kiripap kiripap Oct 27, 2013 12:33 AM in response to Gilloo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 12:33 AM in response to Gilloo

    Could it be so simple that you did not go inte Preference->General and checked the "Books" checkbox?

  • by Andy Epprecht,

    Andy Epprecht Andy Epprecht Oct 27, 2013 4:33 AM in response to Gilloo
    Level 1 (58 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 27, 2013 4:33 AM in response to Gilloo

    @Gilloo

     

    ... completely wrong! No one mentionned to create a new user.

  • by Gilloo,

    Gilloo Gilloo Oct 27, 2013 4:47 AM in response to Andy Epprecht
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 4:47 AM in response to Andy Epprecht

    That's right, but I try all solutions to help the community ...

  • by Andy Epprecht,

    Andy Epprecht Andy Epprecht Oct 27, 2013 5:05 AM in response to Julian Bashir
    Level 1 (58 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 27, 2013 5:05 AM in response to Julian Bashir

    Please note:

     

    All the described steps rely on the assumption that you have the fowllowing checked in your iTunes PreferencesScreen Shot 01.png

     

    If you changed your path or gave the default 'iTunes Media' folder a different name then you will logically have to look for your books, etc. in that place.

     

    Checking the above preferences will place all your media (music, video, audiobooks, books, pdfs, podcasts, ... whatever) in that very same folder structure. Not everybody will want or have done that. That's your choice and also pretty much depends on your available disk space (on your Mac or maybe even on an external device)

     

    In order to see and figure out where actually a specific book or pdf is found (located on your disc) you select a book/pdf within iTunes and right click on it ...

    Screen Shot 02.png

     

    ... and select 'Show in Finder'. You will then be able to figure out where your book or pdf is actually stored. This will be in your 'iTunes Media' (or however you named it in the Preferences, see above) folder or in another folder on your disc(s). If eg. they still reside in the '~/Library/Containers/....' directory, then you're not yet at your goal in migrating back to pre OS X Mavericks and iBooks.

     


  • by Andy Epprecht,

    Andy Epprecht Andy Epprecht Oct 27, 2013 5:25 AM in response to Julian Bashir
    Level 1 (58 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 27, 2013 5:25 AM in response to Julian Bashir

    @bashir

     

    In your situation, that you still found most (or maybe all) pdf's in your 'iTunes Media/Books' folder, it could be a good idea to move/copy that whole iTunes Media/Books folder and it's content to another location (e.g. Desktop, whatever). Then make sure your iTunes Media/Books folder is empty. Re-add your Books from that outside iTunes folder (eg. Desktop) to iTunes by choosing either iTunes > File > 'Add to Library' or simply try iTunes > File > Library > Organize Library and check 'Consolidate Library'. Then see if they got copied back into iTunes Media and reapear in iTunes.

     

    Anyway, whatever you try out next, I assume that you have a iTunes and  'iTunes Media' folder backup stored at some safe place before you go on.

     

    Hope this helps.

  • by Julian Bashir,

    Julian Bashir Julian Bashir Oct 27, 2013 5:28 AM in response to kiripap
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iBooks
    Oct 27, 2013 5:28 AM in response to kiripap

    No. THere is no option to check books in my iTunes currently. iTunes still seems to think that iBooks is handling my e-books.

     

    I'm assuming that these methods do not require roll back to OS Mountain Lion. Here is what I have done so far. I would really appreciate any other help:

     

    1) I tried Andy's method first. iTunes does not display the books within its library, however books are syncing to my iPad. Looking at those books, it appears that they have lost their edited metadata, leading me to believe that they are the books being synced from iBooks (I've already killed the process for iBooks using Activity Monitor and moved its file elsewhere).

     

    2) I then tried importing the Books directly from the iBooks library and from the previous iTunes Media/Books library left over from before iBooks was installed - nothing. No books are being imported for reasons that are unclear to me.

     

    3) I tried moving the iBooks library out of its default directory and to the desktop. Somehow, strangely, iTunes is still syncing the books with the bad metadata to my iPad. I have no idea how it is doing that - I figured I would get some kind of error message to the effect that the library cannot be found.

     

    4) I tried looking for some kind of option in iTunes preferences to tell it that iBooks was no longer handling the e-book library - no luck. All references to seeing or syncing books in iTunes preferences are now gone.

     

    5) I've not only tried restarting iTunes, but also restarting my computer and then restarting iTunes. Still can't see e-books from doing Andy's method and still can't import books directly as per Kevin's method.

     

    The only thing I have not done is to uninstall the iBooks App - but I thought that came later after the successful import. Does uninstalling iBooks tell iTunes that it is now the default e-book app? I'm thinking about saving the iBooks library to the desktop and just uninstalling iBooks.... but want to get some feedback first as to what this might do.

     

    My preferences have always been set up just like Andy's as shown above (and I verified them again just now), so that isn't the problem.

     

    Any other ideas? Reviewing the thread, I get the impression that I'm not the only one having this problem, or some variant thereof.

  • by Andy Epprecht,

    Andy Epprecht Andy Epprecht Oct 27, 2013 8:06 AM in response to Julian Bashir
    Level 1 (58 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 27, 2013 8:06 AM in response to Julian Bashir

    @bashir

     

    3) I tried moving the iBooks library out of its default directory and to the desktop. Somehow, strangely, iTunes is still syncing the books with the bad metadata to my iPad. I have no idea how it is doing that - I figured I would get some kind of error message to the effect that the library cannot be found.

    I don't think it is a good idea to sync your iPad with iTunes as long as iTunes itselfs is not restored correctly. Maybe the reason why it didn't work for you? In my steps to do syncing is the very last 8) point.

     

    If one has an empty new iTunes to setup and fill with media (as it is with a new PC eg. or after a new clean OS X system installation) my descripton is exactly what you do and nothing far from normal. You setup the iTunes preference settings as you want them to be (iTunes Media folder location, beeing organized or not, copying your stuff into that folder or not). Then you do the import from wherever your media is stored and iTunes acts accordingly. So that's exactly what I described to do.

     

    If that media was already once in your iTunes and filled with metadata, a new import will know it's metadata (like artwork, tags like authors, etc.) and everything will be back.

     

    I got the impression that many of us succeded in following Kevin's steps and mine additions to rebuild iTunes properly. I'm sorry for that you don't find yourself on that same track.

  • by Julian Bashir,

    Julian Bashir Julian Bashir Oct 27, 2013 8:15 AM in response to Andy Epprecht
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iBooks
    Oct 27, 2013 8:15 AM in response to Andy Epprecht

    Well, iTunes wasn't displaying the books either way - I didn't sync until after I had restarted iTunes after doing the consolidating.

     

    One new point of data here: I was able to add one PDF to iTunes from the old iTunes Media/Books directory. But the PDF is tagged as "Music" and there is no option to change it to "Book." In fact, I only have options to change to  Music, iTunes University, or Podcast. ARgghhh!

     

    It's as if iTunes simply doesn't recognize books any more. Do I need to roll back to a previous version of iTunes? Why is this not working for me?

     

    Andy, just to clarify, are the books in your iTunes correctly tagged as books, and visible under a book section in the library?

  • by John-Francis Kinsler,

    John-Francis Kinsler John-Francis Kinsler Oct 27, 2013 8:25 AM in response to Julian Bashir
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 8:25 AM in response to Julian Bashir

    If you followed Kevin's steps...

    Then iTunes pretty much reverts to how it functioned

    prior to the Mavericks update.

    The iPad/iPhone synch pane does restore the books tab.

    It's like iBooks never existed...

     

    In terms of the files though...

    I too found that my PDFs were stripped of their metadata

    after the import to iBooks but it seems others members in this

    forum did not have the problem as their files were fine after reverting...

     

    For me the initial nightmare scenario of losing all the tags that I added

    through the years was averted only because I had most of the books

    on another computer which I reimported through iTunes sharing...

    I hope there is a way to resolve your problems.

     

    This iBook fiasco is a pretty collosal headache for people with huge personalized

    libraries organized and tagged differently than the average 'light' user who

    most likely didn't bother to change or add info.

  • by Andy Epprecht,

    Andy Epprecht Andy Epprecht Oct 27, 2013 8:30 AM in response to Julian Bashir
    Level 1 (58 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 27, 2013 8:30 AM in response to Julian Bashir

    does this proove it's there? 'AirPort Networks', for which I opened the info window here is a PDF file in my iTunes.

    Screen Shot 03.png

  • by John-Francis Kinsler,

    John-Francis Kinsler John-Francis Kinsler Oct 27, 2013 8:37 AM in response to Andy Epprecht
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 8:37 AM in response to Andy Epprecht

    Julian,

     

    After trashing the iBookstore file, did you also erase all

    iBooks related files using App Cleaner? It sounds like you

    skipped that step and you are still using the neutered iTunes...

    I think you have to erase the other files for iTunes to transform

    into its former self upon restart/reopening...

  • by Andy Epprecht,

    Andy Epprecht Andy Epprecht Oct 27, 2013 9:31 AM in response to John-Francis Kinsler
    Level 1 (58 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 27, 2013 9:31 AM in response to John-Francis Kinsler

    @Julian,

     

    Question: do you still have the following iTunes Library files and Library Artwork folder in a 'pre' OS X Mavericks state at hand? Meaning from a reliable recent backup prior to installing OS X Mavericks?

     

    /Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/

    /Music/iTunes/iTunes Library Extras.itdb

    /Music/iTunes/iTunes Library Genius.itdb

    /Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl

    /Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.xml

    /Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml

  • by Julian Bashir,

    Julian Bashir Julian Bashir Oct 27, 2013 9:44 AM in response to John-Francis Kinsler
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iBooks
    Oct 27, 2013 9:44 AM in response to John-Francis Kinsler

    John, no I didn't use AppCleaner because I was following Andy's procedure which did not mention using it, and which only involved uninstalling iBooks at the very end after iTunes book library was restored. I'm confused now - was I not supposed to see the restored iTunes library before uninstalling iBooks?

  • by Andy Epprecht,

    Andy Epprecht Andy Epprecht Oct 27, 2013 9:54 AM in response to Julian Bashir
    Level 1 (58 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 27, 2013 9:54 AM in response to Julian Bashir

    Julian,

     

    I did not mention it explicitly, but it implies it (and Kevin mentionned it as well), because you cannot uninstall iBooks without using a tool to delete it (in my case AppCleaner). OS X tells you that you cannot delete that app by draging it into the Trash therefore you need the help of a program like AppCleaner to shred it.

     

    That's what I wrote:

     

    7.) Deleted iBooks for Mac (maybe wise to backup it to some external drive before), and the books in the new iBooks storage folder (that's in:

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks)

     

    and in that very next entry Gillo asked how one can delete iBooks and I replied:

     

    @Gilloo

     

    Use AppCleaner (free from freemacsoft.net)


  • by John-Francis Kinsler,

    John-Francis Kinsler John-Francis Kinsler Oct 27, 2013 10:05 AM in response to Julian Bashir
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 27, 2013 10:05 AM in response to Julian Bashir

    I haven't read all the later messages in this thread but my understanding is there are 2 aspects to our iBooks problem...

     

    1) Moving the library to iBooks initially is very unpredictable... Many books don't show up. Some are moved to the new location and other files are left behind in the original iTunes media folder. They are no longer accessible through iTunes and iBooks haven't loaded them but also lost the metadata and don't even allow adding new ones...

     

    2) To regain control of edit and organize functions we have to dump iBooks and regain original iTurnes book functionality... Following Kevin's method of deleting iBooks and related files did the trick for most of us as iTunes is smart enough to resurrect book control functions when iBooks is not present. However once we get our original iTunes back we still have to deal with problem one and find a way to get the removed books back into iTunes with the original metadata...

     

    My understanding of the situation is that you are addressing the first part without reverting iTunes to its original pre-iBooks state.

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