Nicolas Online

Q: Every Single Problem with iBooks for Mac

Hello,

 

It is disappointing that as Apple users we are used to doing things a certain way for years, and Apple's way forward results in less functionality and flexibility.

 

Here is a list of all the problems I have been facing with iBooks for Mac:

 

1. Transfer of Books to iPad or iPhone from iBooks is non-existant. If I create or download a DRM-free epub and or PDF and add it to iBooks for Mac (i.e. it wasn't downloaded from the iBooks Store), there is no direct way to transfer them to your iOS device through iBooks. Even books downloaded from the iBooks Store, since iBooks itself doesn't allow the transfer of files to the iOS device.

 

2. iBooks doesn't allow us to Edit metadata. Many PDFs come without metadata. And to organize them into the library as was previously possible in iTunes, we could add Author, Genre, Year, etc... Also even for books we actually download from the iBooks Store maybe we want to change the Genre or Category the book is in or simplify the Author's name.

 

3. iBooks essentially duplicates any PDF or ePub we drag to it into it's own library. Acting like iTunes "Copy files to iTunes Media Library when adding to library". If I have hundreds of PDF's that are hundreds of Megabytes in size, I don't want them duplicated again, especially when it's duplicated on my default Macintosh HD whom many people have as SSDs nowadays.

 

4. iBooks doesn't allow us to create or choose multiple libraries and have them in any destination we want (like it is possible with iTunes, iPhoto, Aperture, etc). By Option-Clicking on iBooks we should have that option.

 

5. The ability to delete Collections in iBooks for Mac.

 

All the above problems are surprising, as what essentially Apple has done is a book reader, and not a book library management tool. With books becoming more and more digital and more and more people using them, so does the amount of books in one's collection grow. It is virtually impossible to manage any book collection with such a lack of features.

 

Should anyone have solutions to the aformentioned problems or ideas on how to overcome them, please feel free to post them here.

 

Should anyone have other problems they encountered in this initial version of iBooks, please feel free to post them here, as this would be a good place to sythesize all that's bothering a lot of people with this new phase into Apple's ecosystem of iBooks.

 

Thank you,

 

Nick

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 3:24 AM

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Q: Every Single Problem with iBooks for Mac

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  • by RCB099,

    RCB099 RCB099 Oct 29, 2013 8:55 PM in response to Nicolas Online
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2013 8:55 PM in response to Nicolas Online

    Thank you, you are correct. NOWHERE in the iBooks help does it mention this...

     

    In order to sync your own books, non-purchased books, or PDF's from your computer to a device such as an iPad or iPhone into the iBooks application on your device - you STILL must do it in iTunes.

     

    Plug in your device, in the iTunes screen select your device (iPad, etc.), click on the BOOKS tab, then find and click the box next to the item then click on SYNC.

     

    Your own books, non-purchased books, PDF's, etc., DO NOT sync via iCould.

     

    (restated your answer to help those who are searching for this problem)

     

    There must be a lot of frustrated people out there.

     

    Hands down one of the very worst updates I've ever seen from Apple - horrible.

     

    Steve must be rolling in his grave. (Ironically just watched "Jobs" last night...this iBooks app goes against all he stood for, except ways of making $$ from the iStore.)

  • by NMBob,

    NMBob NMBob Oct 29, 2013 9:06 PM in response to Nicolas Online
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Oct 29, 2013 9:06 PM in response to Nicolas Online

    Back to Mountain Lion.  I tried everything, but could not get the Books category to show up in iTunes.  I even used AppZapper (like AppDelete) to delete everything it found having to do with iTunes, except iTunes itself, and moving the whole iTunes folder out of Music.  Nada.  Oh well.  8 minutes left on a clean install of Mountain Lion...well...8 minutes and 1 day to get it all straightened out.  My MacBook needed cleaning anyway.  Thanks for wasting my time, Apple!  Feedback left.

  • by RCB099,

    RCB099 RCB099 Oct 29, 2013 9:23 PM in response to NMBob
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2013 9:23 PM in response to NMBob

    Note to all...

     

    There is NO MORE "Books" category in iTunes - but - there IS a BOOKS tab in iTunes when you click on your device once it is connected to iTunes (with a wire), and see the tabs under that device.

     

    If you have your own book or pdf - you can add it to your device in several steps: first by dragging it into the new iBooks app on your computer - then go to iTunes where it will show up  under the Books tab when you click on and select your connected device. Then you have to click the box next to the book or pdf to select it. THEN you have to click on SYNC to get it to your device.

     

    And - it sounds like this may not be working for everyone...

     

    It's crazy confusing, takes several steps,  and a mega-nightmare - epic fail from Appple on this one.

  • by NMBob,

    NMBob NMBob Oct 29, 2013 9:29 PM in response to RCB099
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Oct 29, 2013 9:29 PM in response to RCB099

    Oh!  But I never lost that "tab" for my iPad.  And synching seemed to be OK, except it refused to leave the book about the making of the movie Lincoln on my iPad.  It kept getting unchecked in the Books tab.  It's probably because he was a Repulican.   I was trying to get back the Books category...and now I have it!   There's even a Books checkbutton in the preferences!  I like cats better than cold California salt water.

  • by bluevoice,

    bluevoice bluevoice Oct 30, 2013 1:38 AM in response to ssgp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 1:38 AM in response to ssgp

    I just had a look at the new deep rooted iBooks folder that can be found in the following location: 

     

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

     

    There are several folders in the iBooks folder:

     

    Books

    Downloads

     

    Now here is a weird thing, if you go to iTunes > File > Library  and choose the option "Organize Library" iTunes puts a copy of the ebooks from the folder "Books" into the folder "Downloads". The books "Downloads" folder have the old, legible, structure.

     

    This could be a feature, but the problem is that if you use the "Organize Library" option again, iTunes puts again a new copy in the "Downloads" folder. At the end you end up by having lots of copies of the ebooks in the "Downloads" folder.

     

    I still dont't understand how the new ebooks management works, any help to understand it better would be appreciated.


  • by Franco Franchi,

    Franco Franchi Franco Franchi Oct 30, 2013 1:44 AM in response to Wozzeck
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 1:44 AM in response to Wozzeck

    Among mavy suggestions, your post looks more attractive to me. However, given my ignorance, HOW DO KILL THE PROCESS?

    Can't find any command to do that, and I'm afraid not to be able to use the terminal to do that.

    Might you be so kind to show a step-by-step how-to-do?

    Many thanks.

  • by bluevoice,

    bluevoice bluevoice Oct 30, 2013 1:46 AM in response to Franco Franchi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 1:46 AM in response to Franco Franchi

    Use the Activity Monitor to find the process and kill it

  • by Franco Franchi,

    Franco Franchi Franco Franchi Oct 30, 2013 1:51 AM in response to bluevoice
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 1:51 AM in response to bluevoice

    I've read this, but WHAT SHOULD I DO TO KILL IT? I found the process. I selecetd it... and then? Which is the command?

    Thanks.

  • by bluevoice,

    bluevoice bluevoice Oct 30, 2013 1:52 AM in response to Franco Franchi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 1:52 AM in response to Franco Franchi

    There's a button with an X on it on the top left corner of the window. Use this button to kill the process.

  • by Franco Franchi,

    Franco Franchi Franco Franchi Oct 30, 2013 10:51 AM in response to bluevoice
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 10:51 AM in response to bluevoice

    Thanks for your help. The adjustment took me several hours since I've accumulated more than 4,300 books personally crafted... and maintained in different ways in two macs and two ipads, for their different uses.

    Now I'm back to the originals.

     

    In many, many years of use of appreciable Apple products, hard & soft, this is the first time I have been so much frustrated by a piece of software raw, useless, so badly made and lacking any kind of user friendliness and control. To say that this version of iBook is just bare-bone would be very complimentary! Cannot believe that a firm world-wide known for the elegance of its refined products might have had such a flop!

    One point that does not seem to be mentioned in the posts to comment this "uncompleted product": did anyone noticed that after the conversion to iBook the size on the files included in the book library increased EACH by a ratio of about 2.5 times the original one? To me, by going back to iTunes that reprented a gain of more than 2 GIGABYTE!

    Hey, Apple, if you read me (?), throw this product in the waste basket and start over from the scratch. And, please, complete also the iPad version. You cannot believe that effectively cataloguing a large collection of books is just a bare listing of titles, author and genre!

     

    Bluevoice, thanks again.

  • by NMBob,

    NMBob NMBob Oct 30, 2013 11:03 AM in response to Franco Franchi
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 11:03 AM in response to Franco Franchi

    I would take your reply and paste it straight into Apple's feedback system, but I'm afraid the FBI would show up at my door.  You should do it.  I've never seen anything like this mess from Apple.

  • by ssolomon,

    ssolomon ssolomon Oct 30, 2013 11:27 AM in response to Wozzeck
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 11:27 AM in response to Wozzeck

    Just wanted to comment that after following the instructions above I did have my iTunes books restored. The problem was that all the metadata from PDF docs was gone. Also, the pointers were still looking at the iBooks directory. To fix these, I did the following...

     

    1. Restored the "Books" diresctory in the iTuned Media folder from a backup.

    2. Deleted thre iBooks directory including the books and downloads folder

    3. Using Time Machine, I restored my iTunes Library file from just before the iBook debacle

    4. Logged out and back in... all my books and tags were back to the way they were

  • by Nicolas Online,

    Nicolas Online Nicolas Online Oct 30, 2013 1:52 PM in response to ssolomon
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 1:52 PM in response to ssolomon

    I am literally putting off buying the MacBook Pro retina late 2013 announced last week,  because I'm not sure if I can downgrade from Mavericks to Mountain Lion, since it comes factory installed with Mavericks. This iBooks thing is an absolute and utter fiasco. Ridiculous

  • by Dr Sly,

    Dr Sly Dr Sly Oct 30, 2013 2:34 PM in response to Nicolas Online
    Level 1 (145 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 2:34 PM in response to Nicolas Online

    Hello,

     

    here was my solution (after countless other tricks which did nothing) to reset my iBooks app in OS X and get my purchases from the iTunes store in there.

     

    *** very simple walkthrough ***

     

    1- delete all books from iBooks on OS X

    2- delete all books from iBooks on iOS devices

    3- sign out of iTunes for OS X

    4- sign out of iBooks for OS X

    5- sign out of iTunes on all iOS devices (from Settings/iTunes & App Store)

    6- delete everything in /Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books on OS X

    7- open Disk Utility on OS X and repairs all permissions

    8- turn off/on all iOS devices, don't connect to iTunes yet

    9- reboot OS X computer

    10- open iTunes on iOS, re-enable iTunes & App Store account (log back in)

    11- verify that nothing is left in folder mentioned in step 6 above

    12- open iTunes on OS X, do the same

    13- opne iBooks on OS X, do the same

    14- add some PDFs in iBooks on OS X

    15- download some previous purchases from iBooks on OS X

    16- sync OS X with iOS using iTunes

     

    Voilà. Step 15 did not work for me until now. Everything appears to be under control now.

     

    Hope this works for y'all!

     

    Peace out,

     

    Dr S.

  • by mattlamb,

    mattlamb mattlamb Nov 3, 2013 12:27 AM in response to Nicolas Online
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 3, 2013 12:27 AM in response to Nicolas Online

    I found a solution that worked for me.

     

    I had books that were not purchased from iTunes and some that were  in my iPhone iBooks and they were not in iBooks on my macbookair.

     

    Connect iPhone to iTunes ( I used wifi sync).

     

    I went into itunes -  then File / Devices  - select Transfer purchases from iPhone.

     

    voila after restarting iBooks  they appeared on my Macbookair.

     

    hope that helps others.

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