Q: How do you sync PDFs in iBooks across devices (iOS 9.2)
I found an older set of instructions for iBooks on the Apple support web site that reads: "If you turned on Sync Collections, iBooks will keep your PDFs (and non–iBooks Store books) in the same collections across all your iOS devices and Mac (if you're using OS X Mavericks or later)." This has actually never worked for me. Has it worked for others, and if so, how did it appear in iBooks on your second device? The reason I ask is that I just got a new iPad Pro and would like to get all of my PDFs from my old iPad, but I don't want to reinstall from my old iPad backup. Any and all insights welcome.
iPad, iOS 9.2.1, IPad Pro, iPad 3
Posted on Mar 11, 2016 8:28 PM
On your iOS devices, in Settings > iBooks, if you have "Sync Collections" turned on, this will keep an updated index (or small text file) on iCloud for all of your devices to received. This is not the PDFs or books themselves, only a file that says "this book goes here in this collection, this one goes there in that collection, etc." You will still be able to sync the actual books and PDFs via iTunes with this "Sync Collections" option turned on. Likewise, if you went online to wherever you got the PDFs or books form and downloaded them directly to your iOS devices with the same exact name, the collections list that is syncing will do the same thing. It's just easier to have the "library" of PDFS (and books) all managed in one place on your computer then sync to each device to ensure they have all the same PDFs (and books).
iCloud: Only used to sync the collection file (little files that says where each book goes, by name)
iTunes: Used to host the actual books/PDFs themselves and sync them all to multiple devices.
Posted on Mar 11, 2016 8:56 PM