I cannot find the book samples I downloaded. Just as I have for the last 10 years I find a book in the store and click “download sample”. It confirms my ID and then the usual download icon shows progress until it is complete. Then they are nowhere to be found in my library. Where are they? (iPad Pro 2018, iOS 12.11)
iPad Pro 12.9-inch, 3rd Gen, Wi-Fi, Cell
Hey Zaptrax,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you're unable to see recently downloaded books in the Apple Books app on your iPad. I'd like to see how I can help. What happens if you force close the Apple Books and restart you iPad? How to force an app to close on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
You may also want to update to the latest iOS 12.1.3 as well. Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Let us know the results.
Best Regards.
Read this Apple Support Link. From what I'm gathering after reading it, samples are handled differently in that they evidently don't save for later use. You tap on the sample, read it and decide if you want to purchase the book.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201478
My experience has been that book samples are not saved in the Books app at all. Purchased books are, of course, saved. But not book samples. If you didn't finish the sample on reading it the first time, download it again.
When did this change? I've been using an iPad to read books for 10 years and have read and downloaded hundreds of samples over the years. This is the first time I have not been able to read a book sample I have downloaded. If Apple has made this change I will switch to Kindle.
I forced closed the Books app and then downloaded and installed the 12.1.3 update. The iPad restarted but no sign of the book samples. Next I went to the store, downloaded two more samples and I cannot find either one. While I think the Book app and store needed a redesign, the new design is awful. Can you tell me where the samples are in the app? I've looked in Library/Collections/Books (and Downloaded, My Books, etc.), Reading Now and I don't see the downloaded samples. After buying over a 100 books from Apple and almost every one began with me downloading a sample, I'd call this a disaster to my future patronage of the Apple Book Store.
Thanks.
After buying over a 100 books from Apple and almost every one began with me downloading a sample
Hopefully, although you've lost your samples, you still have all your purchased books.
We cannot speculate here about why Apple does or does not do certain things. But if I owned and could govern Apple, I would also make samples disappear.
I guess that is why you don't own Apple and why you don't govern Apple. :) Virtually every bookstore in the world knows that the way you sell books is to let people read books in their store so they will buy them. This is from Apple's website for authors and publishers: "If you sell a book in the iBooks Store, you need to create a sample book for customers to preview before they purchase. iBooks Author can create a sample book based on one of your book’s chapters, or you can create a sample yourself using the steps below."
My guess is that this is a bug and not a change in policy. Thanks.
the way you sell books is to let people read books in their store so they will buy them.
This sounds perfectly reasonable. But "let people read books in their store" means there's a limit on where (or how long) they can peruse the sample. They cannot, for example, take the sample home without purchasing the book.
I do not mean to imply that samples are a bad idea, should not be allowed, or anything of the sort. I do mean that samples are not something to be archived.
I didn't come here looking to hear people options. I was seeking knowledge about how things actually work. Perhaps someone actually knows. At least that is my hope.
Thanks. I'm not sure that is entirely clear. Hope they haven't changed the policy or I'll have to switch to Kindle. I've checked and Kindle still allows you download and keep book samples.
I should update my comment above about book samples not being saved.
I believe the previous behavior was that book samples were saved on the specific device that obtained them. (I have several devices using the Books app under my Apple ID: iPhone, iPad, Mac). Other devices could not access these samples without downloading them. I am not certain when this behavior changed to the current model - after iOS 12, but I don't know how long after.
I cannot find the book samples I downloaded.