So what exactly has happened here? I think I possibly enabled and disabled iCloud sync for books with iCloud Drive and now it seems a lot of books are missing from my Apple Books Library.
Even restoring the com.apple.BKAgentService folder from Time Machine hasn't restored things the way I could have expected either.
In the Books application on your Mac, use the menu to:
Apple has not decided anything. You have done the deciding.
Let's review. In my first response, I incorrectly thought you were talking about missing books being books you purchased from the Apple Book Store.
I now realize that is not correct. Indeed what you are talking about are books you purchased elsewhere, that you made available to your various Apple devices using iCloud Drive.
You subsequently decided to stop using iCloud Drive. You are now expressing surprise that after deciding this, you no longer see the books on your Mac that were housed in iCloud Drive.
Indeed. The idea that Apple would ever think you'd want to remove something from the only source it exists that they couldn't be replaced from their own store is mind boggling *stupid*
At the time I was only trying to get Collections to sync across devices properly but Apple has decided to add the scope everything it found in my iBooks library and when I opted out of using iCloud syncing it removed them from all devices (I didn't think it considered the mac a "device")
and now I have to try to restore them from Time Machine Backup.
Apple seems to be incentivized to use up as much iCloud storage I have as possible by opting in as much content as possible even if/when it never had anything to do with them.
It seems to be a way for you to want to pay for extra iCloud storage ... since my preference is to be able to sync my books from my master device my Mac with Apple never deleting anything that they cannot replace it.
when you opt into it this iCloud books sync you're never really expecting iCloud drive to be the only copy of the data.
Here is information about iCloud Drive. I hope it helps you better understand it.
Access iCloud Drive files from your iPhone and other devices - Apple Support
The thing is Apple has opted in non iTunes purchased epubs to the cloud and then when I decided to not use the cloud it seems to have erased these from all devices including my mac. So Apple decided to remove from my devices non apple purchased books that it opted into iCloud.
Apple Books gone after disabling iCloud sync?
