"unauthorized media"

Having reported this fault six months ago and Apple having reproducing it themselves 4 months ago I am still unable to continue work on two books. The fault is identical to those posting here.

I even emailed Tim Cook twice in case we could get some movement / fix for this introduced fault - but no reply. Not even an acknowledgement.

I am surprised that, having broken iBooks Author with Catalina, Apple is content to leave it broken for what used to be an excellent multimedia book program.

Apple Support suggested I use Pages to make my next books since videos now give this error in iBooks Author. Unfortunately using Pages means you can’t use “pop over” widgets so, for example, interactive maps can’t be included in travel books. So it appears I either create my books with the buggy iBooks Author (no video) or Pages (no interactive maps). Six months after Catalina introduced this problem Apple have done absolutely nothing! So much for “it just works”.

Thanks for this helpful advice.

If i read it correctly does this mean only one video can now be added in a book? Because if you return back to another page to insert a 2nd/3rd video etc it will disappear? My travel guides can have up to 5 or 6 videos.

I really appreciate your tip and hope I can get iBooks Author working again as it did before Apple broke it.

Thanks again!

I have 40 videos in one of my books. I have to add it page after page (each video in a unique page). If I return back in previous page (i.e. to fix a text error) the videos in previous pages disappear and I have to re-add it again :-(

A quick update. I asked Apple Support if there was any news on a fix and they contacted Engineering. Unfortunately for us, no news of a fix, no timeline to give us an idea. Six months after they introduced this bug - absolutely nothing!

Hi HerrieC. If you have time could you tell us how you got it to work? Was it by never closing or saving the iBook as you wrote it / inserted video etc? Did this result in a complete functioning book when you uploaded it to the Apple Book Store?

If you can confirm this it will help a lot of people I think.

Thanks

The "never close and save before you share to the iBooks format" did the trick. A startup picture of the video (that can be changed with the film poster button in Author) shows up consistently in the final file. I do not upload to Apple Book store though, I create travel books (as a modern substitute for the classic photo album) with text, pictures, videos and scraps just for private reading on iPad.

I am not sure though that this video-trick has to be repeated when editing the book in a later session.

Cheers!

See now that i forgot something to say. Here the text again with adjustments.

For me the solution at this moment is. I transfer the iba file to my old computer without Catalina. I open it up in iBook Author. I make all the adjustments to the videofiles. I can even put the right screenshot again.

Next I export the version in my old computer. I take the external disk to my new computer and

share it right away without open it again. Everything then is like it should be on my ipad or in apple books. Off course this is not like we would like to have it. I did also report it to the IBook Author team so they should no but maybe we all have to report this matter.

I also reported this directly to Apple. I am screwed because ITunes Publisher requires an update to a version that will not run on my El Cap maxed out old machine. Tried to buy a new computer to get around it but it came with Catalina installed. Returned the new computer. Out of luck now. I sent a complaint to the Apple Books team and also to the iBooks Author team. My sense is that there is no iBooks Author “team”. The propeller heads that created this wonderful product are long gone or reassigned. I don’t expect it to ever be updated again. Whatever Catalina did to cause this issue may be more important to Apple for other reasons than keeping this product alive going forward. If you can get below Catalina and to at least HIgh Sierra you will live to see another day.

10.15.4 MacMini 8GB iBooks Author 2.6.1 *issues "unauthorizes media" and "limited media management"*

I would like to answer you because I like the fact that you are trying hard to keep afloat what has been a software masterpiece .

Others are always complaining, and I like your constructive way.

Of course it would be a pity if Apple does not continue to maintain iBook Author.

Probably there are simply too few creative people who appreciate the genius of this program.

+ I am pleased that there is a (complex) workaround for the media problem.

+ Also the partially missing cover display after transfer in iOS can be overcome with a strange trick.

- Unfortunately I had to realize yesterday that the number of images and movies that can be included is limited. After 463 pages of my 'Fashion Lookbook' (about 400 pictures and about 20 videos) I suddenly couldn't integrate any other media to complete this project successfully.

Therefore my personal rating for iBooks Author is almost reduced from "professional workflow" to "PC-like fragile mediocrity".

Just like you, I hope that somewhere at Apple there will arise another driving force that makes the iBook Author concept strong and superior again. Pages is of course not a viable replacement and has been developed for completely different ideas.

Thanks for the positive comment Donald Duck!

In answer to Hadrien Morand......

I emailed Tim Cook three times when there was no progress after 4 months. His email address is easy to find on the internet and will probably get deleted if I post it here. The first two emails were ignored completely - no acknowledgement even! So I don't hold out too much hope of getting listened to even at CEO level! So much for listening to the creative community.

The third time someone from Executive Relations (Ireland) got in touch with me and had a very helpful, positive attitude..

Even though this issue was reported to Apple as soon as it happened (October 2019) I've been told they don't think it is a priority and there is no timetable for or prospect of a fix. So I am focussing on this workaround helpfully suggested on here of only adding the videos immediately before publishing.

I hope this workaround does work but it has several consequences. I publish tourist guides and all of my old books get this error when I load the file on my computer to update them. It's quite complicated tracking down every video I made up to 7 years ago to re-insert just before publishing so the workaround won't make it practical to update my books.

This is a great pity because the ease of updating tourist guides, student books etc should be one of the strengths of Apple Books.

I agree using Pages is no alternative as it misses several interactive features (pop over widgets for example).

I'm currently finishing a book I put on hold last October when this all started and the helpful person at ER (Ireland) is going to get someone to check it over.

I'm not holding my breath though because someone reported doing all that with Apple directly almost 7 months ago and I did the same - sending computer logs, examples etc at Apple Support's request) 5 months ago. I spent hours screen sharing, showing Support the issue live and compiling the logs they requested for Apple Engineering. Response? Zero!

It beats me how Apple has put out several updates to Catalina - even an update to Publisher - yet ignored their amazing iBooks Author which has incredible potential in education for example.

Most disappointing is that on their recent promotional webpage for Apple Books creation - where they showcase both Pages and iBooks Author - Apple states that videos can be easily dropped into books using iBooks Author - even though other parts of Apple know this hasn't been true for seven months. Totally misleading!

Anyway, the more people who email T. Cook the better! I owed encourage everyone on here to do it and to get their contacts to. The more Apple realises this puts a block / significant obstacle on its creative community the better.

I think there may be another bug in the way Catalina / iBooks Author now work together - or rather don't!

A lot of people have reported the "unauthorised media" bug discovered here in October 2019.

However, I have just followed the workaround suggestion in this forum and got an error message that Apple Books can't accept my book because it requires movies to be in a number of formats - including .mp4

My movies in the book - which are being rejected as the wrong format - are .mp4 files! .mp4 files created in iMovie with content form an iPhone. So they are exactly the format the error message says I should be using.

My movies were filmed on an iPhone, transferred to a Mac and edited in iMovie before being dropped into iBooks Author at the last moment before uploading.

So as well as content I own the digital rights to being rejected by IBA as "unauthorised" it now rejects my .mp4 files saying they should be in the .mp4 format! You couldn't make it up.

I will contact Apple again to see if anyone will assist in getting this sorted out. If Apple devices, programs and OS can't work together, something is seriously wrong at Apple Engineering where they have left this unaddressed for six months!

What is more annoying is that a recently added Apple webpage on book creation features IBA stating it can easily handle video content to make books more interesting!

It is rather pointless and ironic of this Apple community system telling me "you have just reached the first level of the Publishing Speciality!" because of my posts about not being able to publish because of the Catalina / IBA bug!

I will report back on any progress I make with Apple.

I have two books of band photographs and videos all originated and owned by me in collaboration with the band so there is no copyright issue when I updated one book I got the unauthorised media message when I updated the other book essentially exactly the same, just different photos and media. I didn’t get the message using Catalina so this may not be an OS related issue it sounds more like it’s an individual book issue have any of you had the same issue with two different books

I have just received an email and it looks like the writing is on the wall for iBooks Author unfortunately. The email reads:

”Two years ago we brought book creation into Pages. With key features such as the ability to work on iPad, collaborate with others on a shared book, draw with Apple Pencil, and more, Pages is a great platform for making books.

As we focus our efforts on Pages, iBooks Author will no longer be updated and will soon be removed from the Mac App Store. You can continue to use iBooks Author on macOS 10.15 and earlier, and books previously published to Apple Books will remain available. If you have iBooks Author books you’d like to import into Pages for further editing, we have a book import feature coming to Pages soon.”

Like you I don’t think Pages is a good replacement. The crunch may well come when macOS goes beyond 10.15.

Bad news!

I too received the death notice email for Author. Cynically i’m not surprised. I can imagine a fancy slideshow to the company suits telling them what they want to hear - that Pages can be the Swiss Army knife of publishing, and also relieve the techies of having to spend precious high end resources to support Author as a separate platform. A win win for everyone in the room, and a lose for the users of Author.

However I must give them all a chance to prove that they can overcome - there is a lot of talent in the shop. The “Pages import feature” that is forthcoming will be telling. I suspect it will strip existing Author books of any advanced features that Pages will not directly advance.

The statement that books created with Author “will remain available” to me is suspect. At some inconvenient future juncture it seems quite possible that Author books will be deprecated, just as Author is being retired now. Convert to Pages or lose them?

My thinking is to await future developments and see what functionality is provided. I plan to convert my book to a PDF as a backup. Yes, I will lose the embedded audio and video, but the rest of the formatting will be preserved.

My final thought is a sense of disappointment that Apple would not consider GrahamPadP’s thought (quickly removed from the comments) to sell or open source Author so that a third party could continue development. If Pages is to be so great, what are you afraid of, Apple?