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User profile for user: joninsalford
joninsalford Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Moving books back from iCloud to my Mac

Hello all,


I moved my books from my Mac to my iCloud but didn't realise that this would mean I can no longer read them all on a second phone I have which is used with another Apple ID. Previously, because this phone was synched by being connected to my Mac, I was able to keep all my books on it.


Some of these books were purchased from Apple (these are available on the second phone) - and some which weren't (these now aren't available on it).


Is there a way to do one of the following:


  1. move my books back from iCloud onto my Mac; or
  2. access them (including ones not downloaded from Apple) on the second phone using the other Apple ID?


Thanks in advance for any ideas

Posted on Oct 15, 2019 9:07 AM

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User profile for user: joninsalford
joninsalford Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Posted on Oct 18, 2019 6:15 AM

All done. Thank you for your very clear instructions.


It all worked as you said and got my books where I wanted them, back on my mac.


For anyone worried about doing this, when the books were re-imported, they kept all their covers, genres etc. making it even easier.





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User profile for user: Farmer Dude
Farmer Dude
User level: Level 1
11 points

Oct 16, 2019 9:06 AM in response to joninsalford

You can move books out of iCloud, but it's going to be a manual process. You should probably back up your system before you start, or make sure you have access to all the original book files in case something goes wrong and you need to restore your books. Then you could do something like:


  1. Make sure all your iCloud Drive books are downloaded locally.
  2. Drag books from Books library to your desktop or to some folder in Finder. This will make a copy of your books on the desktop (or wherever you choose to put them). If you have all the original files, then you can skip steps 1 and 2 and go directly to 3.
  3. Delete your iCloud Drive books from Books library. Note that this will remove the books from iCloud Drive, not just from the local Books app, which means they'll get removed from Books app on other devices that are connected to that iCloud account.
  4. Disable iCloud Drive for Books app (System Preferences --> Apple ID --> iCloud Drive Options --> uncheck the box next to Books).
  5. Reboot. This probably isn't necessary, but couldn't hurt and seems like a good idea.
  6. Launch Books app.
  7. Drag books from the copies you made in step 2 (or from the original book files if you skipped steps 1 and 2) back into the Books Library.


You're books should now be back in Books app, but not in iCloud Drive. When you're sure that everything is how you want it, you can delete the copies you made in step 2.


Good luck!

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Moving books back from iCloud to my Mac

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