ipad will not sync with ibooks on imac after upgrade to Catalina

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Level 1

9 points

ipad will not sync with ibooks on imac after upgrade to Catalina

I am running iOS 13.1.3 on my iPad Pro and Catalina macOS 10.15 (19A602) on my i Mac. For the first time I used the backup facility that is now in Finder. The backup process managed to delete all of the PDFs and documents from my iPad Library except one purchased book and when I select Sync all books with my iPad none get synced from my iMac to the now empty iPad Books Library. So i now have an iPad with none of my 100+ PDF documents on it! I left the device syncing overnight in case it was a bandwidth issue but no change.

The new backup facility is USER HOSTILE. It tells you nothing, gives no indication of the state of the backup process except for a circular indicator in the sidebar entry for the iPad and you can't even stop backup unless you force quit Finder.

There have been a few posts recently about the poor quality of Apple's software but this takes the biscuit.

Any help or advice would be appreciated

iPad Pro 12.9-inch, 2nd Gen, Wi-Fi, Cell

Posted on Oct 17, 2019 12:13 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Sparkie39

Level 1

29 points

Oct 21, 2019 3:49 AM in response to gerry99uk

I had the same issue and spent days searching the net for an answer to no avail. Desperately needed to sync my PDF's on my Mac to iPhone so started playing around. I am using iCloud to sync books so hope this works for you as well. The following super simple sequence solved my problems immediately.

Open apple books on your mac and also apple books on your iPhone / iPad. On mac, within the "books" app click on "PDF's", this will show all of your PDF's now listed. At top of window click on the "Library Tab," then click on the "Books library Tab" & then "Audiobooks Tab". You will see the sync circle appear and magically PDF's appear on iPhone within 1 to 2 minutes. Hope this helps.

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Answer 2

MacMoke1

Level 1

8 points

Nov 18, 2019 6:34 AM in response to gerry99uk

I had the same issue. The current solution in Catalina 15.1 doesn't work. I spent 6 hours trying to get it to work and in the process lost my bookmarks in 4 books I was reading. I even deleted Books from my iPad and reinstalled no joy. Then I read about a program called Waltr. What a joy ! ! you run Waltr and drop any media file and Poof there it is on you iPad/iPhone bookmarks intact. ! ! ! It takes about 20 seconds vice 5=10 minutes using Catalina. Now I don't use the clunky, POS Catalina Syncing process I'm using Waltr. Such a shame that Apple has degraded to giving us solutions worse than Microsoft. Until Apple can get its Sh}t in one sock I won't be using the Apple Solution.

MacMoke1

PS I'm not affiliated in any way with the developers of Waltr.

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Answer 3

gerry99uk Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 21, 2019 3:36 AM in response to QuickPost

Whilst I appreciate you are trying to do you best to be helpful, I struggle with a response that requires me to AirDrop over 200 individual PDF files from my iMac to my iPad to overcome a serious bug in the backup/sync capability in Catalina. This should have been picked up during the extensive testing that allegedly was undertaken prior to the general release of Catalina. There are an increasing number of posts in various forums about the quality of this release in particular and the increasingly poor quality of Apple software more generally.

I have been a fan of Apple for some time but this experience has seriously dented my confidence in Apple as a supplier of my IT and I will think long and hard before paying premium prices for sub standard quality. What is more galling is there has been no formal acknowledgement of the issue and no response as to when / if it will be resolved.

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Answer 4

sjwar

Level 1

4 points

Nov 21, 2019 10:15 AM in response to gerry99uk

I have both books open on my Mac and on iPad. Do I need to switch between PDF, Library, back to PDF then audio books, just on Mac in Books or also do the tab switching on iPad for this this work. It's not doing nothing just switching to the different tabs in Books on Mac.

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Answer 5

QuickPost

Level 10

103,437 points

Oct 17, 2019 7:33 PM in response to gerry99uk

Hello,

You are welcome to share your feedback with Apple using the following link.

Product Feedback - Apple

As for your documents, do you have a backup of your PDF documents on your iMac?

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Answer 6

gerry99uk Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 18, 2019 12:14 AM in response to QuickPost

Thanks for your reply. Yes the original documents remain on my i Mac, its just they got deleted from my iPad and can't / won't re-sync to it

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Answer 7

Nov 12, 2019 12:01 PM in response to gerry99uk

Perfect solution, I had exactly the same problem. Wouldn't have fixed it without your post!

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Answer 8

Nov 18, 2019 12:48 AM in response to Louis Brauer

Great I was able to help Louis. I have used this apple forum to solve many problems over the years and glad I can actually give back by offering a solution. Cheers.

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Answer 9

gerry99uk Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 21, 2019 5:18 AM in response to Sparkie39

Hello Sparkie39, thanks for your very helpful response.

I followed your instructions which at first didn't work. I checked the iCloud settings on my iMac and they looked OK. I then checked the iCloud settings on my iPad and discovered that in iCloud Storage under System Preferences there were TWO copies of Apple Books installed, although I have no idea how that happened as I had not installed any new copies.

I deleted the Apple Books app from my iPad, checked there were no copies installed anywhere and then reinstalled Apple Books from the App Store. Once installed I checked again to ensure only one copy and almost immediately the PDFs started to sync :)

Thanks for your help, it is much appreciated

Gerry

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Answer 10

QuickPost

Level 10

103,437 points

Oct 18, 2019 12:15 PM in response to gerry99uk

Hello,

Try using AirDrop to migrate these documents back to your iPad.

How to use AirDrop on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

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ipad will not sync with ibooks on imac after upgrade to Catalina

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