Catalina Books Error - BKAgentServiceErrorDomain error 8

I'm having this issue as well. All the epubs open in Books on the Mac, but newly added, or edited books will no longer sync to either the iPad or iPhone. Only PDF's. Sigh...my books are the main reason from having the ipad in try first place. If this doesn't get fixed, i'm finding another reader. Ridiculous!!! Come on Apple...fix this mess.

This has been my issue exactly. All books have opened on my MacBook, regardless of format or source, but when I went to sync with my iPad, my PDFs and EPUB did not transfer from the laptop to the tablet. Only books downloaded from Apple made The migration. I have been working for weeks with Apple support, multiple senior advisers who did not respond to me when they scheduled a promised update call, and someone from customer support. To date,, I have had every possible assistance short of actual help. After sending multiple logs for analysis to “engineer in“ I have finally gotten a response: they “hope“ to resolve the problem in a future update. This has been such an unsatisfactory process.

I keep clean copies of all my EPUB’s and PDFs in a separate folder, so I have been able to access those files and transfer them to a Blue Fire reader as an alternative. I find it easy to use and completely functional. Syncing is without glitches. However, I have lost access to prior notes and highlighted passages. This is a terrible blow to productivity for me, as most of the work I do on the tablet is for academic purposes, therefore, the loss of annotations presents a real issue.

Here's the breakdown of how this issue has progressed for me over the past many weeks:

I'm an avid reader, mostly fanfiction (i.e. fewer purchased epubs), so my library is a labor of love. I've used Calibre for years to amass my library. After updating to Catalina on my old MacBook pro, any new epubs imported to Apple books from Calibre would not open...error stated it was corrupt (same as an earlier post on this thread). Concerned about my library, I used Pages to reformat my most important books into epubs, (weeks!) added the covers, then imported them into Apple Books. Worked like a charm. Then, because of keyboard issues, I purchased a new MacBook Pro, updated to Catalina, migrated all data from the old mac, and thought all was well.

My spouse had the issue first since she purchases most of her books...new epubs would import to Apple Books (on her MacBook) and open just fine. However, when syncing through Finder, while the new books appeared on the list and were selected, they will NOT sync over to any device. No error message at all, just no new books. UNLESS...you make it a PDF. However, while PDFs sync over, they do NOT sync across devices for annotations or place keeping.

Last night, I had to edit an existing book (previously synced to ipad pro and iphone 8 plus). I deleted the old versions from all devices and Apple Books (Mac), then imported the updated epub to Apple Books. It opened just fine, but would not sync to my iPad or iPhone. I ended up having to use the PDF version.

Seriously, this could very well be the final straw for me. Over the past several years, it seems Apple has become lax in its care and maintenance of the Books app. While it may not be the most popular app, that's no reason to let it fall by the wayside. Considering many of us have invested YEARS of work and loyalty, not to mention the money, it would seem logical to be more proactive and diligent.

I've had repeated issues that almost never get addressed, leaving me to find workarounds. Apple, we shouldn't have to work so hard to use what we've relied on for years. Please, fix this.

This is more than a real issue. You shouldn't have to seek out a third party application when Apple is supposed "just work". That lie should die a quick and painful death. Anything like this that not only slows down your productivity but brings it to a grinding halt should make you want to throw a heated iron through Apple's corporate office window.

This is unacceptable.

Has there even been any announcement from them regarding fixes for all the messes scatalina has created for everyone?

Thank you Messi4ever.

You should be paid by Apple and not their dorky techs. I spent two hours on with them and went through the usual routine of; restart your computer, run disk utilities in recovery mode, reinstall scatalina. NOTHING WORKED AND NOW MY MUSIC IS DEAD TOO.

But after finding your suggestion by sheer luck and checking into that folder, do you know what I found? I didn't find two items in there, instead I found one. An epub. A book.

A book that should have been with all the other books. Why one lonely book was thrown into that file is anyones guess. But if this is the random crap we have to expect from apple and their newest mess scatalina, then I'm going to start investigating linux and the possibility of returning to pc's. I left pc's 20 years ago for just this reason. Same crap, different OS. I can only hope things have gotten better because honestly it doesn't seem we have much choice in systems these days. Where are we heading when only a small handful of corporations have such control over everything we do now. It almost seems like some weired scifi novel we would have read in high school or something.

So thanks again. You my friend make their whole outfit look rather inept.

I had been working with "senior advisors" and customer service for two weeks. Finally, after hours on the phone, no callbacks when promised, submitting two sets of logs to "engineering," here is the response I got: Engineering is "hopeful" that there will be a fix in the next update. Hopeful? This makes a Windows upgrade look good by comparison.

Wow! Perhaps they should just dispense with the pleasentries and simply say they will get around to it when they get around to it and you will just have to wait. lol. I've since received a warning that they will "remove my privledges), of partaking in these forums. Aparently I've hit a nerve or two with my declarations of switching back to PC's after the past 20 years. I miss Steve Job's terribly, but Apple is just one more case of the one mores, these days. Their products no longer, "just work". And I do believe they no longer care.

Sorry about all that work you put into working with their "senior advisors" and other lackeys. I wonder if you can send them a consulting bill?

FTR,

"But after finding your suggestion by sheer luck and checking into that folder, do you know what I found? I didn't find two items in there, instead I found one. An epub. A book.

A book that should have been with all the other books. Why one lonely book was thrown into that file is anyones guess. "

was my experience too.

Rebooted and no joy. Will try turning off log-ins now (the most cautious other suggestion above) and reboot and give it a whirl. Not optimistic.

Luckily IPad Pro works...I was particularly pleases with third part app to integrate the (hardware) Apple Pencil thing for annotations on that machine, so (knock wood) not a complete !@#$up with Books/Catalina.

VERY happy to report that the latest Catalina update solved this problem for me. Of course, it would have been nice to have been notified somehow that this was on the way or available. But that is old school I guess. That it happened is a plus.

Same here. I started to post here a few days ago. I’d read the details on the update and checked with a few sources after it had been out for a bit. Everyone said it had fixed the issues of not being able to sync the books over to iPad and iPhone. So, I bit the bullet, lit a candle to the tech deity, and updated. All of my books are now coming over just fine. In fact, the ones that hadn’t synced over due to the error came back onto my devices automatically. This is the kind of service I want to see again from Apple; that when we have an issue and make it known, that they put their collective heads together and solve it. I’m assuming that since this was an issue that affected one of their revenue-based apps and services, that this is why it was addressed and corrected so quickly. I hope they continue to respond so favorably in the future, even to issues that may not be so widespread.

on a sidenote, I have yet to do the latest update for the iPad or iPhone. Any news on whether these affect the books or not?

Sorry NOT SOLVED! It worked and then the grey spinning wheel started again. I am waiting for Apple to provide some insight!

Techgal

Thanks for the warning. I was just about to update my iPhone. Think I'll wait.