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Remove downloaded books without deleting from icloud

I use Books to store / organise a large number of pdfs. I use iCloud for Books to avoid using up space on my devices. On my iPhone or iPad I can remove a download of a pdf in Books without deleting it from iCloud, but I can't work out how to do this on my MacBook - the only option I get is to delete everywhere. Any idea how I can remove the download without deleting the pdf from iCloud?


Thanks

Posted on Feb 22, 2020 8:03 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 5, 2020 10:18 PM

Don't listen to picas. There is a way to do this :)


First, make sure that you have iCloud Drive enabled on your computer and you have Books sync enabled.


Open up a Terminal and type this in:

cd ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks


Then type in:

open Documents/


This will open up a Finder window with a list of all your downloaded books and PDFs.


To remove the book from your local storage without removing it from iCloud, right click the file and click "Remove Download".


You'll know it worked if the little iCloud download icon shows up next to the file. You can also open up Books and check that there is a cloud icon in the upper right hand corner of your book's cover. That indicates it is stored on iCloud.


Good luck! Let me know if you have questions.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 5, 2020 10:18 PM in response to louisefromleeds

Don't listen to picas. There is a way to do this :)


First, make sure that you have iCloud Drive enabled on your computer and you have Books sync enabled.


Open up a Terminal and type this in:

cd ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks


Then type in:

open Documents/


This will open up a Finder window with a list of all your downloaded books and PDFs.


To remove the book from your local storage without removing it from iCloud, right click the file and click "Remove Download".


You'll know it worked if the little iCloud download icon shows up next to the file. You can also open up Books and check that there is a cloud icon in the upper right hand corner of your book's cover. That indicates it is stored on iCloud.


Good luck! Let me know if you have questions.

Feb 22, 2020 6:36 PM in response to louisefromleeds

You pay for iCloud if your iCloud data is above the 5GB limit. iCloud works that if you delete a file on one device it deletes it everywhere (the only exception is pdfs in Books on an iPhone/iPad).


Most people come here complaining that pdfs keep disappearing into the cloud and they have to keep downloading them, or when they go to read a pdf offline it’s in the cloud.


If storage space is getting full use a service like Dropbox whereby you can store them there and delete the files off your devices.

Remove downloaded books without deleting from icloud

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