Changing language of Books in books app

English is my preferred reading language, but Books app in my iPad doesn’t shows me books in English. How can I change this?

iPad Pro, iPadOS 13

Posted on Apr 25, 2020 2:25 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 4, 2020 6:57 PM

The language settings for iOS don’t alter the language of the ebook files themselves. The language of the ebook is set in the download of the file you got when you purchased it. So if you purchased a Spanish language version of an ebook, then it will only be readable in Spanish. To read it in English, you’d need to have specifically purchased an English language version of that ebook.


Ebooks are static in terms of language so you cannot translate an ebook on the fly with a software setting. If you purchased a Spanish language ebook, it is only in Spanish. Many ebook stores do offer alternate language downloads when purchasing if that author/publisher offers alternate language versions of their ebook.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 4, 2020 6:57 PM in response to Ileanainmexico

The language settings for iOS don’t alter the language of the ebook files themselves. The language of the ebook is set in the download of the file you got when you purchased it. So if you purchased a Spanish language version of an ebook, then it will only be readable in Spanish. To read it in English, you’d need to have specifically purchased an English language version of that ebook.


Ebooks are static in terms of language so you cannot translate an ebook on the fly with a software setting. If you purchased a Spanish language ebook, it is only in Spanish. Many ebook stores do offer alternate language downloads when purchasing if that author/publisher offers alternate language versions of their ebook.

May 4, 2020 5:46 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks for your reply. I don’t necessarily know what book I might like to read or the title in English for a book shown in Spanish. I want all titles to appear in English, that’s my preferred language for reading. I can’t understand why all titles in Books are displayed in Spanish when the categories are in English and my language selection in Settings is in English. I wouldn’t mind having to change the displays to English if the option was available, but it’s not. I hope you can help me.

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Changing language of Books in books app

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