I've tried all this and been successful in saving webpages as PDF files to Books. However they DO NOT show up in iCloud. If I create a PDF on my iPad it will sync to my iPhone so it must pass through iCloud. So why can't I see it in iCloud? I want to copy these files to my PC. The iCloud Drive folder on my PC and as the browser only show Downloads, Pages and Shortcuts. This is super frustrating.
iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 15
Correct. Books is not an available app in iCloud. iCloud is used to sync your books/pdfs. If you have pdfs that you wish to download elsewhere, save them to your iCloud Drive instead of books (or save in both locations).
Correct. Books is not an available app in iCloud. iCloud is used to sync your books/pdfs. If you have pdfs that you wish to download elsewhere, save them to your iCloud Drive instead of books (or save in both locations).
You can share the pdf (send by email) in the books app. Since the pdfs have no Digital rights management attached, those can just be freely shared. You can also share directly into the Files app from books. Tap the three dots under the pdf for share sheet options.
Or save the pdfs into your files app instead of books, which will then be available at iCloud.com/drive on any device. You can access the pdf on the PC or your other devices in files.
No, if you save a pdf into books, it will be available only in the books app on other devices so long as you have iCloud set to sync books. Your PDF will be available in the Books app on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, as long as you're signed into the same Apple ID and have iCloud Drive turned on for Books.
iCloud Drive is very similar to dropbox. You've just chosen to add your pdfs to the Books app so the data is contained within the app. You don't need to place pdfs into books to read/open them. If you save pdfs instead to files, you can access just like dropbox at iCloud.com/drive and in Files on the iPad.
It's not. That's exactly what happens when you sync books and exactly what you are doing. The pdfs are available on your other devices because your syncing through iCloud Drive. If you disabled iCloud sync for books on your iPhone and added a pdf to your library on your iPad, it would not sync to your phone.
It may not be the cleanest of language for any of a number of reasons; Books does not have a standalone iCloud app, similar to how photos works, possibly because of licensing. A lack of uniformity in how data is synced/visible. Lots of apps sync data through iCloud but are not accessible outside of the app itself (, games, web bookmarks, etc.), although not every app works that way. And the kicker, typically when Apple references devices it is implied to be only Apple devices.
I must be missing something. This article https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205751 seems to imply that one can simply save a webpage to Books as a PDF and then open iCloud Drive and so what you wish with it.
I have iPhone, iPad and PC running Windows 10. I will typically be browsing on my iPad, see an article I want to read later or keep, save PDF to Books. I have iCloud and iCloud Drive turned on phone and iPad. I then want the files on my PC. It's this last part that is the problem.
If I had a handful of PDF files then this would be tolerable. Unfortunately I have about 150 files. This is such an inefficient workflow that Apple has created. Thanks for your answers but nothing either of us can do about this. All Apple had to do was make iCloud like Dropbox or the other storage systems and things would be straightforward.
Then this article https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205751 by Apple is incorrect. A quote from it "You can add PDFs to your Apple Books Library on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, then access your files on any of your other devices using iCloud Drive."
Saved PDF files don't appear in iCloud
