Books app for Mac suddenly crashing on launch

I've just deleted the folder users/username/library/containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents

There were 6 folders and five other documents in there. I don't know which was the offending item but they were all created anew on launching Books and now it's staying open and seems stable again. Highlights and notes also appear to be intact.

I'll see how it goes and let you know.

I'm having the same problem in Mojave. If I Log Out of my regular user profile and Log into my backup profile, I am able to open Books without crashing. There I can see all the books un-downloaded in iCloud. I've tried Trashing the Books p-list with no effect.

Yes this just started happening to me as well today. I'm also running Mojave on a Mac Pro. It's particularly worrying given that there is no longer any support for Mojave hence unlikely there will be any update to fix it. I'm also in the position of having a lot of books and pdf's that i need for work that I can't get access to.

I found on my Mac Pro running Mojave 10.14.6 these folders and deleted them.

users/username/library/containers/com.apple.iBooks.CacheDelete

users/username/library/containers/com.apple.iBooksX-SecureUserDefaults

users/username/library/containers/com.apple.iBooksX.CacheDelete

users/username/library/containers/com.apple.iBooksX.DiskSpaceEfficiency

users/username/library/containers/com.apple.iBooksX

In trying to diagnose the issue last night I deleted users/username/library/containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Documents/iBooks which I always keep a back up of, because of previous issues with Books. So I have to reinstall my library but Books is staying open. I don't know if this step is necessary to delete the users/username/library/containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Documents/iBooks folder. I would try it after deleting the above folders and only if that first step doesn't work.

This workaround was helpful to stabilize iBooks on this Macbook Air running Mojave but I appear to have lost access to some items in my Library on the Macbook Air that I retain access to on iOS devices. I can't upgrade to newer OS because of space constraints. I only deleted the following files as they were all that appeared:

users/username/library/containers/com.apple.iBooks.CacheDelete

users/username/library/containers/com.apple.iBooksX-SecureUserDefaults

users/username/library/containers/com.apple.iBooksX

Not sure what this means for future access to missing items on macOS, whether they will reappear in my Library at some point or not, but it's unfortunate that through no fault of this user, there is an issue with Books at this point running Mojave OS. Not blaming any user advice of course, but it would be helpful if Apple worked to resolve the issue.

Just posting here to create a thread of information.

This is great! Your fix worked for me as well. After deleting said folder, Books launched immediately with a blank library which within seconds repopulated and automatically downloaded all 408 books and 95% of my original manual sorting still intact. [mid-2010 MacPro Mojave 10.14.6]

I am happy if this workaround helped anyone. Us Mojave holdouts are on a island by ourselves so we have to lookout for one another. I wish I knew more so I could help those who this didn't work for. If I figure out anymore, I will post here.

This just happened to me too, same OS. But someone else posted about having the same problem on Monterey.

I'm having this issue as well. It's frustrating but I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one. Hoping for an answer and a resolution soon!

That's good news. I have the same set as you, having installed a metal GPU to get to Mojave. Fingers crossed.

I have EXACTLY the same problem with the same OS version (like Alex S., I can't upgrade my OS or I will lose critical 32-bit and older apps). PLEASE address this!

I can find none of these files on my laptop. I'm running the last version of Mojave.

Happy to report that I needed to deauthorize and reauthorize the device to regain access to all items purchased on iBooks. Thank you again for the quick fix.