Apple Books

Question

Level 1

5 points

Apple Books

After reading a lot of posts, messing around with Settings and reading other info online, I finally figured out that if you purchase a book from Apple Books you cannot permanently delete it. Remove Everywhere only seems to apply to books sampled but not purchased. You can hide a purchased book but that's all. The file remains in iCloud using up storage space and your only option is to purchase more storage.

What I want to know is why? Why can't a purchased book - audio or otherwise - be permanently deleted? Until Apple changes this policy I won't use Appple Books any more.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 13.3

Posted on Jun 25, 2023 7:01 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Mac Jim ID

Level 7

25,283 points

Jun 25, 2023 8:16 AM in response to Blurbette

On your Mac, they will be stored on the Hard Drive. When deleted from the Books Library, the file will be deleted from your Hard Drive. You can see the location by going to the Finder and choosing Go > Go to Folder, then enter "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks" without quotation marks. I do not recommend removing the books manually from the Books folder here, but when you delete the Book from the Library in Books, you will see that it gets removed here.

On your iPad, go to Settings > Books and shut off the syncing options "Reading Now" and "iCloud Drive". The book will be stored on your iPad. We do not have the ability to view the file structure of the iPad like we do on the Mac, but it will be deleted from the device when you delete it from the Books Library. You can view the storage that your books are using on your iPad by going to Settings > General > iPad Storage > Books.

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Answer 2

Mac Jim ID

Level 7

25,283 points

Jun 25, 2023 8:22 AM in response to Mac Jim ID

I forgot to mention that on the iPad, you need to go to Settings > [your name on top] > iCloud > Show All > Books.

Make sure this switch is shut off for local storage of the books you download from your iPad.

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Answer 3

amelchi

Level 1

12 points

Feb 17, 2024 12:45 AM in response to Mac Jim ID

it leads me only to audiobooks...

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Answer 4

Mac Jim ID

Level 7

25,283 points

Jun 25, 2023 7:20 AM in response to Blurbette

Have you tried shutting off storage of Books in the iCloud Drive on your Mac?

Go to  > System Settings > [your name on top] > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Apps Syncing to iCloud Drive > Books.

They can be stored on your device with that shut off. You only need that on if you want them viewable on all devices. You can still redownload the book on all devices by going to the book store and downloading again without having to pay.

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Answer 5

Blurbette Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 25, 2023 7:47 AM in response to Mac Jim ID

Okay, done. So now will Apple books will be stored on the hard drive of my desktop only? Can they be permanently delete from the hard drive? However, I mainly use my iPad for downloading and reading/listening to books. It doesn't have nearly as much local storage space, so I'm not quite sure how it would work.

I appreciate your help, but would still like to know why Apple won't allow people to just delete a book they no longer want.

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