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User profile for user: sparkeeeee
sparkeeeee Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Cannot turn off Books iCloud syncing.

I use Books on my iMac to store PDFs and sync them to my iPad and iPhone. It annoys me every time there's a major OSX update iCloud syncing is automatically turned on. I have to go through the same routine of recovering all my PDFs off iCloud and turning it off to rebuilt my Books. However now I have found with Sonoma I am not able to turn off Books in my iMac's iCloud Drive settings. When I turn it off, close setting then reopen the setting is turned on again.


Not only do I not want to pay for more iCloud storage, I have a lot of manuals in there, but I need some of these PDFs synced to my iPad since I do not always have a network connection. Any way to get my Books iCloud sync setting to turn off and stay off? Or an alternate way to sync and view PDFs without using iCloud.

iMac (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Mar 17, 2024 6:58 PM

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User profile for user: bomobob
bomobob
User level: Level 1
5 points

May 14, 2024 10:53 AM in response to sparkeeeee

I find this insanely frustrating as well.


The only option for me now is to store all the epubs and pdfs (manuals, travel books, etc) in a folder on my Mac, and then turn off the Books-icloud sync on my ipads (which you can still do, for the time being), then over a cable, dump all the files into Books on the ipads.

So now at least I have all the books that I need on the ipads in the Books library, and it's not connected to icloud.


But the problem still remains on my mac. You can turn off the icloud sync on Books everywhere, but as soon as you open the Books app on the Mac, the sync turns on again, with no way to turn it off for good. And of course as soon as I foolishly import all my books back into Books on the Mac again, icloud hits the limit in a couple of minutes.


Calibre is now the only option for an ebook library on a mac. It's a shame, because Books on the Mac has always been quite a good ereader. Now it's completely bricked.

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User profile for user: bomobob
bomobob
User level: Level 1
5 points

May 14, 2024 11:21 AM in response to bomobob

I have found a workaround that seems to serve my purpose.


If you remove all the books from the Books app on the Mac, then sign out of Books in the app itself, you can then import the books back into Books. Even though you still can't turn off the icloud sync, as long as Books remains signed out, it will not automatically upload all the books to icloud.

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Cannot turn off Books iCloud syncing.

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