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Can’t copy a book that’s no longer available

I bought a book within the Apple ecosystem that is no longer available on the book store. I have it on my iPhone, but I can’t get it on to my iPad, as it’s no longer in the book store.


Is there a manual way to copy the book? I tried emailing to myself, but the link sent just goes back to the book store page that says it’s not available.

Posted on Apr 27, 2024 8:34 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 29, 2024 3:50 PM

If a book is no longer available in the Apple Books store, you cannot manually copy it from one iOS device to another. However, you can try a workaround by using the "Share" and "Copy to Files" options to save the book to a location on your device, such as iCloud Drive. Then, on your other device, open the Files app and tap on the book to open it in the Apple Books app. This workaround will only work if the book is DRM-free.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 29, 2024 3:50 PM in response to David_Hod

If a book is no longer available in the Apple Books store, you cannot manually copy it from one iOS device to another. However, you can try a workaround by using the "Share" and "Copy to Files" options to save the book to a location on your device, such as iCloud Drive. Then, on your other device, open the Files app and tap on the book to open it in the Apple Books app. This workaround will only work if the book is DRM-free.

Apr 30, 2024 9:35 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Thank you.


This may very well be the dumbest thing I have seen in all my years in the Apple ecosystem. I can appreciate books going in and out of being available for sale, but not to be able to move a book between devices all using the same account, even with it being downloaded on one of the devices?


That's just dumb.


Not that I'm blaming you. Just ranting.

May 1, 2024 6:49 AM in response to David_Hod

David_Hod wrote:

This may very well be the dumbest thing I have seen in all my years in the Apple ecosystem. I can appreciate books going in and out of being available for sale, but not to be able to move a book between devices all using the same account, even with it being downloaded on one of the devices?

If you have it on your computer, you should be able to move it to any other device you have.


Note that this same issue is true with music and video content.

Jun 10, 2024 11:43 AM in response to Joeri-D

Joeri-D wrote:

Not correct, if you buy a book or rent it, you should be able to copy and quote from it when writing a literary or scientific article (or ****, even send a quote or nice passage to a friend over facebook). All these things are not available, I cannot even read my bought books on my kobo ebook reader..

You are allowed to quote from books and articles (Fair Use Doctrine). However, the rights holder is not required to give you the option to cut and paste from the eBook itself.


Perhaps you're too young to remember when we had to transcribe from a printed book using pen and paper or typewriter any quotes we wanted to use.


eBooks are great. But there are still a few things about printed books that are better.

Can’t copy a book that’s no longer available

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