Books app ebooks vanish when iCloud sync is off

Question

btthanh Author

Level 1

4 points

Books app ebooks vanish when iCloud sync is off

I'm using an iPad Gen 11 and iPad OS 26.2.

I'm having trouble with the Books app on my iPad.

In the Books app, I have 139 ebooks. I downloaded these ebooks from the internet. The ebook size is 1.4GB.

When checking iCloud, I wanted to save this 1.4GB, so I turned off syncing.

When I returned to the Books app, everything was empty. Only when I turned the syncing option back on in iCloud did the books reappear, with cloud icons below them.

How can I download all these documents back to my iPad to read offline?
How can I prevent my books from disappearing when I turn off iCloud in the Books app?
I've checked the iCloud webpage, but I can't find the documents that the Books app uploaded to iCloud. So how can I extract all these ebooks and move them to another app?

iPad, iPadOS 26

Posted on Jan 8, 2026 7:43 AM

Reply

Answer 1

picas

Level 7

21,057 points

Jan 8, 2026 1:43 PM in response to btthanh

iCloud webpage does not include Books. You cannot prevent books disappearing when turning off iCloud Drive for Books – they stay in the cloud just not on the device. iCloud is for syncing between devices.

Reply

Answer 2

-Captain-

Level 4

1,169 points

Jan 8, 2026 11:34 AM in response to btthanh

Hello btthanh,

There are a couple of things to address here and I will answer each one by one.

Why do my books disappear when iCloud Sync is turned off? This is because your books are synced to iCloud and when iCloud Books are disabled, it removes books stored in the cloud.
How do I redownload my books to read offline? Tap the books you want downloaded, wait for them to download and the cloud icon to disappear. They will be accessible when offline now.
How do I move my books from iCloud to on my device? Try downloading your books with iCloud Sync enabled. Once all the books no longer have cloud icons below them, turn off iCloud Sync, then check to see if the books stay.

I hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Captain

Reply

Answer 3

btthanh Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 8, 2026 5:57 PM in response to -Captain-

Thanks you for your support.

I followed your instructions. I clicked on the cloud icon and selected to download each ebook. I then tested it by disconnecting from the internet to view the ebooks. That’s okay.

Turn on internet and I went to Settings - iCloud and turned off iCloud for Books. The result was that my Books library was empty. When I turned it back on, the books reappeared with a cloud icon and needed to be downloaded again from the beginning.

Reply