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Covers missing in iOS5 iBooks

Just loaded iOS5, and in iBooks the covers for most of my ebooks are missing, replaced with a generic cover. Most of my books are ebooks bought from other sites, but they showed fine in iOS4.


Ideas?

Posted on Oct 12, 2011 8:23 PM

Reply
19 replies

Oct 13, 2011 5:01 AM in response to chipmason

I had the same problem and started to replace the covers in the artwork section as opposed to just dragging it into the 'selected item' section. Did a few and then synced. Didn't work. So then unchecked the 'sync all books' and synced which of course removed them from my iphone. Then I went back and selected all books and synced again which of course re-imported them all back in and I have all my book covers back.

Oct 13, 2011 11:41 PM in response to chipmason

Once there is a difference between the iBook information about a book and the iTunes version of a book, the only way to fix it is to delete the book from the iPad, then reimport from the correct version in iTunes. If you copy a book to the iPad and then decide you want to change the category or grouping of the book, you are out of luck - all you can do is delete and reimport. Similarly if you copy a book to the iPad and later find a killer cover you want to show with it, you have to update the iTunes version, delete the iPad copy, then reimport.


The trouble with this is that when you have a mass loss of covers, as we do here, you are stuck with the deletion and reimport process for all the books in error. That's fine if you haven't set up collections and didn't rearrange the books from the default import order, but if you have, all the collection info and the special arrangement info is lost. And that's my problem - the artwork is valuable to me, but so is the collection info, which would take time to reconstruct - and would be tedious to boot.


As far as I am concerned, the connection between iTunes and iBooks is broken (and always has been - this isn't new behaviour). Synch doesn't work the way it should (particularly for manual synching), and the workarounds are unacceptable to me.

Oct 14, 2011 1:44 AM in response to chipmason

Wow, Michelecg's suggestion worked.


De-selected "Sync" Books on iTunes, Sync'ed the iPad without any books checked, then Re-selected Sync Books, and voilĂ , there were my ePub covers again and even the old bookmarks made it. Yay. What an absolute dog's biscuit of a mess that is, though. Oh, well, at least I have the covers back. THANKS.


Incidentally, the iOS5 upgrade process took me almost 8 hours. This was another 1 to research/solve. Must Apple, whom we love most days, make things so difficult for their users?

Oct 18, 2011 1:15 PM in response to Peter Tattersall

I found that if I deleted the books in a single collection and re-synced then the

books found their way back to the collection from which they were deleted.


Don't forget to check the re-sync *all* books radio button before doing the

sync after deleting the books.


There was a slight difference in behavior between the iPhone and the iPad.


On the iPad the covers re-appeared short after the sync was completed.


On the iPhone I had to open each book before the covers would re-appear ( after the resync)


Jerry

Oct 23, 2011 10:23 PM in response to Allypet

Allypet wrote:


Will I lose my bookmarks and highlights?


Just tested this myself, and I'm happy to report that if you have "Sync Bookmarks" enabled in iBooks's Settings, they should all be restored automatically. And, if you have "Sync Collections" also enabled, the books will also remember which sections and which order they should appear in.

Covers missing in iOS5 iBooks

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