Why is iBooks always 'working?'

Question

Level 4

1,151 points

Why is iBooks always 'working?'

I'm not sure how to phrase this, but iBooks is constantly ‘working’ on something; I never get an "Edit" button in the top left corner to sort, delete, or move books to different collections, but instead I always have a spinning progress indicator. See screenshot:

http://cl.ly/KMLw

What might cause this and why won't it ever go away? I have a large collection of eBooks, so iBooks has always been a bit slow, but I know I used to be able to hit "Edit" and move them into smaller collections. Now I can't even do that.

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1, 32GB, ATnT, no cellular data plan

Posted on Oct 23, 2012 4:17 PM

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Answer 1

LukeD

Level 4

3,144 points

Oct 23, 2012 8:07 PM in response to Iynque

This means that iBooks is indexing your large database of content. You need to disable all passcode and autolock features, and just let it run for 1 to 2 hours. You need to let it go through this process every time you add books and PDFs. The more you add, the longer it takes to index.

My best solution is to use GoodReader for PDFs. It never needs to index like iBooks.

It is unfortunate that Apple has not caught this bug yet.

It is just like when you upgrade to a new version of OS X. Spotlight takes some time to index your hard drive.

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Answer 2

LukeD

Level 4

3,144 points

Oct 23, 2012 8:36 PM in response to LukeD

To clarify, you have to leave iBooks open during the 1 to 2 hour wait. Once that indexing is done, it will work perfectly until you load more content. You just always have to give it its' indexing time.

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Answer 3

Iynque Author

Level 4

1,151 points

Oct 24, 2012 3:02 PM in response to LukeD

I thought it might be something like this, so I've left iBooks open for long stretches and it just never seems to stop. Then again, maybe it just needs a lot more time. I'll leave it open overnight and see if the issue is fixed. I'm actually installing a new update to iBooks right now, so maybe it will be fixed even sooner.

I can hope…

Thanks for the reply! :)

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Answer 4

LukeD

Level 4

3,144 points

Oct 24, 2012 4:06 PM in response to Iynque

I would avoid iBooks 3. As an example, I had that wheel spinning for 40-hours on my iPad 2 only to learn that iBooks 3.0 does not work.

I went back to the previous iBooks via my back up. The entire process had taken 2-hours.

My best advice is to use GoodReader. I have been using it extensively over the last 2-years, and I have never had a single issue on any device.

Good luck, and let us know!

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Answer 5

Iynque Author

Level 4

1,151 points

Oct 25, 2012 9:15 AM in response to LukeD

The new update fixed this issue and others I had with iBooks. I'm not sure if leaving it open to reindex would have worked or not, since the updated version re-indexed my 3,025-or-so books in just a few minutes. My searches in PDFs and books with thousands of pages are much faster as well.

Altogether, a good update!

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Answer 6

talvola

Level 1

0 points

Dec 2, 2012 9:02 PM in response to LukeD

It would be nice, but my iPad is hooked up to an exchange server so it can only stay 'open' for 15 minutes before locking, and I'm guessing that iBooks stops then. Wonder if I have to just sit and babysit and touch the screen every 10 minutes or so...

Would love some sort of progress meter or something...

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