Not impressed! No edit info, no library management!

Why do you think that iBook makes any changes to the original ePub other than renaming it? I took some of the iBooks mangled ePubs and copied them into Calibre. I didn't notice anything missing. In fact Calibre restored a meaningful name because it read the book name from the ePub file. I don't see that iBooks does any permanent modifications to the ePub when it moves it from iTunes to its own storage area.

I need to modify my reply.

I have 749 ePub format books in iBooks. Of them, 743 were copied over as straight ePubs but I did find 6 of them that were indeed deconstructed, i.e. each book become a folder with the individual ePub elements extracted. I haven't figured out why these 6 were treated differently than the other 743. Also, I guess I now also need to find a way of repacking them as single ePub files.

Needless to say the deconstructed ePubs were at the very end of the com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books folder which is why I didn't notice them at first.

Ok, mystery solved. Very easy to fix. All you need to do to recreate the single ePub file is open an ePub folder, select all the items in the folder, and then Compress them (right mouse click). This will create an Archive.zip file. Rename the file YourBookName.epub and you are in business.

iBooks isn't doing anything strange to the ePub content other than unzipping it. By the way, that's all an ePub file is - a zip file with the correct HTML in it. For more info see http://webdesign.about.com/od/epub/a/build-an-epub.htm

I also figured out why 6 of my ePubs were deconstructed. The 743 ePubs that were just copied over intact (other than being renamed) were the content of my iTunes directories. The 6 that were deconstructed were from ePub files that I manually added to iBooks (by dragging in the ePub files).

Thanks a lot. All new to me. Strangely enough it happened with all my test books I put to iBooks which is why I stopped. Good to know I can at least restore them back to single files. ePub structure being nothing more than a zip was new to me!

apparently apple is prepapring an update of the version of ibooks, but not the important changes like editing metadata and controlling our library.

http://9to5mac.com/2013/11/04/apple-readies-ibooks-safari-remote-desktop-and-mai l-bug-fix-updates-for-mavericks/

Regarding not being able to edit the Metadata. I had this same problem. First I tried to edit the Books.plist, and to manually add the missing author info. That didn't work. I did find a nice little free app called "PDFinfo" which allows you to change the title and/or author.
1) Do a search for "Books.plist", and that will give you the location of where your books are now stored (...Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books).
2) Make a copy of the book(s) that you wish to modify, and paste of your desktop (for easy access).
3) Delete the book(s) (that you just copied in step 2) using "iBooks/Edit/Delete". You will need to click on the book first, so that it is outlined in a blue border before you select delete.
4) Open up the PDFinfo app.
5) Select the book in the "source" window
6) "Check" the "change author" and/or "change title" boxes, and type in the new info.
7) Click the "start" button.
8) Open the iBooks app.
9) Add the newly modified book back by "iBooks/Edit/Add to Library".

This allows you to edit the "title" and "author". At this point I haven't found a way to modify/change the "category" info.

Hope that this helps...

I've had similar problems as those stated above. At first, I decided not even to plug in my iPad, and then changed my mind and reverted back to the old iTunes after going through the procedure that included deleting iBooks. In that go around, about 5 GBs of my PDFs were NOT synced to the iPad. There are other peculiar behaviors. For example, when you are trying to delete and / or download pix from the iPad youcan only doone image at a time, unlike formally, when the user could employ the well-known shift bar technique to gather up numerous items at once. And now, iTunes is now incredibly gummy ... it is hard to scroll down the list of books on one's iPad when the device is plugged in and iTunes is turned on, which might be due to the incompatibility of old iTunes or iTunes solo without being associated with iBooks onMavericks.

I am absolutely dumbfounded that Apple would do such a lousy job implementing a third rate program like this and forcing it down the throats of everyone who wants to update to Mavericks. I am seriously reconsidering this OS and looking into going back to Mountain Lion. I expect this type of dirty pool from Windows, but OSX is supposed to be different. Until this is fixed I am telling all my friends and family to stay away from Mavericks. This has to be fixed immediately.

After repeating my upgrade to Mavericks (from ML), I deleted the bookstoreagent file (as per the recommendation by Kevin Edgecomb in this thread) and then deleted the iBooks app with AppCleaner.

I then started iTunes and was able to continue working with my books/PDFs as before.

With this workaround, it seems that I am OK for now. I am concerned what will happen if Apple releases an update (particularly an iBooks update) but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I am in unfamiliar territory as I never removed an Apple standard app from my system before - does anyone have any experience with such a situation when updates appear down the line?

Niko, I haven't done that either, and don't know. I suspect it will be reinstalled, but I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. How exciting. Hopefully it will be released soon, and won't reinstall the iBooks app. Or if it does reinstall it, hopefully it won't hijack the files (including PDFs which iBooks can't read anyway!) and leave them where they are in the iTunes folders. If it were solely an epub viewer, it'd probably be okay (if primitive), but instead it's this bizarre featureless book files manager. We'll see.

I'm happy my hunch paid off and the removal process works for those of you who've tried it, and grateful to the clarifications you other guys have posted. If it happens again I'll take better notes before deleting everything, and post the detailed process.

Guys I'm dissapointed about ibooks as much as you are but be careful with your app removal, please just at least have a timemachine backup before you remove all related stuff. because a good update may resolve every possible problems with just iBooks app update while for instance bookstore agent stay as it is so you may need to re-install mavericks AGAIN and may also loose something in between too.

just a warning, I'll wait for an update...

The trick of Locksoft worked for me !

Zipped iBooks on an external backup HD and the books tab reappears in iTunes !

Thanx a lot Dude, you've saved my life...

This is a very good point.

I forgot to mention that before I removed the bookstoreagent and the iBooks app, I copied them over to an external backup (just in case I need them in the future).

Also, before the upgrade to Mavericks, I took a TimeMachine backup and a full backup (via SuperDuper). Do not proceeed with an upgrade until you have done at least one of the above.

In the case you can do exactly one of the two options, then the complete backup via SuperDuper is best. If you need to restore your system from the SuperDuper backup, absolutely all the system, applications, settings and personal files will be restored and you'll continue from where you left without the slightest thing to run.

Word is out that Apple is readying an update that addresses, among other things, iBooks.

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2013/11/apple-will-soon-release-performance-updates-a nd-bug-fixes-for-os-x-mavericks

"In the coming days, Apple will unveil some updates for OS X Mavericks. The files will include performance and bug fixes, according to 9to5Mac.

According to the report, Apple is putting the finishing touches on updates that will address issues with Apple Mail, iBooks, and the Remote Desktop Client application. The first should resolve problems mainly affecting users of Google’s Gmail email service. The second includes “bug fixes and improvements to performance and stability.”

The update for the Remote Desktop Client application is “recommended for all Apple Remote Desktop clients and addresses several issues related to overall reliability, usability, and compatibility.”

It isn’t clear when Apple will release these updates. However, 9to5Mac notes that each is now undergoing testing by Apple employees."

I agree. Mac iBooks as a big disappointment in loss of ability to edit meta data. They should have at least told us. But, unlike a number of commenters, I will not be taking matters into my own hands yet.

Some time ago, requested changes to iTunes to define a different meta file format for books from music. I'm hopeful Apple will do this soon. In the meantime, it think it a big mistake to fiddle with what Apple has done with the meta data.

My guess is Apple has hidden the meta data from iTunes and prevented us changing the meta data it converted to allow them to migrate to a book-defined meta data format. Fiddle with it and you my be screwing yourself.

But, Apple needs to come clean on plans and schedule. They need to alter their policy of secrecy. Customers need to know.