Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Every Single Problem with iBooks for Mac

Hello,

It is disappointing that as Apple users we are used to doing things a certain way for years, and Apple's way forward results in less functionality and flexibility.

Here is a list of all the problems I have been facing with iBooks for Mac:

1. Transfer of Books to iPad or iPhone from iBooks is non-existant. If I create or download a DRM-free epub and or PDF and add it to iBooks for Mac (i.e. it wasn't downloaded from the iBooks Store), there is no direct way to transfer them to your iOS device through iBooks. Even books downloaded from the iBooks Store, since iBooks itself doesn't allow the transfer of files to the iOS device.

2. iBooks doesn't allow us to Edit metadata. Many PDFs come without metadata. And to organize them into the library as was previously possible in iTunes, we could add Author, Genre, Year, etc... Also even for books we actually download from the iBooks Store maybe we want to change the Genre or Category the book is in or simplify the Author's name.

3. iBooks essentially duplicates any PDF or ePub we drag to it into it's own library. Acting like iTunes "Copy files to iTunes Media Library when adding to library". If I have hundreds of PDF's that are hundreds of Megabytes in size, I don't want them duplicated again, especially when it's duplicated on my default Macintosh HD whom many people have as SSDs nowadays.

4. iBooks doesn't allow us to create or choose multiple libraries and have them in any destination we want (like it is possible with iTunes, iPhoto, Aperture, etc). By Option-Clicking on iBooks we should have that option.

5. The ability to delete Collections in iBooks for Mac.

All the above problems are surprising, as what essentially Apple has done is a book reader, and not a book library management tool. With books becoming more and more digital and more and more people using them, so does the amount of books in one's collection grow. It is virtually impossible to manage any book collection with such a lack of features.

Should anyone have solutions to the aformentioned problems or ideas on how to overcome them, please feel free to post them here.

Should anyone have other problems they encountered in this initial version of iBooks, please feel free to post them here, as this would be a good place to sythesize all that's bothering a lot of people with this new phase into Apple's ecosystem of iBooks.

Thank you,

Nick

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 3:24 AM

Best reply

Andy Epprecht

Level 1

76 points

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 4:01 AM

@bookarts

exactly the same for me. This is the worst ever released application from Apple IMHO.

All my well kept and organised books and pdf's are now in disorder. Lost their categorie settings, their author setting and on top of all can't be edited in iBooks anymore and any further. No chance to edit wrong typings and to fill missing information (eg. authors, categories, ...).

I used to organise my papers (mostly PDF's) in iTunes like a document manager, the way I needed them on my various iOS devices and used them for work. I had groupings for my books like computing - networks, computing - guides, computing - iOS, computing - scripting, etc. .... now all is gone and lost. How am I supposed to organise over 1300 papers without any editing possibility (only sections can be assigned, no categories can be, neither can any information be edited/changed/corrected?

And on top of that all: HOW DO I BACKUP / RESTORE MY BOOKS from now on?

The books and PDF's are moved from the iTunes Library, where they were accessible and editable and where I could backup my whole media library on external NAS and storage. How will I get back my books/PDFs in the future if I setup my Mac Pro again from scratch or in case of a disaster (eg. failing disk)? Am I forced to use TimeMachine here?

There is no way to define by myselfs the place where the iBooks are stored on my system. No, they are all moved to some well hidden place into the users-library filling up my (until iBooks/Mavericks) system only SSD hard drive with hidden books. Is this the new strategy of Apple to try to make me under-age?

No editing, very limited organizing, no possibilty to define it's own storage-location, no backup/restore (no export/archive like in most other application like calender, addressbook, mail, etc. ....) what the **** is that?

I like most of Mavericks new additions but this here with iBooks is a mess and complete drawback for a user that liked to read his books on his iOS devices and was well organized.

And to be honest, I seriously consider to migrate back to OS X Mountain Lion just because of this ridiculous implementation of iBooks!

View in context

145 replies

Oct 20, 2014 1:39 AM in response to Alexander Grossman

Alexander, the same system works in Yosemite. In my case, after installing Yosemite, the ONLY thing I did was the deletion of the iBooks application, so I got back the "books" section in iTunes which still sync with my iPad although the entire iTunes design changed (no comment on that). No improvement was made by Apple to the entire question of managing ebooks. Since a long time passed from the "iBooks involution" it is evident they don't care a bit of all the problems users had, still have... will continue to have (?) with such bad system.

Good luck.

John Potts

Level 4

3,118 points

Oct 20, 2014 2:18 AM in response to Paul DeCelle

Paul: Thanks very much for your instructions.

A question. Is there a command to reverse this action - in other words, is there a command that re-installs the iBook app?

Oct 20, 2014 12:28 PM in response to Franco Franchi

I tried removing iBooks again, but it didn't work for me. I quit iTubes, quit the process, removed the iBooks app, restarted iTunes.... no dice. The books tab is no where to be found. Any ideas?

Oct 23, 2014 10:24 AM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen

Sorry for being late, I was out. I understand how frustrating is the case. After the first time the iBooks appeared as an application several problems came to light. I hope you do have a backup of your books... just to be able to start from the scratch. Before anything else, where are NOW your books? Try the excellent "Find Any File" applications (App Store) searching as root user (look the preferences) for files visible AND hidden ending ".epub" or any other extension your books should have. If you find several files listed with alphanumeric unintelligible name, it means your books have been translated into a hidden special folder. A lot of discussions are in this blog as to finding it. This folder should be at:~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks.

If that is the case, AND YOU HAVE BACKUP of books, delete all these items, including their folder(s).

You DID eliminate iBooks, did you? You should have done it using an app for it (I have AppCleaner) to be sure that no iBooks related file remained in your Mac.

Once you make sure the books have been eliminated, I suggest:

1. Clean any cache file in the mac (for all users), both system and users. Several applications do that, see MacUpdate. The latest is "Yosemite Cache Cleaner".

Repair permissions and run all periodic cleaning.

2. It would be possible your Mac's directory contains errors. To ascertain that and repair it, I use DiskWarrior. This is a bit complex and expensive exercise. try to ignore this point, at first.

3. See one of my first posts in this blog: Every Single Problem with iBooks for Mac (that was 2 "system upgrades" ago, but nothing should have changed for ibooks since then) and try to follow the steps listed there.

4. Restart your Mac.

5. Launch iTunes. Click the ••• at its top-left. See if a list similar to my one appears:

(Sorry, it's Italian, like me) That should appear if iTunes went back to its original way, even if the books section is empty. Then you can add your backed-up books to iTunes.

Last but not least, If your mac is connected to any other mac or external disk containing the iBooks application, iTunes will force to use use it vanishing all your effort.

Again, good luck.

Franco.

Oct 24, 2014 3:56 AM in response to Paul DeCelle

Hi,

Thanx for the post it has helped me before. However this time, I am struggling. Have just done a clean install of Yosemite. Removed iBooks, the Database in Library with the Terminal code you gave earlier, cleaned cache. However, iBooks still doesn't appear in iTunes. I connected my iPad hoping that that would trigger it. Didn't work. I dropped some books and PDFs from my previous iBooks library into the Folder : Automatically add to iTunes, hoping that would rigger it. However all it did was add the pdfs to MUSIC!!!!

So am really stuck and would appreciate some tips of what worked for others that had the same problem

@APPLE: So this proves how much you loooooooooove your customers and listen to their needs!

Jun 3, 2015 5:23 AM in response to abbotobba

Hello,

After I started this post some years ago, the problem is a cat and mouse game with apple.

The way that I disabled iBooks and allowed my books to be managed by iTunes was by doing the following:

To disable iBooks go to the Applications folder and Right-Click on iBooks select Show Package Contents and rename the Contents folder to old.Contents then Restart your Mac

Basically that stopped working on the latest version of iTunes in Yosemite. I'm running iTunes 12.1.2.27 which basically disables all Books and only allows audiobooks. My iBooks is still disable, before re-enabling it, I wanted to know if I was the only one who was experiencing this problem with the latest version of iTunes.

Thanks,

Nick

Marja E

Level 1

43 points

Sep 1, 2015 6:15 PM in response to Nicolas Online

When I was using iBooks, I had trouble with iBooks attaching the title, author, etc. to the wrong book. So if I tried to open up one book, based on that info, I would end up opening up another book. I never got a clear explanation of what was going on or why.

I also tried Calibre. I have sensory processing issues, and the newer version punches me with painimation everywhere, and gives me one nasty headache. Also, the older version renamed things, I don't know whether the newer version would.

I eventually installed Scarlett, which is good for reading books, and keeping them organized in the Finder, but I would like something which makes it easier to find books by tag, etc. like iTunes does for music, and iBooks and Calibre are supposed to do for books. For various reasons, I'd like to keep the various fiction, gaming, and non-fiction libraries separate too.

Any suggestions?

Biggles2

Level 1

64 points

Oct 2, 2015 3:14 PM in response to Nicolas Online

About the problem of transferring pdf and pub files from your Mac to an iPad. I use Dropbox. Put the pdfs etc into a dropbox folder, open them in Dropbox in your iPad and then choose Open In.. under the share tab.

namssab1

Level 1

4 points

Apr 6, 2016 9:21 PM in response to Nicolas Online

Indeed, as a user of iBooks, and this app is extremely important to me seeing I use it to store all of my bass scores and charts for different shows I play and sub on...it GREATLY CONCERNS ME THAT APPLE SEEMS TO NOT BE AWARE OF THESE.."FIRES" burning out here because of their constant quest to make better/change the OS...All of my PDFs and charts that were catagorized in individual collections are still here but back in the PDF SECTION OF IBOOKS ON MY IPAD ARE ALL VISIBLE THERE. So i am finding all the old established PDFs mixed with the ones that I only want in the PDF section.......?

I diid an update on my old ipad2 and after that this problem arose....I wish I could go back to how things were when I originally this setup ....re: when I imported PDFs/books/music scores the came into the PDF SECTION of the app. Then I was able to put any PDFs into their specicfic collection And were viewed only there on my iPad.....THAT OS UPDATE ON MY IPAD2 HAS CHANGED THAT...I am at a lost of what to do next and there seems to be no clear cut solution from Apple.....What's happened here with Apple......

HAVE THEY LOST SITE OF ITS CUSTOMERS AND THEIR INDIVIDUAL, AND IN MANY CASES, EXTREMELY IMPORTANT USE OF THEIR PRODUCTS.....?

Does any one have a solution to this mess......? I almost wish I could just throw it out and go with a different, more user friendly system.....To me , Apple is losing its vision that it's original founder had.....

jim

@ntoni

Level 1

4 points

Aug 22, 2016 12:36 PM in response to Nicolas Online

For me, the solution was to disable iBooks Sync

System Preferences -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive Options -> uncheck iBooks

http://tidbits.com/article/16378

Every Single Problem with iBooks for Mac