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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

145 replies

Oct 18, 2014 3:43 PM in response to Paul DeCelle

Paul,

Does your solution for disabling iBooks in Mavericks also work in Yosemite? Just curious because as far as I can tell, iBooks in Yosemite still isn't allowing full control of metadata or sorting. Would love to know if I can use this same method if/when I upgrade to Yosemite.

thanks,

Alex

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.

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

49 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

Oct 28, 2013 7:04 PM in response to Franco Borgo

Apple doesn't monitor these forums.

Apple listens if enough people complain. If you hate the current implementation of iBooks, send Apple feedback here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ibooks.html

Oct 24, 2013 4:05 PM in response to Antamelius

Do you know if the books can be recovered if you haven't synced your iPad with Mavericks installed? I haven't done that yet and am thinking of going back also.

Oct 24, 2013 4:07 PM in response to connie184

Not sure. I reinstalled from Time Machine Backup.

joe315

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2013 5:09 PM in response to connie184

If you go into your time machine backup you can restore the book files from the itunes folder but you can't put them back into itunes. I would like to be able to do this.

Gilloo

Level 1

0 points

Oct 27, 2013 3:57 AM in response to Nicolas Online

This trick is not working for everybody...(and not for me )

😠

Oct 27, 2013 8:00 PM in response to Nicolas Online

thank you

I hope this get enough views and replies to let them know they have made iBook almost unusable.

Oct 30, 2013 1:46 AM in response to Franco Franchi

Use the Activity Monitor to find the process and kill it

Every Single Problem with iBooks for Mac