iBooks in Maverick will not open / download

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Level 1

0 points

iBooks in Maverick will not open / download

Since upgrading to Mavericks yesterday, I cannot access the majority of my iBooks on my Mac. I can see that the majorioty of my iBooks are showing in my iTunes library under iTunes/iBooks.

All barring 5 books have a cloud symbol in the top right of the books. When I click on the book to read the download symbol appears & the progress bar across the bottom of the book moves across & looks like its downloaded. But the book does not open. In the top right hand corner of the iBooks app is a download arrow, if i click on that it shows downloads available i.e. the book I am trying to read, but the open button is greyed out & nothing happens if I click on it.

If i go into the iBooks store and click on purchases it show sthat i have no purchased books to download, but when i click on the All tab it shows all my books, but when i try and click on one it opens up teh page & there is a read button. When i click on read, you can see it attempting to download and again In the top right hand corner of the iBooks app is a download arrow, if i click on that it shows downloads available i.e. the book i am trying to read, but the open button is greyed out & nothing happens if I click on it.

I have tried transfering purchases from my iPhone & iPad (as all my books on on both) and this hasnt doene anything. Ive tried signing in & out & thats donew nothing. In fact 4 books are missing from my physical library & everytimne i try and download from iBooks it states download failed, tray again and check available downloads from iBooks store, but when i do this is says i have no books to download.

Is there any way i can complete trash the iBooks library file, so that it will rebuild itself from the actual files on my Hard disc. I have been able to do this with iTunes before.

Basically the App is useless to me as i cannot ready 95% of my iBooks.

iBook, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 25, 2013 2:35 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 25, 2013 6:20 PM in response to jaxxman

Same issue on my MacBook Pro, but the same books came down to my iMac !

Both running Mavericks.

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Answer 2

iDixie

Level 1

4 points

Oct 26, 2013 2:02 AM in response to jaxxman

Same issue on the Macbook Air. 😟

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Answer 3

Oct 26, 2013 2:43 AM in response to jaxxman

Same problem here. Although with me it seems like the book I downloaded a year ago is no longer available in the UK store. When I right click on the book in iBooks and then View in iBooks Store, it just brings up a message saying that the book is not curently available in the UK store. :/

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Answer 4

femoca

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2013 4:30 AM in response to jaxxman

I have just the same problem: I can't read many of my purchased books.

Often there cames a error message: "The download failed". In other cases, the download seems to work, but the book isn't opened and can't be read. 😟

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Answer 5

Oct 26, 2013 4:49 AM in response to jaxxman

I am having the same problem with a couple of my books (and maybe more, I just haven't tried them all). One of the ones that has a problem is the ESV Bible (which I have many notes in), and the other is "Dance of Dragons" by George R.R. Martin (which also has a couple of notes). I just wonder if the notes and highlights have anything to do with the problem?

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Answer 6

Oct 26, 2013 5:02 AM in response to jaxxman

I think the iBooks for Mac Book Pro is too new and need some updating or upgrading. The iBook opens, shows all the books and when i want to open a book.... just disappers although the App and the book in the Dock shows its open. There is an issue with the App which needs to be addressed. I have the same App also in the Mac Mini Thunderbolt which fortunately does not have the same problem.

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Answer 7

jaxxman Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2013 5:12 AM in response to jaxxman

I have a solution which works for me, but its a pain if you have a lot & lots of e-books.

Make sure iBooks is closed & everything is backed up (a separate copy of your original iTunes books folder with all your books etc would also be useful. I titled mine 'e-book copy').

Go to Spotlight in top right hand corner of your computer & type in iBooks, you should see a folder called iBooks, lick on it & it should open a new finder window.

This it seems is your iBooks library @ ~Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/ibooks

I then deleted the iBooks folder completely.

I open the iBooks App. I then search for iBooks again (in spotlight) & see that a new folder has been created as above in the library, I then look in that folder & there is a folder titled books, open it & it should be blank.

In the iBooks App I can see that most of my books are there with the iCloud symbol just as before.

1) - Click on iBookstore in top left of the App. Then click on purchased under the quick links section (making sure you are signed in).

2) - It shows that I do not have any books in my library to download (which is wrong as all my books have the iCloud symbol).

3) - I then clicked on ALL and you should see all of your purchased books.

4) - I start at the top left & click on the 1st book, it opens the iBookstore page for that book & I then click on the read symbol. This then downloads the book & opens the book for me to read. I then close the open book.

5) - If I go back to the books folder in the library i.e. ~Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/ibooks/books I see that a folder has been created titled with a set of numbers& epub i.e. 123456789.epub (this is the folder for the book you have just read / opened / downloaded).

6) - I open that & click on the file titled iTunesartwork & this shows the cover of the book I just read / downloaded. 7) - So now I know that iBooks has downloaded a new copy to my machine.

Back in iBooks, click on the library button & you should see the book in your library without the iCloud symbol & you can open & read the book within teh iBooks App

I had to do the above steps - 1 to 7 for each and every book in my library which took a long time.

Eventually ALL books were downloaded as they should have been originally. For PDF's I simply in iBooks went to Add to Library, found the PDF in my e-book copy folder and imported.

This worked for me, not sure if it will work for everyone. But I now have all my books synced across all devices

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Answer 8

femoca

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2013 5:23 AM in response to jaxxman

Well, i have found a simple solution for the problem: you have to delete the whole folder "iBooks"; the path is the following one: /Users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBoo ks.

Then please perform a restart of the system and launch the iBooks application new.

Now, you see the cloud symbol at all of your books and you can download it all! If you have more mac computers, you have to perform the procedure for each computer.

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Answer 9

iDixie

Level 1

4 points

Oct 26, 2013 12:00 PM in response to femoca

Deleting the entire ibooks folder and then downloading my books again one by one, worked fine! Thanks for this simple solution!

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Answer 10

Oct 26, 2013 4:34 PM in response to jaxxman

Oddly enough, the ones I'm having trouble with seem to be ones with folders in the 'Updates' folder as well as folders in 'Books'. I was an original .mac user and have, thanks to Apple, multiple iTunes IDs. Seems that the ones under the ID I use less often are the ones with the problem.

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Answer 11

Oct 26, 2013 5:32 PM in response to jaxxman

The deletion of the iBooks folder mentioned in a few post fixed the problem for me.

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Answer 12

Oct 26, 2013 5:47 PM in response to jaxxman

Femoca's solution works perfectly! Thanks!

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Answer 13

Chem3

Level 1

0 points

Oct 27, 2013 2:26 AM in response to femoca

Worked brilliantly thank you

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Answer 14

Oct 27, 2013 6:27 AM in response to femoca

Thanks for the solution to the problem. My take is that the issue seems to lie somewhere in the importing from iTunes and the association of the imported files with iCloud. I hope the user community doesn't turn this into a cause to rise up and complain. The solution is too simple for that. Still Apple should issue a fix through updates.

Thanks.

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Answer 15

Oct 27, 2013 6:41 AM in response to jaxxman

Worked - thanks Femoca!

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