StoneSoup

Q: How to undo an iBooks conversion and revert back to iTunes

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

 

 

I'm starting this thread as a central place to collect ways of either:

 

A. Preventing a conversion from iTunes to iBooks

 

B. Reverting back to iTunes after a conversion

 

Here's what I've seen in the community so far:

 

Kevin Edgecomb's solution for reverting back:

 

Re: Not impressed! No edit info, no library management!

 

Andy Epprecht's solution for reverting back, building on Kevin's:

 

Re: Not impressed! No edit info, no library management!

 

Any other solutions for prevention or reversion?

Posted on Oct 26, 2013 8:06 PM

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Q: How to undo an iBooks conversion and revert back to iTunes

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  • by Xyzzy42,

    Xyzzy42 Xyzzy42 Oct 20, 2014 12:44 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 20, 2014 12:44 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen

    Under Mavericks, the path leads to .../com.Apple.BkAgentServuce.xpc.zip. Yes it could be that's because you haven't run iBooks on that install.

     

    As to proceeding, make sure you've killed the BkAgent service (Activity Monitor is tool to use) and that you've shut down and restarted iTunes. You might have to add a single book in iTunes to trigger it. But first, check iTunes preferences, General, to be sure you have a check mark in Books. A system restart won't hurt.

     

    THis thread is the place to go for resolution.

    Not impressed! No edit info, no library management!

     

    Look especially st posts by StoneSoup and Kevin Edgecomb.

     

    Hope this helps.

  • by RoelVeldhuyzen,

    RoelVeldhuyzen RoelVeldhuyzen Oct 20, 2014 1:04 PM in response to Xyzzy42
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 20, 2014 1:04 PM in response to Xyzzy42

    It's back!

    Not sure what happened. earlier today I quit iTunes, stopped the BKAgent service, removed iBooks, started (and restarted) iTunes... nothing. (The com.apple.bka... file is not on my system (spotlight can't find anything either), probobly since iBooks was never launched).

     

    Now I checked activity monitor again and the BKAgent service was back. Stopped it again. Restarted iTunes again and now the books tab is there! Let's hope it stays there

  • by Mark Armitage,

    Mark Armitage Mark Armitage Oct 20, 2014 1:12 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 20, 2014 1:12 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen

    You have to remove the file as well otherwise the service will be started up again. It's a nasty hack but thankfully it works!

    I *really* dislike the way they have implemented iBooks on the Mac. Zero thought.

    The simple idea of moving all the books from iTunes onto your boot drive is totally ridiculous. I've got gig's of books but I can't waste that space on a boot drive which is typically much smaller than the external drives we all have to use.

  • by Mark Armitage,

    Mark Armitage Mark Armitage Oct 20, 2014 1:19 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 20, 2014 1:19 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen

    Look for a 'book' type process the new one ends BKAgentService the old one was bookstoreagent.

     

    Kill it, then remove the file that starts it (making sure you quit iTunes first). Then all should be well.

     

    If the process isn't there, then firstly try quitting and restarting iTunes, if that doesn't help then reboot.

     

    Hopefully you can then proceed and get rid of iBooks and restore the functionality.

     

    Works fine for me so far, running Yosemite and iTunes 12 (Yosemite did put it back hence the revised tweak).

  • by Mark Armitage,

    Mark Armitage Mark Armitage Oct 20, 2014 1:18 PM in response to Mark Armitage
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 20, 2014 1:18 PM in response to Mark Armitage

    ...and thank you to everyone for all the kind comments.

  • by Xyzzy42,

    Xyzzy42 Xyzzy42 Oct 20, 2014 1:22 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 20, 2014 1:22 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen

    Mark is absolutely right. Stopping the service is step 1. Deleting the file is step 2. Absolutely MUST delete the BkAgent file and empty your trash.

  • by Mark Armitage,

    Mark Armitage Mark Armitage Oct 20, 2014 1:28 PM in response to Mark Armitage
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 20, 2014 1:28 PM in response to Mark Armitage

    Not sure who gets the original credit, I followed StoneSoup's post from Nov 2013 but I think Kevin Edgecomb was the originator.

     

    Whichever did the original work gets the credit but both get my thanks, you saved me (and by the look of it many, many others) from utter ****.

     

    I merely tweaked the original when I found that the 1st Yosemite beta put it back and wreaked havoc on my setup

  • by Xyzzy42,

    Xyzzy42 Xyzzy42 Oct 20, 2014 1:53 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 20, 2014 1:53 PM in response to RoelVeldhuyzen

    One other thing...I don't know how your system is configured, but the BkAgentService and the older BookAgent service files are hidden by default, I think. To be sure you can see hidden files, you can use a simple terminal command:

     

    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

    YOu may have to type your user password to complete the commsnd.


    About Activity Monitor. Once you highlight the process in it, you can click the "I" icon to see more info. Select the item "Open Files and Ports" in center of window to see where the process is running from. You can then select the whole line in the display, switch to Finder, Go, Go to Folder, and paste your line in to go directly to it.

     

    I use PathFinder instead of Finder, so it's easier to find these files. You can also use a free tool called Tinkertool to enable system-wide display of hidden files. That would make it easier to find and delete the service file In Finder.

  • by Andy Epprecht,

    Andy Epprecht Andy Epprecht Oct 21, 2014 4:44 AM in response to Xyzzy42
    Level 1 (54 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 21, 2014 4:44 AM in response to Xyzzy42

    No need to through away iTunes 12 and step back to iTunes 11.

     

    iTunes 12 is better than before after you find your way around with the new layout. Most things change from time to time and one first has to get used to it and that's the same here for iTunes 12. But after a couple of days with iTunes 12 and having removed that horrific iBooks implementation from my MACs (thanks to Mark and StoneSoup) and fully tagging and handling my Books and PDF's as before in iTunes and between my various iOS devices, I find it stable, well thought trough, responsive and .... all in all better!

     

    So as long as iTunes let's me handle my Books and PDF's and all the rest of my media files (music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, iTunes U and audiobooks)  this way, in one user-defineable location and where they belong to, I don't even consider moving to a 'MS Windows UI-fossil' app like Calibre or anything else.

  • by Xyzzy42,

    Xyzzy42 Xyzzy42 Oct 21, 2014 6:51 AM in response to Andy Epprecht
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 21, 2014 6:51 AM in response to Andy Epprecht

    I appreciate your reply and thoughts on the subject...you've been at it far longer than I have.

    That said, my mileage varies on the two versions, and I simply don't care for the kludgy new version.

    It's ugly, it's slow, and I hate that we keep losing functionality in the name of conforming the OSX and IOS versions.

    I'm not a calibre user, but I am an 8-year ago Windows convert.

    I'm grateful the workaround still works. Maybe version 13 will be the final resolution.

  • by StoneSoup,

    StoneSoup StoneSoup Nov 9, 2014 5:49 PM in response to StoneSoup
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Nov 9, 2014 5:49 PM in response to StoneSoup

    In case anyone else encounters this:

     

    I had successfully reverted back to iTunes in Yosemite, following the directions above.  I happily went back to managing all of my ePubs using iTunes instead of iBooks.

     

    iTunes crashed on me while updating one of my iPads yesterday.  I restarted iTunes.  I was surprised to see that the "Books" toolbar icon changed to the "Audiobooks" icon.  When clicked, the Audiobooks icon showed only an empty page instead of my ePubs.  I confirmed, by checking Activity Monitor, that the BKAgentService had not magically reappeared in my system, which we now know blocks access to books in iTunes.

     

    I gave up and rebooted.  The Books icon came back, and all is right again with the world.

     

    I'll chalk this one up to sunspots.

     

    Steven

  • by Mark Armitage,

    Mark Armitage Mark Armitage Nov 9, 2014 7:26 PM in response to StoneSoup
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Nov 9, 2014 7:26 PM in response to StoneSoup

    ... on the next version of Yosemite it comes back again and I haven't found a way to get rid of it.

     

    :-(

  • by Xyzzy42,

    Xyzzy42 Xyzzy42 Nov 9, 2014 9:07 PM in response to Mark Armitage
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Nov 9, 2014 9:07 PM in response to Mark Armitage

    Have you tried repeating the first removal steps?

    (i.e., uninstalling iTunes/iBooks, reinstalling 11.4 with Pacifist, and dumping the BkAgent services again?)

    i remember having to do that once under Mavericks.

  • by StoneSoup,

    StoneSoup StoneSoup Nov 10, 2014 1:29 PM in response to Mark Armitage
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Nov 10, 2014 1:29 PM in response to Mark Armitage

    Hi, Mark,

     

    >... next version of Yosemite

     

    Do you mean the as-yet-unreleased 10.10.1 update?  This is enough to make me shy away from upgrading until another workaround is found.

     

    Regards,

    Steven

  • by David Goldy,

    David Goldy David Goldy Nov 10, 2014 3:10 PM in response to StoneSoup
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 10, 2014 3:10 PM in response to StoneSoup

    On my Macbook Air, but not on my Mac Mini, I updated the OS to Yosemite and would like to revert back to iTunes after the conversion and the horrible iBooks program installation. I plan on copying my book collection onto the MacBook Air from the books collected in iTunes on my desktop. My problem is that I am not an advanced user and am having trouble finding step by step instruction to do so. I am confused by the addition of refinements with a repeat of the prior step by step instructions.  Would someone kindly cut and paste or otherwise give me a complete idiot proof set of such instructions integrating the refinements, etc. I would like to thank all in advance for helping out of this dilemma.

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