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How can I find my lost pdfs in ibooks (ios7 and mavericks) after updating both?

I have lost all 60-70 of my PDF files, which I have collected over the last 5 years.


They are mainly surgical technique manuals for my job.


THey disappeared after I updated to ios 7 and Mavericks. I don't know at which point they were lost.


I restored my phone to the icloud backup made just after updating the ios (before Mavericks update.


All PDF titles appearedon the shelf - but I couldn't open them. A download line was beneath each of them, suggesting they would be downloaded at some point.


After an hour or so of my phone updating and reloading all the apps, I reopened ibooks. The title were there but they disappeared before my eyes.



Perhaps it was syncing with ibooks in the MAc, where the PDFs no longer appear.


I really need these back. They are irreplaceable.


Any ideas?


Thanks

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Nov 3, 2013 11:52 AM

Reply
45 replies

Dec 27, 2017 7:24 PM in response to Paul Chase Jr

ios 11 with iphone x restore from a windows 10 machine. had same situation...all of my PDFs that I had saved were gone. but the location noted above on my windows machine itunes music folder had the files in there with one exception..they were in this path: C:\Users\USERNAME\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Books

Note the "books" folder is where they were located.


Next step, I copied all of the PDFs from that folder into the BOOKS folder in iTunes while my iPhone was plugged in.

Then the PDFs automatically synched with my iPhone and all PDFs are back.

Nov 25, 2013 1:52 PM in response to SuperBario76

Same problem here. I had more than 30 pdf files that disappeared despite a complete backup and restore after resetting my ipad to factory settings. My files were mainly technical manuals, scientific articles and diverse other documents that I need for my personal reference library. It is very disappointing to loose the complete collection!


I had to perform the reset to factory settings because Apple support asked for it while tracking bugs on iwork and icloud.


Do we have to backup separetaly the pdf files on ibooks? I assumed that the full backup of an ipad would restore all apps and data.

Feb 14, 2014 5:27 AM in response to SuperBario76

Hello,


I had the same issue with iBooks for mac. Here's what solved it for me:


I found that although all my pdfs were missing from the iBooks library (in the app), they were all still present in the iBooks file structure. So, I navigated to:


Library / Containers / com.apple.BKAgentservice / Data / Documents / iBooks / Books


... Then selected one of my pdfs, right-clicked, selected 'Open with... iBooks', and then all my pdfs reappeared in my iBooks app library!


Hope that helps some of you guys!

Mar 14, 2014 1:55 PM in response to SuperBario76

Solution for me. For some reason it put all of my PDF's in an Unknown folder under Music in Itunes. Here is where I found them although since I store and backup to an external drive your file structure might look a bit different.


Music/Itunes/Itunes Media/Music/Unknown Artist/Unknown Album


That is it. They were all right there! Nothing else I tried led me to a solution and I searched through everything.


Hope this Helps someone out.

Aug 13, 2014 4:15 PM in response to TomV256

Tom, I was desperately hoping your solution would work for me, but although I can find the Library folder as per your instructions, mine does not have a "Containers" sub-folder. Any idea on what to do from here?


It's unbelievably bad that updating to iOS7 wipes out iBooks and leaves you hanging. (I didn't want to upgrade, but tried to put more music onto my iPad2 and it instead upgraded my OS. Now, I can't get music onto my iPad2 for some reason I haven't figured out yet, and just discovered yesterday that my iBook PDFs have disappeared. I kept my Canon Powershot UserGuide on there so would have access to how to do things with my camera while on a trip.)


I hate everything about iOS7 (and even joined the Facebook page "I hate iOS7"). Thanks for any ideas you have for us poor folks who spend good money and get no communication or instruction whatsoever when Apple wields its big stick.


10 MINUTES LATER: Found them! In iTunes/iTunes Music/Books (as if Books was the name of an Artist).


However, when I try what the previous person did -- right-click and choose "Open in iBooks," I do not get iBooks as an option for opening. Tried "Other" but it just gave me my iMac apps, so nothing like iBooks was available.


So, I'm making progress but don't know what to do next. Thanks for any help.

Aug 13, 2014 4:23 PM in response to GrassValleyGal

TWO MINUTES LATER: (Apple server would not let me edit the previous post).


I feel dumb -- found my iBooks in (gasp) the Books folder in iTunes on my iMac. I guess after the upgrade, I was supposed to re-sync everything, but since I didn't choose the upgrade anyway (it was an accident, and a very unfortunate one) I had no idea.


No need to reply to my previous post. Hope I don't need to come back to another thread about problems with syncing, I can tell you that manual syncing of my music with my iPad2 after iOS7 (non)upgrade is NOT working at all and have still to figure that one out.

Sep 5, 2014 11:10 AM in response to GrassValleyGal

If you open iTunes with your device connected (i lost all my PDFs from my iPhone when updating). Select your device in iTunes then select the Books tab in at the top of the page, it should show you all the PDFs and books you've purchased. There is a drop down menu on the top left of the wind allowing you to select which items to sync on your device. Select "All Books" then apply your selection. All my PDFs were then synced back onto my phone.

Oct 3, 2014 6:17 PM in response to SuperBario76

I just updated to IOS 8.0.2, and I reset my iPad from iTunes because my Other category was huge. All of the PDFs I had stored in iBooks... mostly knitting patterns I download, are gone. They are nowhere to be found. There was nothing the reset process that even hinted that this would happen. This just makes zero sense. I have tried everything on this page to no avail. Apple... please chime in here and help. These files have to be somewhere!

How can I find my lost pdfs in ibooks (ios7 and mavericks) after updating both?

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