Import Error when delivering books with iTunes Producer

Question

Level 2

159 points

Import Error when delivering books with iTunes Producer

Hi

Having big problems submitting my book using iBooks author and iTunes producer.

Each time I try, the delivery process succeeds and I get a green check at the end, but when I use "lookup status" in iTunes producer I see that there is an "import error"

I have tried changing the delivery method in advanced in Preferences- no change.

I have repeat the steps 10 times and same error.

Anyone know what causes it?

Thank you.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 30, 2013 9:57 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

vinnyvg

Level 4

1,880 points

Dec 1, 2013 12:02 AM in response to Simon S

Is this your first book?

Without an Errror warning notice, its not easy to advise.

Are you sure all your images/media are complient with the Assett Guide?

Do you include any self modified Widgets or widgets created using other applications and imported/dragged into your iBA pages?

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Answer 2

Simon S Author

Level 2

159 points

Dec 1, 2013 5:47 AM in response to vinnyvg

Thanks for the suggestions.

When I deliver the book I get a green check mark and a message that all has been delivered successfully. It is only when I look up the details that I see the import error. The book does not appear in my iTunes connect account.

It is quite a simple 19 page book- images on the left and text on the right. Same for all pages. All images are jpg, 1000 x 750 at 72 dpi.

I have some QuickTime audio sound on each page too.

My preview works perfectly on an iPad Air.

Just baffled as have attempted the delivery 14 times over last week- tried new book and copied all parts into new version. Also tried brand new iTunes producer file. All with same result.

Have contacted Apple but awaiting response.

Thanks.

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Answer 3

Simon S Author

Level 2

159 points

Dec 3, 2013 11:23 AM in response to Simon S

Narrowed this down to an issue with sound- no thanks to Apple.

After about 15-20 hours of re-editing the book, re-editing my imges, changing fonts etc, I narrowed it down to my audio files.

If I publish the "interactive" book without any audio, it uploads to Apple.

If I add one audio file in, and then I attempt to upload this, I get the "import error" result from Apple.

Here is what I have been doing to add an audio file:

- My files have m4a file extensions (kind- Apple MPEG-4 audio).

- I had dragged and dropped them into my book from the Finder (also tried from iTunes)

- I changed the "show audio as" to "image"

- I turned off all text except a caption underneath

- I dragged an ddropped a png file onto it to act as my button

Any idea why this fails?

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Answer 4

Simon S Author

Level 2

159 points

Dec 4, 2013 3:10 PM in response to Simon S

found a solution....

if you record audio using the iPhone Voice Memos app, the files are recorded as mono. If you then try to convert them to .m4a using QuickTime and add them to iBooks Author, you will get an upload error from Apple. This is what caused my issue.

Audio in iBooks Author must be .m4a AND must be stereo. Mono files will result in a rejection.

This was my experience with my book and only after hours and hours of trial and error(s), I found the cause.

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Answer 5

vinnyvg

Level 4

1,880 points

Dec 4, 2013 4:38 PM in response to Simon S

Pleased you found a solution.....posting it here may help others in future.

Good Luck with your book....

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Answer 6

Simon S Author

Level 2

159 points

Dec 5, 2013 3:24 PM in response to vinnyvg

just one other note. I tried to add an audio file to iBooks Author and it stuttered and got clipped when played back in the app. The original audio played fine in Quicktime.

I discovered that not only does audio need to be .m4a and stereo, it needs a certain "rate"- when I converted it to 44100 hz it then worked fine. It had originally been 11250.

Again this may help others- iBooks Author is fussy when it comes to audio.

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Answer 7

Dec 17, 2013 3:57 PM in response to Simon S

I am having the same issue with import errors from Apple. It has been over a week and still no word on what exactly is the error. I made sure that all my audio was stereo, 44100 hz and .m4a using Compressor.

When I deliver the book I get a green check mark and a message that all has been delivered successfully. However, I am not seeing any activity on an import error. Only when I called did they inform me of this. My first set of books (3) uploaded without a hitch. These new uplaods which are replacing the orginal are the exact same format with same audio and widgets etc is not. Is there a glitch going on with iBooks and audio?

It seems like it randomly changes my m4a to m4p. I have to delete and bring it in again. However, when I uploaded all were m4a but still no go.

Any help would be great. I need to launch before iTunes shuts on Dec 21 and at this rate with zero support/answers on why it is not importing successfully from Apple, not looking good.

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Answer 8

vinnyvg

Level 4

1,880 points

Dec 17, 2013 10:18 PM in response to BellaGolfer

Did your book deliver and get the green tock/ check to indicate it was uploaded?

If so check your iTunesConnect > Manage your Books if it shows a ticket, it will advise the issues needing to be corrected. OR.. it will show either an orange dot and "in review" or a green dot and "in 51 stores".

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Answer 9

Dec 18, 2013 6:38 AM in response to vinnyvg

It shows nothing, that is the problem. And when I call they advise that yes we see the import problem but NOTHING is being done. Very frustrating.

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Answer 10

Dec 18, 2013 6:41 AM in response to BellaGolfer

And yes I did get the green check stating successful deliver using iTunes Producer

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Answer 11

Jan 6, 2014 11:47 PM in response to Simon S

I have been having the same issues. I have books with audio and video and I've converted the files using Apple's specs. I too, noticed that recently iBooks Author converts .m4a files into .mp4. I have successfully delivered at least 20 books successfully. Now, all of a sudden, I cannot deliver any of them. I get the green checkmark so my files pass through all of the necessary checks, but the books do not show up in iTunes Connect and if I look at the upload history it says "Import Error" with no details. I've contacted Apple about this and they have said that their engineers are going to be looking into this, but it has been almost three weeks since then, and I have books that I want to publish. Since then I have successfully uploaded .epub files and am considering formatting all of my files in the .epub format. It's a pain, but at least there aren't random issues with programs like iBooks Author that have so many bugs that I can't believe it was even released. Not only that, but did you know that iBooks Author is a 32-bit program??? A 32-bit program running on a 64 bit operating system! That means it can only utilize 4 GB of RAM! I constantly have issues when saving my .iba files. The program crashes and usually destroys whatever work I have completed. What a nightmare!! Please, Apple, fix this immediately or you won't get your 30% cut!

On another note, I wanted to add that I didn't notice issues until the iBooks Author and Mavericks upgrade. The files that I was trying to upload were previously created with the older version of iBooks Author and may have been created in 10.8. I've let Apple know about this, but I've also let them know that I had another book that was created this way with audio and video that was uploaded successfully.

There really isn't any rhyme or reason to this problem. Apple has made suggestions to how I should format my files, and I followed them to the letter without success. When I pointed out the asset guide requirements, the person I was speaking to didn't even know what a .m4a or .m4v file was!! I'm not a genius or anything, but I'm pretty sure those are Apple proprietary extensions.

-Frustrated

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