Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I'm trying to Sync my PDFs that I have in my iPad iBooks to my other devices (iPad mini and desktop running Maverick)
Collections folder names sync but the content ( actual PDF's) do not? I have Sync turned on in all devices but cannot find IBooks in iCloud.Is it possible to download my PDFs to my other devices? I'm am computer challenged! Help!
iPad 2, iOS 7.1
The sync collections setting doesn't copy items between devices, all it does is keep the books/PDFs that you already have on those devices in-line i.e. if you have a book already on multiple devices/computers and you move it into a collection on one device then it will be moved into the same collection on the others devices/computers that it's on.
You will need to connect your iPad to your Mac's iTunes and do File > Devices > Transfer Purchases to copy them over to your Mac (that should copy PDFs and/or epubs that are in the iBooks app on your iPad, not just actual ibooks), and then in the iBooks app on your Mac do File > Move Books From iTunes.
You can then sync them to your other device by connecting it to your Mac's iTunes, and the books/PDFs that you have in the iBooks app on your Mac should show on the device's Books tab in iTunes for being available for syncing to it.
e.g. connect the other device and select it on the left-hand sidebar of your Mac's iTunes (you can enable the sidebar via option-command-S), and on the right-hand side of the iTunes screen use the Books tab to select and sync them
Go to this site http://www.ipubsoft.com/idevice-tips/transfer-pdf-from-ibooks-to-mac.html and download this app. It worked well for me. I spent hours finding the solution and I finally found it.
This is a fantastic app. It is free. The only catch with the free version is that you can only move one file at a time. But it is still worthwhile. It worked quickly and I was able to transfer 30 files one by one in no time.
It shows all the files in Books and Music Playlists very well and clearly.
I hate itunes and resent the fact that I had to waste so much of my time to find out how to do something so simple.
I'm not sure if anyone else had this solution (I think someone had the idea of deleting the entire iBooks application and then reinstalling it, which is similar), but to the problem of having pdfs in iBooks not appearing in iTunes on a iMac when trying to sync to some devices (while possibly appearing there for others), the following seems to work: drag/copy the pdf from iBooks onto your desktop and then delete it (the original -- not a copy in your Collections) from iBooks. Then drag/copy the pdf (now on your desktop) back into iBooks (directly into the correct Collection, if you'd like to save that step later -- and if you use Collections). If you happen to have had the device connected through iTunes that was previously not seeing the pdfs, you'll find that the deleted/replaced pdf now appears in iTunes for that device almost immediately. I haven't done exhausted research as to whether ALL devices will now see the pdfs tucked away in iBooks, but I'm thinking they should, now that iBooks has now had a kick in the rear-end to let it know to relay those pdfs to a connected Mac through iTunes. The lack of integration between iBooks and iTunes in this situation is terrible. Apple, get your act together -- the simple refreshing of updated content between Apple software shouldn't be that hard.
Thank you, that worked a treat. and for not a lot of money (if you do it often) you can select multiple files for transfer.
I do this the old way - plugging my iPhone or iPad directly into my MacBook Air and selecting all the PDFs i want to sync, then syncing
How do I sync my PDFs from iBooks on my iPad to iBook on my Mini and Maverick desktop?
