I have a 2012 iMac running Mavericks, I have quite a few iBooks on it. I also have a 2007 MacBook running Snow Leopard, which can not run the iBook App. The MacBook only has 1 GB RAM so I can not install Mavericks. Is there any way to transfer my iBooks from my iMac to my MacBook? Any third party software or tricks out there?
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Hi, if you download books in .ibooks format, you can´t transfer to you macbook, at least not to read them, because .ibooks format its only for ibooks app, there is no third party software to read books in .ibooks format.
But if your books are in other format like .epub you can read it using "Calibre".
You can find out wich format use your books in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books
Thank you for your reply, is there a way to convert .ibooks to .epub?
In order to convert .ibooks to .epub you will need to remove DMR restriction, i really can`t help you with this because it`s supposed to be illegal, also there are some features that would be lost in the conversion from .ibooks to .epub format.
But if you wanna try you can go and search in google, something like "how to convert .ibooks to .epub format".
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
But... you won't be able to read the eBooks in Snow Leopard. So downloading them to that Mac is pointless.
psycore wrote:
But if your books are in other format like .epub you can read it using "Calibre".
Calibre can only be used on books that have no DRM. Paid books from the iBookstore in epub format almost always have DRM.
Michael Allbritton wrote:
But... you won't be able to read the eBooks in Snow Leopard. So downloading them to that Mac is pointless.
eBooks from the iBookstore in .epub format without DRM can be read on any platform, including Snow Leopard. That includes most free books and some purchased books from publishers like O'Reilly.
eBooks from O'Reilly don't have DRM? Good to know.
I have the exact same question. Is there any new solution now? Please suggest. Thanks!
Technically I don't see any point for iBooks not able to run on earlier versions of OS X such as Snow Leopard. Why did Apple discontinue this app after Lion?
bengmugenr wrote:
Is there any new solution now?
Not as far as I know.
Nobody in these forums knows why Apple did not make iBooks available for earlier OS X versions, but you can ask them to do so via
But I can't imagine them devoting any effort to this.
Thanks for the reply.
I think so, as Apple's support on SL has been ended therefore they don't have any responsibility to do that, politically.
But in reality, heaps of aged iMac are still running SL and the users are keen to see a reasonable solution. An aged iMac is just a good choice as reading console. Is there any possibility to port the current version of iBooks back to SL? I do notice that iBooks Author has been reported successful in moving back to SL.
Tom Gewecke wrote:
But I can't imagine them devoting any effort to this.
bengmugenr wrote:
But in reality, heaps of aged iMac are still running SL and the users are keen to see a reasonable solution.
I think the statistics show that the "heaps" is actually less than 10%.
The simplest solution is probably for them to buy their books from Amazon and use the Kindle app (also often cheaper book prices that way).
Per the data from this blog posted a few days before your comment, it was just 10% though the most recent data here shows SL's market share is a bit more than 10% in OS X world. SL (just SL, not others earlier than Yosemite) will probably keeps this rate for a long while due to considerations in terms of hardware capability and application compatibility.
Personally I love Snow Leopard and Mavericks and say no to Yosemite. 🙂
Tom Gewecke wrote:
I think the statistics show that the "heaps" is actually less than 10%.
Is there a way to access purchased iBooks with Snow Leopard?
