ibooks sideloaded epubs won't sync across devices

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Level 1

5 points

ibooks sideloaded epubs won't sync across devices

Hello

In Turkish Book Store there is not a single turkish book is avaible yet. So i'm buying e-books from a turkish e-book store. It sends me a file which has an extension named .acsm and DRM-Free. First i have to open it with adobe digital editions then it allows me to copy .epub file via finder or double click to open with iBooks for Mac app. But the main problem is it never syncs that book across devices (nor my other mac, ipod, iphone or ipad). After a little search on the internet garbage i found that i can sync books via iTunes manually. So i did that for all other iDevices. But again, this time when i leave bookmark or note it doesn't sync it either across devices. It drives me crazy more than it should. Don't know why it's so hard to achieve this sync. Please help me to fix it

Edit: All of the settings about sync, bookmarks and collection are on and doubled checked for all devices

Thank you

Message was edited by: alfainsaat

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), Os X Server 3

Posted on Aug 1, 2014 10:11 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 1, 2014 10:14 AM in response to alfainsaat

Non iTunes files (eBooks or standard PDFs) in the iBooks apps do not sync across devices. That feature is exclusive to iBooks purchases. You will need to sync them via iTunes on a computer individually. Book marks will not sync either.

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

225,906 points

Aug 1, 2014 10:19 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

James Ward4 wrote:

Non iTunes files (eBooks or standard PDFs) in the iBooks apps do not sync across devices. That feature is exclusive to iBooks purchases. You will need to sync them via iTunes on a computer individually. Book marks will not sync either.

Yes and no. If you manually put an epub file into iBooks on a Mac, then sync it to multiple iDevices, bookmarks will sync between the devices. It works just fine on my iPhone and iPad Mini. Always has. Not sure if you'll see the same behavior from a PC, but I don't see why you wouldn't. If you were to find an epub file online and "open with" in iBooks directly on the devices, however, it won't work. When you place the file into iBooks, it gets a unique identifier. If you do that on the computer, then sync it to the devices, the books have the same identifier and the bookmarks can sync. If you load it independently onto multiple idevices, the identifiers don't match and the bookmarks won't sync.

The first part about books automagically syncing across devices is correct.

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Answer 3

alfainsaat Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 1, 2014 10:44 AM in response to KiltedTim

I'm using mac and as i said above, i manually import my DRM-Free .epub book in to iBooks for Mac app but after that when i check iBooks for iOS app non of my devices received the book. I had to manually sync over iTunes 1-by-1 for all my iDevices.

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Answer 4

KiltedTim

Level 10

225,906 points

Aug 1, 2014 10:46 AM in response to alfainsaat

Yes. That's right. You have to manually sync it to each device using iTunes.

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Answer 5

alfainsaat Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 1, 2014 10:48 AM in response to KiltedTim

Ok, I will do it for all books no problem but bookmarks and notes syncing is a big problem. By the way i realized that iPod and Macbook are in sync with bookmarks but others not. I don't see the reason..

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Answer 6

Aug 1, 2014 10:49 AM in response to alfainsaat

alfainsaat wrote:

I'm using mac and as i said above, i manually import my DRM-Free .epub book in to iBooks for Mac app but after that when i check iBooks for iOS app non of my devices received the book. I had to manually sync over iTunes 1-by-1 for all my iDevices.

That is correct. Your non iTunes ebooks will NOT auto sync via iCloud to the iOS devices (its working as designed). You will have to sync them manually to each device. However, once they are manually synced, the bookmarks should sync between them. (Tip o' the hat to Tim on that last item 🙂 ).

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Answer 7

KiltedTim

Level 10

225,906 points

Aug 1, 2014 10:51 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

FWIW, bookmark syncing has been a bit flaky for me for a while now. It doesn't matter whether it's books from the ibook store or epubs I loaded manually. Most of the time it's fine, but every once in a while, it seems to get confused.

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Answer 8

Aug 1, 2014 10:57 AM in response to KiltedTim

I rarely read iBooks on the MBP, and NEVER on the iPhone (eyes are just too old), so I wouldn't notice 🙂.

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