Q: iBooks purchased book stuck in downloading state
With iOS 8.0.2, iBooks 4.0 on an iPad w/ Retina Display, started download of sample of Walter Isaacson's book, "The Innovators". Download hangs in downloading state. I can remove book from the iPad using iTunes. But then upon opening iBooks on iPad, the book reappears in the Library still in downloading state. With the book in this state, I cannot select it (to move or delete), or open it (since it shows as downloading).
I was able to download the sample onto MacBook Pro, OS X v 10.9.5 with iBooks v 1.0.1. After reading the sample, I successfully purchased and downloaded the full book onto the Mac. iBooks can access it just fine on that platform.
So with full copy of the book on the Mac, I plug iPad into Mac via USB cable and attempt to change books in its local Library via iTunes. iTunes successfully removed the book (stuck in downloading state) from the iPad. Disconnecting iPad from Mac, then opening iBooks on iPad causes book to reappear in Library, again hanging in downloading state. So evidently, the Apple Bookstore or iCloud has knowledge that the original downloading is still in progress. But it never progresses, just hangs in same download spot (as indicated by circular download progress indicator).
Also tried using iTunes on Mac to remove the book (this succeeded); then to copy the book from Mac down to iPad via iTunes sync through USB cable (this succeeded, too). But when I unplug USB between iPad and Mac, and reopen iBooks Library on iPad, book first shows up. But then iBooks connects to Bookstore/iCloud and sees the downloading operation still in progress. So it discards the full copy of book which came from Mac; and reattempts the downloading from Bookstore/iCloud (which again hangs in downloading state).
Have tried rebooting iPad, same problem occurs when opening iBooks on rebooted iPad.
I am looking for some way to get rid of this Bookstore/iCloud downloading operation, so I can get a full (openable) copy of the book onto my iPad which I can then read. Any suggestions about how best to do this are welcomed.
iPad, iOS 8, iBooks 4.0 on iPad
Posted on Oct 14, 2014 11:48 PM
I contacted apple support via the link provided by jeffd55: https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action.
They recommended three possible remedy actions. I followed the easiest/least expensive, which was to use iTunes to backup and then restore my iPad to reloaded version of the software; and then reload my latest backup to get other apps, settings, data, etc. I followed the procedure in:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
This worked great. It resolved the pending iBooks download issue, and freed up the App update queue, so other applications could be updated.
Thanks Jeff for this pointer to get support.apple.com.
Gary
Posted on Oct 18, 2014 6:59 PM
