Q: iBooks won't open

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

Back up all data.

Quit iBooks if it's running. Test after taking each of the following steps that you haven't already taken. Stop when the problem is resolved. Quit iBooks again before going on to the next step.

Step 1

Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. From the Library folder, move the following item, if it exists, to the Trash:

          Cookies/com.apple.ibooks.cookies

Step 2

Delete this item in the same way:

          Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist

Step 3

Delete this item:

          Containers/com.apple.iBooksX

and move this one to the Desktop:

          Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService

Log out and log back in. The book library will be empty. Rebuild it by downloading your purchases from the iBooks Store and importing any other content you added. You may find the added content in the folder named "com.apple.BKAgentService" that you moved to the Desktop.

None of this worked for me. I even rebooted.

In fact, of the files you say to delete, only ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX gets recreated upon initial launch of iBooks. I have no cookies, no preferences file, nor the com.apple.BKAgentService in Containers/.

I am running on an Xserve with the latest version of Server installed. The logged in user is an Open Directory user. The bit about “Make sure the disk containing your library is connected” in my mind points to a bug that has the OS fail to lead the app to the proper location of the files in ~/Library/.

I just ran a test. I created a brand-new test user in the local network directory on my Xserve, logged in, launched iBooks and had the same problem:

With a brand-new user in the local directory produces the expected result. Upon initial launch, I see the welcome screen of iBooks:

It sure looks like a bug to me.

Hello, same problem here (Mac Pro 2009, el caption 10.11.2,  server 5.0.15)

iBooks works fine for users in local directory. but iBooks is not able to find the Library Location for network users.

Agree with you seems like an annoying bug.

Time to file a bug report.

Bug report submitted. Tracking ID: 23998939.

Hi, Hoffmann

I have exactly the same problem with you after upgrading to El Capitan. It seems only very few people encounter this issue.

Have you got any response from Apple after you submitted the bug report?

I have the same problem (still) running latest El Capitan and Server 5.1.5 - local account is able to start iBooks, network user can not (exact same popup screen as posted above).

Does anyone know whether a solution is available and/or what the status of the bug report is?

Add me to the list of folks with the problem: network user logging into the server, user directory is on the server but not the standard user directory location, and iBooks continues to produce the "Library Location: (null)" dialog box after following the steps above.  The only change in behavior was after Step 3 - prior to executing Step 3, the "Reset Library" button in the dialog box would merely return to the same dialog box - after executing Step 3, the "Reset Library" button in the dialog box causes iBooks to terminate.  Upon restarting iBooks, the same dialog box is presented with the same behavior for the "Reset Library" button when pressed (iBooks terminates).  I'm running El Capitan 10.11.6, with the co-requisite version of OS X Server.  iBooks being broken is causing my iDevice sync to fail apparently, because I have "purchases" on my iDevice that can't be synced to the Mac.