self authored books in iBooks

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Level 1

4 points

self authored books in iBooks

I have written a number of books and turned them into ePubs which I have dropped into iBooks on my MacBook - they show up here, and I can read them, but they don't sync with my other devices i.e. iPad and iPhone. Shop bought books show up on all devices but ones I add myself sometimes do and sometimes don't, or sometimes show up a couple of weeks later. How can I get books to sync immediately and reliably. It seems a bit ironic that Apple is always encouraging people to be creative with their Macs but when I write a book and try to get it into iBooks it won't sync and all the guidance is about syncing bought books from iTunes.

iPad, iOS 8.1.3

Posted on Mar 1, 2015 4:57 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,144 points

Mar 1, 2015 7:57 AM in response to marinap15

If you want them on your iPad and/or iPhone then you will have to sync them via your Mac's iTunes : connect the device to your Mac, select it in iTunes, select its Books tab (that should show all of the books and PDFs in your Mac's iBooks app), and select and sync the epubs to it.

Only ibooks bought from the iBookstore will potentially automatically show in the iBooks apps on your iPhone and/or iPad (not all ibooks from the store are compatible with iPhones)

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Answer 2

marinap15 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 1, 2015 11:22 AM in response to King_Penguin

Thanks King Penguin

The problem was that it wasn't showing up in iTunes so I couldn't sync it. But when I went back now, a few hours after putting the book into iBooks, it was showing up in iTunes and the sync did work. I'd love to know why it takes so long to turn up in iTunes as I was tearing my hair out trying to get it to show up.

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Answer 3

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,144 points

Mar 1, 2015 12:12 PM in response to marinap15

They should show immediately. With an iPad connected to my Mac and its Books tab selected in iTunes, I've just tried it by adding an ePub to iBooks on my Mac, and it showed immediately on the tab for selecting and syncing to my iPad.

Whether it will take longer if you have a large library in iBooks (I have about 40 books/PDFs) or if the epubs are large I don't know

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Answer 4

marinap15 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 1, 2015 11:43 PM in response to King_Penguin

Thanks King_Penguin

I have over 200 books so that may be the problem!

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