where are the iBooks files stored in el capitan

The ebooks are still on your hard drive (or ssd), but they're hidden inside the iCloud drive (e.g., iCloud Drive > iBooks > xxxxxx.epub). However, any good search utility (including Spotlight) will trace them. Just do a file name search in that folder using ".epub".

A larger problem, and one that I hadn't anticipated, was that although iBooks does not change the file extension .epub, it does re-format the ebook itself. Therefore, going back to Calibre or somesuch utility using the same epub files, will not be possible – it's a one-way process.

Thanks, finally we can see them.

Apple, this is NONSENSE and INEFFICIENT that every last thing I OWN needs to be hidden FROM ME. For goodness sake!

- Let me see iBooks and their real names

- How can I take a secondary backup from the iCloud drive? I have to drag them out of iBooks I guess?

- Let me see how many books I have (give me a 'total' in iBooks)

- I've just dropped Photos for Lightroom for this very reason

/Users/'USERNAME'/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBo oks

Or just search iBooks and you'll see the iBooks file.

I'm having the same problem as vonBunau.

Also, I cannot find the /Users/'USERNAME'/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBo oks filepath referenced above and all over the web. No "containers" folders show up in any type of search. Was it renamed? Can't find it, all search results come up empty. Anyone have any ideas?

Hi, you should go to this filepath:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

Note that iBooks is supposed to contain no spaces. You can just paste the path when you hist Cmd-Shift-G in the Finder.

The problem is that this shows only my purchased books, not the ones I sideloaded. Does anyone know where I can find those?

I have the same question and it has not been answered yet. My Macbook iBooks library shows 50 books and pdfs in it, which I would like to sync to my iPhone. The path iljajj described above: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks gets me to a directory of 6 books on my Mac, which do sync to my iPhone and iPad, but don't show up in my iBooks app. In other words: I must have two different iBooks directories and I do not know how to consolidate them. I believe the issue I experience may be related to initial installation problems with El Capitan, which messed up my iBooks directory. Can anybody help? Where is my real Macbook iBooks library stored?

Thanks!

Hmmm, interesting.

If iBooks synchronises between my Apple devices, including the iMac, why isn't there an iBooks folder on iCloud drive?

Another question: when I drop a PDF on to the iBooks icon on the icon bar on my iMac, iBooks opens - then tells me that there isn't enough room in my iCloud, would I like to get some more? However, if I open iBooks first I get to see my synchronised folders and I can drag and drop the same PDF into a folder and it's perfectly happy! Moreover, If I check how much memory I have on my iCloud, there's plenty.

Clearly, iCloud doesn't work in the way I think it does, does it? I mean, if we use iCloud, why do our devices need to synchronise via iTunes?

(I know, I've been banging on about how weird iCloud is, ever since it was introduced)

Chris Shaw

I'm noticing something similar after accidentally turning on iCloud Drive for iBooks, and trying to figure out how to undo that:

iBooks *seems* to be showing all of my books (as far as i can tell, there's no total count/number anywhere in the UI to tell how many are listed that I can find), but in that Books folder above only 40-something are listed when I should have many many more than that (like 300 I think). Where are they stored, and why are these ones stored locally? The cloud icon is not present next to any of them in list view in iBooks.

Also, my "Books" and "PDFs" tabs display nothing, but the All tab shows all. ***?

The same happened with me and I am so frustrated! Where are my books and why aren't they on iCloud Drive?? What Is iCloud made for if not to save your files?? The exact opposite happened, once I activated iCloud Drive about 90% of my downloaded books were removed from my iBooks library. furthermore, whatever I download on iBooks afterwards gets removed to iCloud's if I don't use it for a while and I have to redownload it from iCloud! What the heck? Same with photos . why would I want to use the net to redownload anything I saved on my phone when I want to preview it??

I've only managed to find a list of my lost ibooks files on Settings-> iCloud-> manage storage-> ibooks

with only the option to delete them .. Where's restore for God's sake??

at least it means they are saved somewhere but where??

If you download them all on your Mac from the cloud, you should be able to find all the files in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

I don't think anything should be getting deleted from your devices unless you're out of space, in which case it's going to remove any cached data to make room, and it may consider unused iBooks as cached data that you can redownload later.

As far as Photos go, there is a setting for Photos in both OS X and iOS to optimize storage for that device, meaning it'll delete full size photos and keep low res proxy images to maintain free space. I don't think iBooks has this feature at all, but not sure how its iCloud features work, I didn't stick around long enough to find out as I sync my iPhone/iPad with iTunes anyway, so there was no point in me subscribing for iCloud storage that I don't otherwise need (it mages sense for those who do not do this though!)

In the end I just I ended up turning off iCloud Drive for iBooks and restoring from a backup as outlined here:

iBooks books lost on iMac after upgrade app

The thing is, ever since I swopped my MacBook for an iPad I've expected it to behave like a computer. In fact, it mostly acts as a marketing device for Apple. Which is why, instead of appearing on the wireless network and linking to my iMac as my laptop did, I have to connect it via iTunes. When iCloud appeared I had high hopes that this would be a simple way of moving files around between devices, but apparently not, as these iBooks conversations demonstrate. At least, when you download a pdf or a photograph or whatever on an iMac, you know that at least it will be in the downloads folder. Happily, using iBooks, Kindle and Overdrive I can usually manage to sit and read with my iPad. Thank goodness we still have paper!

WOW, so they are really lost..

don't you think that i should be asked before my files are deleted , even if to free space??

and that space became full at the first place because of icloud.. it showed that storage is full while on iTunes it showed that I still had space and it didn't get free again until I deactivated iCloud on my iPhone..

why aren't my files on iBooks backed up on iCloud and shown on iCloud Drive?

I don't get what you're saying about reformatting but I don't have a folder of iBooks on iCloud Drive so I still don't know how to reach my books.. In fact, the iCloud Drive app on my iPhone doesnt show anything

christopherfromemsworth wrote:

The thing is, ever since I swopped my MacBook for an iPad I've expected it to behave like a computer. In fact, it mostly acts as a marketing device for Apple. Which is why, instead of appearing on the wireless network and linking to my iMac as my laptop did, I have to connect it via iTunes. When iCloud appeared I had high hopes that this would be a simple way of moving files around between devices, but apparently not, as these iBooks conversations demonstrate. At least, when you download a pdf or a photograph or whatever on an iMac, you know that at least it will be in the downloads folder. Happily, using iBooks, Kindle and Overdrive I can usually manage to sit and read with my iPad. Thank goodness we still have paper!

Not sure what you're talking about. You have to connect to iTunes for what?

You can use iCloud Drive to move files between devices. Or AirDrop. Or iTunes. Or Dropbox. Or any number of other solutions, depending on what you're trying to move where.

If you use iBooks, it has its own way of storing files like any other app. Whether you use iCloud Drive to make your books available across all devices versus using iTunes to sync is totally up to you. Not sure how exactly you're trying to work with the iBooks files, you don't try to access your raw MP3 files outside of Music on your iPad, do you?

Noura Shehab-Eldeen wrote:

WOW, so they are really lost..

don't you think that i should be asked before my files are deleted , even if to free space??

and that space became full at the first place because of icloud.. it showed that storage is full while on iTunes it showed that I still had space and it didn't get free again until I deactivated iCloud on my iPhone..

why aren't my files on iBooks backed up on iCloud and shown on iCloud Drive?

I don't believe it automatically deletes anything to free up space, I was speculating but I am pretty sure you have to manually delete books from your device.

If everything had worked correctly, then they *should* all be available from iCloud. You'd see them listed with the little cloud logo on them within your library, available for download. If your books disappeared from your library and aren't listed, then something probably went wrong — you shouldn't have lost anything. Did you look at iBooks (on OS X) > File > Move Books from iTunes by chance to see any were stuck over there? Can you grab your books from a backup and re-add them? You did backup your data, didn't you?

Also, I'm pretty sure that the iBooks library is not visible on the iCloud Drive folder on your Mac or the app on iOS, if that's what you mean by "shown on". But you will see it listed in your iCloud data usage.