PDFs from iBooks (desktop) NOT showing in iTunes

Question

howwow Author

Level 4

3,541 points

PDFs from iBooks (desktop) NOT showing in iTunes

Hello all,

Updated my iMac and iPad mini to the latest OSX and iOS.

Launch iBooks on iPad mini and discovered all PDFs gone.

iPad mini is docked with iTunes, check the Books tab, and in the PDF section, there is NO single PDF.

Launch and check iBooks app on iMac (desktop), all the PDFs are there.

So it seems like the PDFs from desktop iBooks app is somehow not appearing inside iTunes, hence no PDF to sync into iPad mini.

Apple fix this soon please. Thank you.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), iPhone6s plus,iPad mini 4,MBA13"

Posted on Mar 30, 2016 7:47 PM

Reply

Answer 1

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Apr 1, 2016 7:30 AM in response to howwow

Hi howwow,

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities! I'm sorry to hear that you are having these issues with PDFs on your iPad. If you are having PDF issues after updating to iOS 9.3/OS X 10.11.4, you may find the information and steps outlined in the following articles helpful:

Use iBooks with PDF documents on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Sync ePub, iBooks Author books, and PDF files with iBooks and iCloud - Apple Support

Regards

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Answer 2

Apr 5, 2016 5:58 AM in response to howwow

Try turning OFF iBooks on your Mac under the System Preferences/iCloud/Options menu. That worked for me. Now when I add pdf's to iBooks, they stay there and they stay in iTunes too.

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Answer 3

May 20, 2016 10:20 AM in response to howwow

I have the same problem. Did anyone find a fix?

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Answer 4

Shu Chow

Level 1

17 points

Jul 3, 2016 11:41 PM in response to howwow

This isn't *exactly* your problem, but this was one symptom of a problem I had when I was searching for a solution to my problem - My iPad wasn't showing PDFs.

I thought it was a problem in iTunes because iTunes isn't showing the PDFs either, but they are in iBooks.

My situation was that Desktop iBooks was using iCloud Drive to sync Books and PDFs. This is controlled by the System Preferences -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive -> iBooks. Meanwhile, on my iPad, iBooks was *not* using iCloud Drive. This is in Settings -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive -> iBooks. Once I turned it on, I can see everything, Books and PDFs, on my iPad.

So basically, iCloud Drive circumvents what you see in iTunes, and iTunes doesn't know anything about iCloud Drive.

Wonderfully intuitive and logical, isn't it?

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