You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Did my iBooks disappear into iCloud?

I've never used iCloud before last month, when I uploaded a few photos.


During that time, if I recall correctly, I was presented with the option of backing up my iBooks, which I agreed to do.


The thing is I have about 12 GB of iBooks and 5 GB of iCloud storage.


I didn't take the backup seriously, so I thought 5 GB would be okay. It was something to fill the space of my never-used iCloud account.


About one month later, I began to notice that a lot of my books have disappeared when I do searches.


When I checked out the iBooks folder in Finder, there is nothing before a certain date -- when I'm supposed to have years of books added before that date.


Maybe, I thought, the iCloud backup grabbed the files from my iBook folder and deleted them from my hard drive.


So I went to iCloud and the first thing I did was delete the handful of photos I uploaded to make sure that it wasn't the photos taking up 5 GB.


This is now what it looks like:


It shows that I've used of 4.88 GB of my 5 GB, yet I have absolutely nothing on my iCloud Drive.



User uploaded file



User uploaded file



Here are the other items I'm presented with.


--I've not set up Mail, or contacts, or calender, or photos (the photos that I mentioned earlier were uploaded as files).


There are no notes, no reminders, no pages, no numbers, no keynote, no find friends, nothing that would justify taking up 4.88 GB of space.


User uploaded file



So my question is:


What is that 4.88 GB?


Are those my lost iBook files? And if so, how can I access them?


On iBooks, I've set it to "Show iCloud Books." But that doesn't make any difference.


Are those iBook files lost forever*?


(*I did make a backup a month ago, unfortunately it's a backup with the files missing.)


I'm using OS 10.11.6.


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 13, 2017 9:28 AM

Reply
3 replies
Sort By: 

May 14, 2017 8:40 AM in response to Lacie20

iBooks files are normally NOT stored in the Documents folder, so there's something strange about your setup that I don't understand. As a result, I'm afraid to suggest anything for fear of making things worse.


Final thoughts:

To see all your books, including those stored only in iCloud, go to iBooks > View > make sure the option to Show iCloud Books is selected ( if it says Hide iCloud Books, then it is). If the books appear with a cloud symbol, click on it to download them to your local storage.


Instead of manually marking up selected files, which may or may not include everything, I suggest using Time Machine to do it automatically. If you don't need to, or don't, want to include some folders, you can exclude them in TM, but I would not.


Further reading: where are the iBooks files stored in el capitan

Reply

May 14, 2017 3:55 AM in response to Lacie20

So many questions...


1. To find out what is using up your storage:

System Preferences > iCloud > click on the Manage... butto.

2. iBooks normally stores purchases and PDFs in folders that are not easily accessible to the user.

Where exactly are you looking when you say "iBooks folder in Finder"?

3. Purchased ebooks normally are not part of any "backup" as you can always redownload them from the iBooks Store.

Books and PDFs from other sources would be stored in iCloud for syncing to other devices, not really for backups, and only if you expressly enabled this in System Preferences > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Options > iBooks > checked ON.

4. iBooks stored in iCloud are not visible directly via the iCloud website or via the iCloud Drive app. They are only accessible/visible from within the iBooks app, be it on your Mac or iDevice.

Reply

May 14, 2017 4:15 AM in response to Rysz

Thank you for your help.


I followed your advice, and all my older ibook files reappeared in the iBooks app.


The problem now is I'd like to back up the Finder version of all my iBooks. I'm talking about the iBooks folder that's in the Documents section of the Library.


But it seems that all my older iBook files are stuck in iCloud.


Is there any way to get them back on to my computer?


I'm scared of doing anything to my iBooks on iCloud for fear of erasing them.


The iBook files that ended up on iCloud were primarily added before 2016. Yet in the iBooks folder (in the Library), there are no books with a date before 2016.


The old iBooks (the ones I previously added before 2016) that reappeared in the iBooks application on Saturday now have a "Date Added" of "5/13/2017."


Yet those older books are not on my computer, at least as far as I can tell.


To reiterate: I'd like all of my iBooks (the ones on icloud and the ones on my computer) to be together again -- on my computer! -- so that I can create a backup of them.


Again, thanks for your help.

Reply

Did my iBooks disappear into iCloud?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.