With the new iTunes (12.7), how do I manage PDFs, ePUBs not purchased through Apple in Windows 10

1. Yes.
2. See the Manually add items from your computer section of Manually manage content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using iTunes - Apple Support.

You can also open PDFs and ePubs in iBooks from websites, DropBox, iCloud Drive, et al without using your computer and iTunes.

tt2

Books that are on your device should not be affected during a sync - they should stay there.

To add a book, you'll need to find the book on your system/disk and drag and drop it to your device while connected by USB.

See this link for more information - Changes in the new iTunes - Apple Support.

You could see Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes - Apple Support for a copy of iTunes 12.6.3 which will install properly over the top of iTunes 12.7 on a Mac, or after you've uninstalled the main iTunes application on Windows. You will still need to copy in your pre-iTunes 12.7 database from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder and rename it as iTunes Library.itl, and perhaps fix up any iTunes U content, but at least it makes downgrading iTunes somewhat easier than before.

tt2

Thanks for confirming. Gave my PC a reboot and then it suddenly started working. Prior to that, my mouse pointer was just turning into a "no entry" icon when dragging anywhere in the iTunes window.

By the way, it looks like right-click "Delete from Library" actually just removes the content from the device; i.e. doesn't delete the file from you computer.

It's a rather clunky way syncing your own content but at least it works. Clearly not a case of "it just works".

Things still aren't quite right. My collections are supposed to be synced. I would have expected that adding a PDF to one device ought really to make it available to all, but that isn't happening. 😕

tt2

If the books are on the Windows computer with iTunes, then the new drag-n-drop method introduced in 12.7 works fine and doesn't require intermediate steps. I have used it several times since 12.7 was released.

If you want the book on multiple devices, then uploading to your iCloud Drive is another option.

Some books can be quite big and so may hit size limits on certain email systems.

Thanks TT2!

I have the same issue since "upgrading" iTunes to version 12.7, and finding its functionality significantly curtailed 😟

Specifically: I used to sync a selection of my book/document library (including epubs and pdfs) onto my iPads/iPhones using a playlist on iTunes (running on Windows 10). That is no longer available...

Q: Is there any efficient way of syncing a selection of book/document out of a large directory of epubs and pdfs? Selecting and dropping them one by one is very cumbersome...

Thank you!

Pablo

You can drop multiple items onto the device in one go.

If you copy the same set of items it doesn't make duplicates.

You could also make use of iCloud Drive or Dropbox to host the documents you want available on the device, then download over Wi-Fi as and when you want to access one of them.

tt2

How do I open an iCloud file in iBooks? I have a massive PDF that’s too big to e-mail. I can get it into iCloud, and I can see it in iCloud on my tablet, but theres no option in iCloud to move the file to iBooks.

You can open PDFs directly in iCloud Drive. Once open you can use the sharing icon (square box with an arrow coming out of the top). A long press on a file should also bring up options one of which is Share.

tt2

Ooh, I figured it out, and it’s actually a two-step process. I had been doing what you said to do, and the file would open in iBooks briefly. But as soon as I pressed the Back button to see the rest of my files in iBooks, the new file would vanish.

The second half of the process is that once the file has opened in iBooks, I have to press the “share” icon again, and this time select “copy to iBooks.” That way, the file actually saves to iBooks.