iBooks does not seem to be recognizing that books have been previously purchased when the purchase price has changed.

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Level 2

321 points

iBooks does not seem to be recognizing that books have been previously purchased when the purchase price has changed.

iBooks does not seem to be recognizing that books have been previously purchased when the purchase price has changed. I pre-ordered and purchased Woodward's "Fear" - and it automatically downloaded to my iPad on the day of release and $14.99 appeared on my invoice from Apple. However, after upgrading to Mojave on my desktop I noticed it was among books that have disappeared and does not show up on my purchased list. I originally though it was a Mojave issue, but. I then checked my iPad and my iPhone -- and the book has disappeared there too. The book is now listed at $12.99 and iBooks will not let me download it on any of those devices without paying again. (Many of my previously purchased books seem to be gone...). I think iBooks is treating it as a different book when they updated the pricing on the iBooks site.

[I do not like the redesign of iBooks... it takes much longer to locate my books and open books I want to read, let alone see the complete list of my book and samples... too many clicks to get back to what was one click beforehand.... this issue is just one more reason I think they've really screwed up the redesign.]

[Re-Titled by Host]

iPad Pro Wi-Fi + Cellular, iOS 12.1

Posted on Nov 3, 2018 6:15 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

pberk Author

Level 2

321 points

Nov 5, 2018 9:07 AM in response to King_Penguin

You are totally wrong. I spent a good deal of time on the phone with Apple Support's iTunes group on this yesterday.... it is not what you surmised... Somehow the book - and 50 others! - got " hidden" during my Mojave upgrade.

Apple for some reason had to separate Books from iTunes so if you want to find your hidden books, you now have to do two things... first, Books -> File -> Move Books From iTunes. I believe you only have to do this one time.

If they are still not showing, you have to go into your Apple ID account from within the Books app. (not within the iTunes app!) Book Store -> Featured ->Account and scroll down until you see "Hidden purchases" and then click on "Manage" and you will see your hidden Books and be able to unhide them. [For whatever reason, if you attempt to do this from within iTunes' account page, it will not show your books, it will only show your hidden iTunes stuff..]

Truly I don't know what Apple was thinking when they redesigned Books... what used to be intuitively and easily accessible from a single screen (select, remove, moves, etc.) now takes backing in and out of multiple screens and you still can't for example find a list of just your books that aren't on your device. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to select multiple books to perform a single action now. Turns out that 51 of my books were "hidden", not just the one I was particularly interested I, and my only choice was to unhide all, or go through them and unhide one at a time.. If you are trying to remove a book from your device now, you can only remove one at a time, not a selected group anymore) and to make matters worse after you remove each one the screen repaints to the top of the page...

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Answer 2

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,138 points

Nov 4, 2018 12:15 AM in response to pberk

If they aren't showing in the Purchased section for redownloading, and if you haven't hidden them from there, it's possible that publishers/rights-holders have removed the versions of the books that you bought and put new versions in the store (instead of just updating the existing versions), they will be treated as new purchases if you want to (buy and) download them

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Answer 3

pberk Author

Level 2

321 points

Nov 4, 2018 9:46 AM in response to King_Penguin

That is an absurd answer.... the book had originally downloaded and then it disappeared... I didn't RENT the book, I bought it... what right do they have to take it back unless they want to refund my money????

Thats fraud.... Are you telling me that this is officially Apple's policy???

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Answer 4

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,138 points

Nov 4, 2018 12:29 PM in response to pberk

If downloaded copies of it have 'disappeared' it's because you, or somebody you've let use your device, have deleted them - downloaded copies obviously can't be remotely deleted, they can only be removed directly on a device. And there aren't refunds if a rights-holder removes an item from the store.

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Answer 5

pberk Author

Level 2

321 points

Nov 6, 2018 5:52 AM in response to King_Penguin

But I didn't hide them... according to the support person I spoke with, its been happening because she gets a lot of calls bout it and she thought it was because of the move of the book purchases from iTunes to Books which for some reason doesn't always complete in the upgrade. In any case, what you are in error about is the fact that "they will be treated as new purchases"... that's a bug, not a feature...

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Answer 6

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,138 points

Nov 6, 2018 7:58 AM in response to pberk

what you are in error about is the fact that "they will be treated as new purchases"... that's a bug, not a feature...

Obviously it depends upon what the publisher did. If instead of just changing the book's price the publisher/rights-holder removed the old book and put a new book in the store it will be treated as a new purchase

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Answer 7

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,138 points

Nov 5, 2018 11:41 PM in response to pberk

In my original reply I said if you hadn't hidden them.

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iBooks does not seem to be recognizing that books have been previously purchased when the purchase price has changed.

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