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Mavericks iBook app

tarasis said:
IBooks app really is a mess. Trying to import initially failed as not enough space left on Primary device. So I told it to use my external Disk.
Click to expand...

It did that to me too - using the latest GM (13A603). It failed (and still repeatedly fails) to import books from iTunes claiming I don't have enough space even though I've got >400Gb free - and only a few books, including some PDFs in my iTunes library.

I wonder if this is a new bug that's crept into the latest GM?
 
UGH! Mavericks sucks for iBooks. Just updated and was looking forward to the iBooks app, opened it up and it transferred my library and now I can't edit anything. I had my library meticulously organized with sort titles and sort albums and now its all gone and none of the info is editable anymore. Is there anyway to go back to using iTunes for iBooks aside from downgrading?
 
MVallee said:
UGH! Mavericks sucks for iBooks. Just updated and was looking forward to the iBooks app, opened it up and it transferred my library and now I can't edit anything. I had my library meticulously organized with sort titles and sort albums and now its all gone and none of the info is editable anymore. Is there anyway to go back to using iTunes for iBooks aside from downgrading?
Click to expand...

I just noticed this same exact thing. How can they take away options for changing titles and such? I have a ton of PDFs that I have loaded in there previously and always enjoyed the fact that you can edit how it is displayed.
 
MVallee said:
UGH! Mavericks sucks for iBooks. Just updated and was looking forward to the iBooks app, opened it up and it transferred my library and now I can't edit anything.
Click to expand...

Same thing here. I had my files organised into folders on the file system. iBooks moved epubs and pdfs to the library location. The original file system structure is lost. So annoying. I've sent them feedback, there is a link under 'iBooks' menu.
 
iBooks BANISHED!

I like the rest found iBooks to be a dog of an zoo from Apple. I found a fix that allows you to go back to the management of books under iTunes while still enjoying the Mavericks update minus iBooks. (Who really wants to read books on a screen)

I have done the following and now have iTunes looking after my books once again!

1.) Kill the bookstoreagent service using the Activity Monitor.

2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent

3.) Use AppCleaner to get rid of iBooks.

4.) Restart iTunes and you will find the Books tag return under library.

5.) Import your books again with all the metadata intact.

I have done it and it works, iBooks has been banished to the bit bucket never to be used ever again.
 
meteparozzi said:
iBooks for Mavericks is a complete mess. If you have a large collection of personal .epub files, not necessarily from the iTunes store, you are in for a world of hurt.

First, all of your files will be taken out of iTunes and their management will be brought over to iBooks. This is not an issue. However, iBooks lacks even the simplest of metadata editing, so you won't be able to change pictures, genres, names, authors, dates of publication or anything else.

Second, the files will be moved from your iTunes media folder to an obscure folder in your (now hidden) library.

Something like: /Users/~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books

They will be renamed from human readable, intelligent files into a 32-digit alphanumeric string. That .epub file will no longer be a file, but rather a folder full of .css files, html files, iTunes artwork files, iTunes metadata files, images and other content.

So if you have a copy of an .epub from Google, perhaps "Alice in Wonderland.epub" you will now have a folder in the above location called "C9F7853D6AC32AD3E43416BB47054D36.epub" that is filled with files.

From all appearances, instead of parsing the .epub, iBooks is converting it into a 'web page' of sorts. This also means that spotlight is now totally useless when searching for anything with an .epub extension. It also means that a spotlight search will now return a LOT more useless hits for short searches, especially if you have a large reading library (over a thousand here).

The parsed files are also significantly larger than the original .epub. Only an issue on machines with limited space, but still unnecessary bloat. My 3.7 GB library is now 6.58 GB, for example.

The reading mode is very limited, and there is no option for 'single page' in full screen. Overall the program is quite slow and extremely basic.

Obscuring, renaming and decoupling the users content within the context of the Finder is the worst possible solution. I highly recommend avoiding iBooks if at all possible. And if you are one to manually back up only select portions of your documents, I would also throw caution at you.

I'm glad I have a manual backup off site, because iBooks completely destroyed my book library.

And a final note, once you initialise iBooks, you can no longer use iTunes to manage your library, nor can you import books into it.

Stay far, far away if you don't use the iBookstore exclusively!

:mad:

Update: Did some more digging. iBooks is unzipping, not parsing, the .epub files and creating folders out of each one. Hence the increase in space. However, the folder organisation was actually already present in the original .epub file. Still, it doesn't excuse moving, renaming or taking up more space....
Click to expand...


I had a good handful of free downloaded ebooks and now I can't even find them in the actual folders they were in, as you said it looks like once importing them to iBooks they are hidden and stored some place else. Now I have a bunch of empty folders. Is there any way to get them back (even though I still have them) to where I can see them in their original location? If I delete iBooks not sure that's possible they'll come back to their original folders right?

----------
vizspurs said:
Through trial and error - figured out how to import my epubs and Pdfs to my iPad after installing Osx Mavericks on my 2012 Macbook Pro.

- Open folder with epubs & pdfs
- Open iBooks (on your computer)
- Open iTunes
- Drag ebooks (epubs & pdfs) into iBooks library.
- This will automatically show up in iTunes
- Sync iTunes with your iPad
- And Presto, just like before - the same result, but a different method!
Click to expand...

LOL at a big ol essay checklist of things just to sync to your iPad this is ridiculous
 
jaugust said:
I like the rest found iBooks to be a dog of an zoo from Apple. I found a fix that allows you to go back to the management of books under iTunes while still enjoying the Mavericks update minus iBooks. (Who really wants to read books on a screen)

I have done the following and now have iTunes looking after my books once again!

1.) Kill the bookstoreagent service using the Activity Monitor.

2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent

3.) Use AppCleaner to get rid of iBooks.

4.) Restart iTunes and you will find the Books tag return under library.

5.) Import your books again with all the metadata intact.

I have done it and it works, iBooks has been banished to the bit bucket never to be used ever again.
Click to expand...


You sir, are a genius!

Thank you so much! This worked perfectly. I had to restart my computer in order for Books to show up under Library in iTunes but now its working perfectly! All my books from iBooks were even back in my Library some how. I looked at the file path in iTunes and it was the same place in the Library folder where iBooks was storing the books. I tried using "consolidate library" in iTunes and it copied them all to my iTunes media folder, but they are still unzipped pubs (though they have regular names now).

I would happily go back to iBooks if Apple decides to let people edit the metadata. iBooks was one of the Mavericks features I was most looking forward to and it turned out to be a huge headache.
 
Thank You!

jaugust said:
I like the rest found iBooks to be a dog of an zoo from Apple. I found a fix that allows you to go back to the management of books under iTunes while still enjoying the Mavericks update minus iBooks. (Who really wants to read books on a screen)

I have done the following and now have iTunes looking after my books once again!

1.) Kill the bookstoreagent service using the Activity Monitor.

2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent

3.) Use AppCleaner to get rid of iBooks.

4.) Restart iTunes and you will find the Books tag return under library.

5.) Import your books again with all the metadata intact.

I have done it and it works, iBooks has been banished to the bit bucket never to be used ever again.
Click to expand...

Same as the above post - Thank you jaugust, this works perfectly!
 
Question

I am relatively new to mac.

"2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent"

How do I find this file and delete it? I tried searching in finder and came up with nothing.
 
Import the books from where? a Backup?


jaugust said:
I like the rest found iBooks to be a dog of an zoo from Apple. I found a fix that allows you to go back to the management of books under iTunes while still enjoying the Mavericks update minus iBooks. (Who really wants to read books on a screen)

I have done the following and now have iTunes looking after my books once again!

1.) Kill the bookstoreagent service using the Activity Monitor.

2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent

3.) Use AppCleaner to get rid of iBooks.

4.) Restart iTunes and you will find the Books tag return under library.

5.) Import your books again with all the metadata intact.

I have done it and it works, iBooks has been banished to the bit bucket never to be used ever again.
Click to expand...
 
jaugust said:
I like the rest found iBooks to be a dog of an zoo from Apple. I found a fix that allows you to go back to the management of books under iTunes while still enjoying the Mavericks update minus iBooks. (Who really wants to read books on a screen)

I have done the following and now have iTunes looking after my books once again!

1.) Kill the bookstoreagent service using the Activity Monitor.

2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent

3.) Use AppCleaner to get rid of iBooks.

4.) Restart iTunes and you will find the Books tag return under library.

5.) Import your books again with all the metadata intact.

I have done it and it works, iBooks has been banished to the bit bucket never to be used ever again.
Click to expand...

Merci! Worked like a charm!!!!! I didn't have to do a thing, my books just showed up again. (restarted iTunes twice though)

Now - If someone can find a way to bring color icons back to the sidebar (while keeping the colored tags) I'd be in heaven.

EDIT ● Never mind, SideEffects has been updated for Mavericks! I'm a happy camper now.
 
Last edited:
I opened a pdf in ibooks and it actually opened up acrobat reader. I could have done that myself.
 
Found it

kfcordea said:
I am relatively new to mac.

"2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent"

How do I find this file and delete it? I tried searching in finder and came up with nothing.
Click to expand...

Never mind I found it! Did the rest and it worked great. Thanks so much for this fix. I have a VERY large library!
 
Reverting Back to Itunes

vizspurs said:
Please DISREGARD my previous suggestion - as I found another suggestion on this forum (Courtesy of jaugust - Thank you!) which works perfectly. I have pasted it below:
____________________________________________________________________________________

Originally Posted by jaugust View Post:
I like the rest found iBooks to be a dog of an zoo from Apple. I found a fix that allows you to go back to the management of books under iTunes while still enjoying the Mavericks update minus iBooks. (Who really wants to read books on a screen)

I have done the following and now have iTunes looking after my books once again!

1.) Kill the bookstoreagent service using the Activity Monitor.

2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent

3.) Use AppCleaner to get rid of iBooks.

4.) Restart iTunes and you will find the Books tag return under library.

5.) Import your books again with all the metadata intact.

I have done it and it works, iBooks has been banished to the bit bucket never to be used ever again.
Click to expand...

Thank You so much - This was a life savour... I wish they would use iTunes with the new Ibooks - How hard could that have been??
 
jaugust said:
I like the rest found iBooks to be a dog of an zoo from Apple. I found a fix that allows you to go back to the management of books under iTunes while still enjoying the Mavericks update minus iBooks. (Who really wants to read books on a screen)

I have done the following and now have iTunes looking after my books once again!

1.) Kill the bookstoreagent service using the Activity Monitor.

2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent

3.) Use AppCleaner to get rid of iBooks.

4.) Restart iTunes and you will find the Books tag return under library.

5.) Import your books again with all the metadata intact.

I have done it and it works, iBooks has been banished to the bit bucket never to be used ever again.
Click to expand...

Thanks!!!!
 
jaugust said:
I like the rest found iBooks to be a dog of an zoo from Apple. I found a fix that allows you to go back to the management of books under iTunes while still enjoying the Mavericks update minus iBooks. (Who really wants to read books on a screen)

I have done the following and now have iTunes looking after my books once again!

1.) Kill the bookstoreagent service using the Activity Monitor.

2.) Delete the file for that service: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/bookstoreagent

3.) Use AppCleaner to get rid of iBooks.

4.) Restart iTunes and you will find the Books tag return under library.

5.) Import your books again with all the metadata intact.

I have done it and it works, iBooks has been banished to the bit bucket never to be used ever again.
Click to expand...

I did all that stuff and it worked very well but I think there is still a problem.

First, I don't have de books in the rute I used to had (inside the Music carpet in the iTunes carpet).

Second and the most important, I can't add books to my iTunes library.
 
azmodeman said:
Thanks!!!!
Click to expand...

I just noticed I'm missing about 80% of my PDFs after following the directions above. Any thought on how to get them to show back up? They are in the Books folder but just dont appear in iTunes. Thanks for the help
 
I had the Game of Thrones series audiobooks in iTunes. When I upgraded to Mavericks, one of the audiobooks now shows up in iBooks as just an e-book.

They are all still in iTunes as audiobooks but I basically got an e-book from Apple for free.
 
How is iBooks for Mac this big of a turd?

I get that there are release bugs, but this is a mess on a fundamental level. I don't even know what to say about how utterly bad iBooks for Mac is at this point. Useless comment, I know, but utter and complete frustration tends to inspire such rants.
 
AgentElliot007 said:
How is iBooks for Mac this big of a turd?
Click to expand...
Because Apple's profit motive is too upfront and obvious. I don't begrudge them for "building in" more avenues to sell books... it's just implemented so badly.

Apple needs to revamp all their media apps including iTunes. It's getting too convoluted - particularly for those new to OSX.
 
iBooks shows all my books with the iCloud icon, but it keeps saying "XXX book failed to download" when I press the cloud icon.

Pressing Check for Available Downloads says all updates and downloads have been downloaded

Anyone have any experience with this?
 
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