iBooks Questions...

[BenFromPerth23]

Just upgraded to Mavericks. iBooks (The promise, not the reality) was a big reason I did. I see a lot of people are not loving it though… and I’m finding it a little annoying as well. I had a few questions I was hoping someone could help with.

Where are iBooks books stored on a mac? Can I access them?

Are they copied (duplicated) to that directory? Or referenced from where they are?

Can they be moved once imported? Can the folder they were in previously be deleted?

When I copied the files from the directory they were in, there were other file types… (zip, tgz, rar, txt, and video files, plus folders with those in them). Did ibooks move those too? And did it look in those folders and move the relevant files, or just those on the top level of that folder?

How do I sync them to an iPad, but also to an iPhone (Space is limited on the phone, but not the iPad. So I want it all on one, and a selection on the other. Is that possible with the new iBooks for mac?

Once it’s synced, will ibooks on ios and mac talk to each other and remember what page I’m on (Like they do between my ipad and iphone now?

Any help would be awesome.

 

[BenFromPerth23]

Anyone?

 

[Partron22]

Books are stored in "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books" (a hidden folder)
They are given non-readable names.
For example
"6A460B3FE3AAD44E9196D4FA3509E9F0.epub" is "Cemetary World" by Clifford Simak.
-They didn't have to do that.

I don't know what happens when you drag them out of their hidden location, or rename them something understandable.

I keep my actual library separate, and only move things into iBooks when I intend to read/use immediately.

With the latest iTunes 11.1.3, it is now seemingly impossible to sync books to 1st gen iPads.

I'll end up using iBooks for some things, but calibre and my other Ereaders aren't going away any time soon. With this Mac release of iBooks, Apple appears to be trying to lock us into their ecosystem, hard.

 

[RedOrchestra]

iBooks on my Mac doesn't / won't work - so much for that plan Apple!

I won't be downloading the latest iBooks for iOS 7 - it's hideous - so much for that plan Apple!

I never sync my iPad to my Mac - can't trust Apple anymore on the cross-platform - so much for that plan Apple!

 

[onekerato]

Where are iBooks books stored on a mac? Can I access them?

Are they copied (duplicated) to that directory? Or referenced from where they are?

Can they be moved once imported? Can the folder they were in previously be deleted?

When I copied the files from the directory they were in, there were other file types… (zip, tgz, rar, txt, and video files, plus folders with those in them). Did ibooks move those too? And did it look in those folders and move the relevant files, or just those on the top level of that folder?

How do I sync them to an iPad, but also to an iPhone (Space is limited on the phone, but not the iPad. So I want it all on one, and a selection on the other. Is that possible with the new iBooks for mac?

Once it’s synced, will ibooks on ios and mac talk to each other and remember what page I’m on (Like they do between my ipad and iphone now?

Any help would be awesome.

* Once you put an EPUB into iBooks, forget about finding it via the Finder again. Keep a second copy in your Dropbox or other shared folder for the future. iBooks probably uses a custom format/naming scheme to "index" the pages inside a EPUB so it can add notes/highlights precisely.

* iBooks will sync notes, highlights and last page read between iBooks for Mac and iBooks for iOS, but it's a bit tricky. It syncs via the "store" account that is linked in iBooks for Mac app. This is important especially if your iCloud account differs from your "store" account (for example, in a family, everyone may have separate iCloud accounts but share the same store account.)

* Since iBooks doesn't sync via iCloud (technically it syncs notes/highlights via the iTunes store account) and it doesn't push the EPUB files themselves up to the cloud, if you want to read the same EPUB on iOS and Mac, make sure to load it using email or Dropbox or DropCopy onto iOS. I ensure that I load the exact same EPUB file on both platforms because it's not clear how iBooks matches the notes/annotations to EPUBs: whether it's title, the entire ebook metadata or something else.

* iBooks for Mac is pretty good for study/research, with its note and annotation features, convenience of CMD + dragging to add highlights. I like it for reading nonfiction books. Some of the multitouch books created in iBooks Author are also pretty cool.

Also, my review of EPUB readers on Mac: iBooks versus BookReader versus Clearview http://onekerato.me/best-epub-reader-on-mac-os-x