iPad Moving iBooks

[Rhyalus]

Hello All,

I am not sure why I can’t get this done. I have tried several things after searching online, but I am still stuck.

I have 180 books (epub, no drm) on my iPad Air and I want to move them to my new iPad Pro.

I have iTunes on a MacBook Pro. Both iPads are backed up and synchronized to iTunes.

The only books that show up on the new iPad Pro are ones that have been purchased.

Can anyone point me to the procedure for moving this epubs? I have iBooks selected for iCloud Drive and cloud backup.

Thanks!
R

 

[rui no onna]

The transfer should be automatic. Maybe you can try uninstalling and reinstalling iBooks on your iPad Pro?

Just to confirm, iBooks is enabled on iCloud Drive for both Air and Pro, yes?

 

[AutisticGuy]

You don't move iBooks, iBooks move you.
-Phil Schiller

 

[mofunk]

If you purchased eBooks from other sites like Amazon etc then you would need to back them up to your computer. Connect your iPad to your MBP and drag the Ebooks to the iPad. I have several books from other sources and they don't sync nor saved to the Cloud. Those that I downloaded from Amazon, I can just open the app and log in.

I don't recall any Ebooks that I have that I purchased directly from the publisher that has synced to my iCloud.

Create a folder on your MBP for all the eBooks. This way you will have backups of them.

 

[bensisko]

You don't move iBooks, iBooks move you.
-Phil Schiller

Classic!
Or, to put it another way.... "In Soviet Russia, iBooks move YOU!"
[doublepost=1519611911][/doublepost]

If you purchased eBooks from other sites like Amazon etc then you would need to back them up to your computer. Connect your iPad to your MBP and drag the Ebooks to the iPad. I have several books from other sources and they don't sync nor saved to the Cloud. Those that I downloaded from Amazon, I can just open the app and log in.

I don't recall any Ebooks that I have that I purchased directly from the publisher that has synced to my iCloud.

Create a folder on your MBP for all the eBooks. This way you will have backups of them.

I'll echo this - you need the originals on your MacBook Pro. I get the same thing with the Harry Potter books I bought from Pottermore.com - I had to re-download them and manually move them to the new iPad from the MacBook. It's a pain, and I wish I could get them to just sync via iCloud.

 

[rui no onna]

Interesting to hear all these issues. Mine seems to sync properly via iCloud.

I only know because the last time I used iBooks was back when I was looking for a Stanza replacement a few years back. When I accidentally selected iBooks via "Open In" on a new iPad (setup as new), I was quite surprised to find all my sideloaded ebooks from back then complete with shelves. Due to its more difficult DRM, I have never bought any ebook from iBooks. I only have, I think, one or two "purchased" ebooks from the iBooks store and those were free.

 

[Rhyalus]

Hello All,

Thanks for the replies!

I honestly don't know why this is such a problem... these files never had DRM... they were originally created with Calibre on my mac, and then the epub files were imported one by one over the years (sent via email or Dropbox).

They all appear in iTunes, but I have so far not been able to manually move them or grab them to copy them to the iPad Pro... this is still an issue.

In iTunes, under books within the original iPad, the files are all there. What the heck do I do with them? I have tried drag and drop, right click and "move to ipad pro", but nothing works despite waiting 24 hours for something magical to happen via iCloud... I still only see purchased books.

R

 

[rui no onna]

I think Apple removed support for both Apps and iBooks from iTunes 12.7. Since you have a Mac, have you tried the iBooks Mac app?

On the iPad Air (with the ebooks) and your new iPad Pro, what does it say in iCloud - Manage Storage? Mine looks like this:

 

[mofunk]

Hmm this is very odd. I went ahead and tried to see if I could add books to mine. I found a few ePub on my hard drive, moved them to my Mac. Then I connected my iPad pro. Open up iTunes. Clicked on the iBooks icon inside the iPad. Then dragged and dropped the ePub into iTunes window that says Books. Which is what you said you did.


Maybe you can reset your iPad? Then try again. If it still doesn't work, then give Apple Support a call.

It sounds like you know what you are doing since you've done this with previous iPads. I tried two ePub books that I downloaded from two outside sources. Very strange.