So, iBooks in El Capitan is only “sorta” syncing.Ĭlearly this will be addressed in an OS X update, but it’s disappointing that they’d roll it out to our iOS devices without also including our Macs.īut get this: I took a peek at my iCloud Drive (folder) on the Mac Pro. Interestingly, the new collections that I created *are* all there in the sidebar - but none of the books that they contain. But NONE of my books or PDFs that weren’t purchased from Apple is available. Sure enough, the iPhone and iPad sync within a minute or so of making changes on the Mac, and vice versa.īut today I opened iBooks on my Mac Pro (El Capitan same iCloud account), because I need to read something for work. I also took the opportunity to do some reorganizing of my “collections,” which included creating some new collections, removing obsolete ones, and moving a number of books into different collections. As soon as I learned about iCloud sync, I enabled it on both my iPhone and iPad. Google requires that you upload ebooks before you download them to the Play Books app ( here’s more info), and Amazon requires that you either email or upload your docs before downloading them to the app (but only if you want to use the Kindle cloud sync option).Ĭhiming in… I keep my “master” library of books on my MacBook Pro. Both Amazon and Google offer similar sync features as iCloud for iBooks, only they don’t quite work the same.
Mac ibooks download from icloud update#
If you cannot update to iOS 9.3, you might want to consider using either Google Play Books or the Kindle app.
Mac ibooks download from icloud pdf#
Once those ebooks are backed up, they can be downloaded from other iDevices that are tied to the same Apple account, a nd that is a problem if you want to keep your ebooks secure. If, for example, you are reading a PDF with sensitive or proprietary info, you don’t want it getting into your iCloud account (Apple’s servers have been hacked before).īut if you have security concerns, I’m sure you thought of that issue. In fact, I don’t know of a way to disable the sync feature, other than disabling iCloud. It will back up your entire iBooks ebook library to iCloud, including the ebooks you have downloaded from free ebook sites (as well as the annotations for those ebooks).
That first step is a killer, especially if your older iDevice can’t run iOS 9 (luckily you do have other options), but once you are past that point you should have no trouble at all.īased on what I have seen, and on similar reports over at MobileRead, iCloud for iBooks is automatic.