Ibooks don't sync across devices. Manage iBooks on your Mac. Uploading books through OPDS catalogs

So, the question in this lesson is as follows: we have an iPad and an iPhone and on both gadgets I would like read the same book, at the same time, it is desirable that the device remembers which page you left off.

For these purposes, I recommend the application SHOTBOOK... This is one of best readers for iOS. And now the question is: how to make sure that the books are synchronized, and after reading the book on the iPhone, we could continue reading it on the iPad without remembering the page, without making bookmarks, and so on. Everything is very simple. I give a diagram.

This one has a very handy function that allows you to iCloud sync all books uploaded to the device between the rest of their devices, and this function also remembers the page on which we stopped reading. After reading a book somewhere on the road on our iPhone, we can continue reading on the iPad, from the moment we stopped. To do this, you just need to activate icloud, then turn it on in the program and have access to the Internet for instant synchronization.

On your smartphone or tablet, where applications have already been downloaded to the device, go to Settings and find the iCloud menu.

Make sure that iCloud Drive enabled if not, turn it on yourself.

Now open the SHOTBOOK application and go to the Settings menu. We find the line iCloud.

We go there and press the button Activate iCloud.

It will start and go to the Active status. All your books, and the pages where you stopped reading, will be downloaded to iCloud. It remains to do these operations on the second device, for example on a tablet, that is, enable Icloud in the settings and launch it in the SHOTBOOK reader itself, books from the iPhone will also be displayed on the iPad.

In such a convenient way, I use sync books on iPhone and iPad. Good luck!

Today's review is dedicated to the new App Store, a wonderful reader e-books on iOS - Readmill... This is not just an application, but a complete social network for those who like to read books. At the same time, the client has a number of undeniable advantages that distinguish the program favorably even in comparison with Apple's iBooks application.

Registration and interface

When you start the application, the first thing you do is ask you to register. This can be done using Email and through Facebook and Twitter accounts.

After that, you can start adding books and reading. Supported formats ePub and pdf.

Books can be downloaded from anywhere, the program itself also offers several free books to add to the library. These books, however, are in English. We will not change traditions and violate copyright protection laws, so we simply download the imperishable work of F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment".

Click on the green button "start reading" and you can start reading.

The interface is nice, everything is intuitive. You need to scroll with swipes to the right and left, and moving your finger up and down will change the brightness of the screen. It is also possible to enable day or night mode, change the font size.

You can also make notes for any words or phrases.

In general, there are not very many settings, but everything you need for comfortable reading is present.

Synchronization

In my opinion, this is the most excellent feature in this application. Readmill syncs all your books, notes and remembers the pages you left off. For example, you downloaded a book on your iPad, read to page 10 and closed the application. And the next day, they wanted to continue reading on the iPhone. To do this, you just need to launch the application on your smartphone, and it will download the book from cloud storage and will open it on the same page 10! In this case, the program does not matter at all where you downloaded (bought) this book. All (!) Your books are stored in the cloud and are synced across all devices. It's simple and very convenient. Synchronization with the "cloud" on Readmill occurs automatically when the application is launched.

Let me remind you that iBooks only syncs books and bookmarks purchased from the iBookstore. I believe that very few users make purchases there in the domestic open spaces. Books downloaded from the Internet, users need to download manually on each iOS device. Bookmarks are not syncing. In fact, the sync function in iBooks is of little use in practice. Knowing Apple's principles for intellectual property, it can be assumed that such a restriction will remain in effect for a long time.

As noted above, Readmill syncs directly when the application starts. Also, on iPhone, synchronization can be performed at any time with the usual iOS gesture - simply by pulling the screen down. On the iPad, there is a special line in the menu for this.

Social integration

All read and read books are added to your profile. They can be made private (visible only to you) or public (available to everyone). For any book, you can watch the fragments that other users have noted in it, as well as the final recommendations after reading. After you finish reading the book, the application will ask you to do the same to help other users navigate.

You can add other users as friends, share interests and chat.

Conclusion

In my opinion, Readmill is a worthy alternative to iBooks. The program synchronizes all your books and is a pass to the world of the book social network. First of all, it is recommended for those who like to read and do it on multiple iOS devices. However, I would also recommend everyone else to get acquainted with this application. As for me, it seems that I have already decided on the main reading program for the near future 🙂

iBooks is a pre-installed platform for reading e-books and listening to art and modern works on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. For the first time, the "reader" appeared in mid-2010 and since then has become the main, but not the only, source of inspiration for Apple technology owners. The main idea of iBooks is to speed up and simplify the search for literature, to provide access to a synchronized and daily updated library of books, and at the same time to solve the problem of storing works in audio format: no additional tools will be needed from now on - you can listen, read and develop without leaving the checkout. ...

Additional pros of iBooks:

Frequent updates. Although the developers from Apple do not change the traditional functionality, they keep up with design trends and always offer new and interesting solutions, such as a dark theme, support for gestures and an intuitive catalog where you cannot get lost;
Available formats: ePub, PDF and iBooks (an exclusive extension from Apple, designed to expand the standard capabilities of books and "compress" information without loss of quality). It seems to be no surprises, but the result is impressive!
Automatic night mode. If you really want to delve into reading late at night, then the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch will help you achieve the perfect atmosphere, and at the same time reduce the strain on your eyes. If desired, the setting is removed manually, or automatically, if there is enough light around;
Work with text. The idea is standard - notes and quotes. But incarnation is again ahead of time. Selected sections of text are allowed to be marked in different colors, sent to friends in in social networks(supported by Facebook) and hide additional overlays that automatically sync between Apple technology(about how this happens - later in the instructions).

The disadvantages of iBooks are the overpriced (although there are really a lot of free copies of books) and the availability of editions only for English language... And, if it is not difficult to add money for a quality purchase in some cases, then it is much more difficult to deal with the misunderstanding of foreign words - you will have to reach for the dictionary for hours and slowly go crazy ...

How to sync iBooks

A separate function responsible for sync iBooks on iPhones and iPads and macOS computers, not available. And it's not about the laziness of Apple developers, but about the invisibility of such mechanisms. It is worth logging into the store and at the same time the iBooks reader from the existing Apple ID account on the iPhone and iPad and that's it - the system will remember recent downloads, figure out which pages the reading ended on, and even transfer each note to the technique where at the moment there was a desire to be inspired by the works classics or modern editions. The main thing is to remember - one Apple ID account for each device and the information will remain in place - and no more experimentation.

How books are loaded

No surprises:

Open iBooks from a shortcut on your desktop (or download the reader from the App Store if the tool was inadvertently removed);
Explore the available selection and immediately download the literature you like, or use the search or recommendations;
After the download is complete, go to the "Library" section and get ready for reading. Information about the work done will immediately appear on other devices.

Working with iBooks is a real pleasure. There are no difficulties neither at the first acquaintance with the system, nor when synchronizing or exchanging information with other smartphones and tablets that are used with the same Apple ID.

Owners of iPad tablet devices will also find this manual useful, the tablet screen size is even larger, which is slightly better for the eyes when reading.

Before we start transferring books to our iPhones and iPads, I'll tell you a little about how we will be downloaded later. We will read in the standard iBooks reader, which either disappears or reappears among standard programs Apple iOS firmware. Look, if among the applications you do not have a reader called iBooks, then install it using our instructions:

To start our download-download of books in the way considered today, we need the presence of:

Computer or laptop
The computer must have
And of course the cable from our iPhone (iPad)

In the course of the instruction, we will perform two main steps: we will load our literature into the program and, after the book is added to iTunes, we will perform a book sync.

In order to add a book to iTunes, we need to know the format of the appropriate books. About book formats for iPhones and iPads it is written here - "". Since we need books for subsequent reading in the iBooks application, the format should be ePub. Such book files look something like this - Kniga.epub. PDF books are also compatible with iBooks and can also be downloaded. But today we will look at the epub as an example.

Where to find ePub books

An ordinary user will be able to find ePub books on the Internet, some authors distribute books for free, some sell books in electronic formats (including ePub) in online stores, the price of which is significantly lower than print edition... The Internet is full of unlicensed books, to use them or not, everyone has to decide for himself. If you are a writer, then books in the ePub format can be made up by yourself, this is done using special programs, if you do not want to understand, then the ePub-book can be ordered and you can make it up for money.

Add a book to iTunes

If you have already acquired an ePub book, then you can download or, more precisely, add it to iTunes, this is done very simply.

Now I know where the book section is in iTunes

1. Launch the iTunes program (as an example, we use the 12th version, if you have a different version of iTunes, then the external interface may differ). In the upper panel of the program, press the button with three dots and select the section - Books.

2. The section for books in iTunes is launched, now we add our book. The easiest way to do this is by dragging and dropping the ePub file into iTunes - grab our book with the mouse and drag it to the open Books section of iTunes.

If you cannot drop the file with the mouse, then you can, while in any section of the iTunes program, click the menu - File, and select - Add file to the library, select our ePub file and click the button - Open.

Books added to iTunes

The books have been successfully added to iTunes. If the book has a cover, it will be uploaded to iTunes along with the title of the book. Now we need to transfer the added books to the iPhone (or iPad), the transfer will be performed in the same iTunes program by synchronization.

Downloading the book to iPhone - sync

How to download a book to Apple iPhone - step by step actions in iTunes

3. Now we take the iPhone (iPad) and connect it to the computer using a USB cable. The iPhone icon will appear in the top bar of the iTunes program, click on it. After clicking, the left side menu appears, in it we select the section - "Books", put a tick - "Synchronize Books" and press the button - "Apply", which starts the synchronization of our books. If you need to download to the iPhone not all the books in iTunes, but only some, then use the image above.

4. If the iPhone is syncing with this iTunes program for the first time, a window will appear with a message similar to the following:

"IPhone is synced with another iTunes library on PC." Want to delete iPhone content and sync to your iTunes library?

iPhone can only sync with one iTunes library at a time. Erase and sync replaces content on iPhone with content from your iTunes library.

I press the button - "Erase and sync". iTunes transfers books to the iBooks app on the iPhone. Once the sync session is complete, the books will be added to the iPhone and appear in the iBooks app. Before writing this instruction, I used another method of downloading books to iBooks - directly from the Internet, and for some reason I thought that after clicking the "Erase and Sync" button, old books would be deleted, but they remained and even appeared in iTunes along with new books.

The iBooks app made it to the desktop operating system from Apple only with the release of OS X Mavericks. Without a doubt, this is a great reading tool. But today we will go a little beyond the scope of this article and show you how you can find all your downloaded books in Finder.

How do I find my downloaded books and documents in the iBooks library?

This is not at all difficult to do.

We will see a new window with folders. What is stored in them?

"Books" folder - this is where all your books, PDF-files, documents are stored. The files are stored in the same format in which they were added.
Downloads folder - all downloads are in this location until they go directly to the library.
Temporary folder - As the name suggests, some temporary files can be found here.
"Updates" folder - new versions of the iBooks application are stored here, until the moment they are installed.

If you need to delete all files from iBooks, you shouldn't do it through the Finder. This may cause some iCloud sync issues. This method is only suitable for downloading the source file from the library.