How To – Save Your Purchases

How To – Save Your Purchases

If you read my previous post, you are aware of the issue I have with the books I’ve purchased from Apple (iBooks) disappearing from my new devices and not showing up on other devices where I hadn’t downloaded them. This only occurs when Apple has removed the book from the Apple store.

I have not heard back from Apple but I have found a work around for the issue on both a Mac and iOS devices.
First, I would suggest downloading all the books you have purchased onto one device and then, using the process below, backup all the book files to a safe location. This same process will work for movies and TV shows although those files are located in different folders.

For the process below, if you have an iOS device, you will also need a Mac. You may be able to use Windows and iTunes but I do not have any information on that side of things as I don’t use Windows with iOS devices.

Finally, you will need a third party application named Path Finder (https:// http://www.cocoatech.io), or something similar, so you can see the folders on the iPhone. Apple doesn’t allow this with the Finder.

Instructions for iBooks on an iOS Device:

1. Connect the iOS device to a Mac via the charging cable.
2. In new versions of macOS, the Finder will show the connected iOS device vs. iTunes which doesn’t really exist anymore. There may be a couple of approval steps to get everything connected correctly. Basically, follow the prompts.
3. Open Path Finder and select the phone; Books\Purchases folder; epub files
4. Copy the epub files to the location you want to store them in.
5. Reverse this process to load the books on other devices or Macs. The epub files will be added to iBooks when you double click on the epub file.

Instructions for iBooks on a Mac:

1. Open Finder and select the Mac hard drive. You may have to open the Finder Preferences and select Sidebar and then select the mac hard drive so it displays on the side bar.
2. Once selected, do a search for *.epub files. This will give you a list of any epub files on your Mac including any books that have been downloaded from iBooks.
3. Copy the epub files to the location you want to store them in.
4. Reverse this process to load the books on other devices or Macs. The epub files will be added to iBooks when you double click on the epub file.

That’s all there is to it! Never lose an iBook again!