Sync of iBook purchases?

[frodo]

Can the books one purchases directly from the iPad be synched to the iTunes book library on the computer? That doesn't happen on my system? Is it supposed to?

How can we prevent the lost of purchases if one needs to reinstall the iPad as a new device at some point?

Weren't we supposed to be able to start reading a book on the iPad and continue reading it on the iPhone exactly were we left it on the other device? How can we do that it the book is not synched?

If I say that I want to sync the books in iTunes, I am prompted that the books will be removed from the iPad!

Am I missing something or is it only possible with free books ?

 

[dragonc12]

I just hooked my ipad up to the computer, right clicked on my iPad name in iTunes, then told iTunes to transfer my purchases. Boom they were backed up in my library. So I would assume from there you would then plug your iphone in and sync the books to your phone. I don't have iBooks on my phone but I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

 

[Ipheuria]

I gotta try that tomorrow like the OP my books are not syncing between my iPad and iPhone.

 

[omegadivine]

My books weren't syncing automatically until I highlighted my iPad in itunes and went into the last tab which was books and just clicked to sync all

 

[frodo]

I knew about the ?transfer purchases? option when doing a right click on the device but since all the Apps when synchronizing back and forth from the iPad, iPone and iTunes automatically, I was careful about that feature.

As you will see, the problem was related to the fact that I had set up iTunes to ?manually manage music and videos?.

So, I went ahead and first transferred all the purchases made on the iPad. I immediately got the warning that ?All existing songs, movies and TV shows will be removed from the iPad?. Purchased books were transferred to iTunes but songs and movies were completely removed from the iPad? By the way, PDFs and manually added epub titles I had made with Calibre were also removed from iBooks and they had not been transferred to iTunes.

I went to the Music tab in iTunes and selected ?Sync Music? and ?Selected playlist, artist and genres?, made my selections and sync back music to the iPad.

From that point, I was not able to copy songs from iTunes? playlists directly to the iPad as I was previously doing. Selections needed to be made on the ?Music? Tab in iTunes. The same with movies: I cannot drag an MP4 movie with Explorer directly to iPad; I need to drag it to iTunes? main Library to populate it and then, form iPad?s ?Movies? tab, check ?Sync Movies? and make my specific selections.

The same steps needed to be done on iPhone. All Books were then copied to the iPhone.
Next, I purchased a new book directly on the iPad. When I synchronized it to iTunes, that new purchase was automatically transferred. Then, synchronizing the iPhone got me that book on it.
From there, when I stop reading a book on the iPad and then go to the iPhone and open that book, it opens exactly where I left it on the iPad. This is done over the air. I am not sure if it uses MobileMe or not, but it works.

This setup is a lot more functional that what I had before, not to mention that iBooks? purchases are now being backed up in iTunes.

 

[Ipheuria]

I feel like an idiot asking but does anyone have the same books on their iPhone that they have on their iPad? I have just checked each tab of the iTunes settings for both and synced both but my iPhone iBooks app is still empty while my iPad has 8 books one of which I bought

 

[frodo]

@Ipheuria,

First, can you confirm if the book you bought appears in the Books section in iTunes itself? That is where sync is checked against. If the book is not present there, it will never be copied to the second device, in you case the iPhone.

 

[Ipheuria]

@Ipheuria,

First, can you confirm if the book you bought appears in the Books section in iTunes itself? That is where sync is checked against. If the book is not present there, it will never be copied to the second device, in you case the iPhone.

It's in iTunes because when I go to Books on the iPhone I checked sync selected and checked the book so the fact it's in the list means it's there but even after that my iBooks on the phone is still empty

 

[frodo]

@Ipheuria,

Very mysterious indeed... So we are up to wild guesses:

- Would there be too many apps running in multitask state, which could impair sync? Kill all running apps and then sync.

- There is an option in iTunes: Edit, Preferences, Devices tab, Reset Sync History. Might try resetting History.

- Since your purchases are already backed up in iTunes, you could uninstall iBooks, shut down the iPhone, restart it and reinstall iBooks. Sync again. Who knows?

Good luck

 

[mambaciny]

Hi there

I'm very like this forum, but I newbie here, I hope to find friends here