Not figuring out iBooks

[Howard Brazee]

I have a lot of books on my Mac's iBooks, which synchronize with my iPad and my iPhone. But these apps appear to work differently.

On my Mac, I have the following tabs:
All Books, Collections, Authors, Categories, & List. And I have a place to search for a book title.

On my iPad, I have the following tabs for "My Books":
Bookshelf, Titles, Authors, Categories

On my phone, I have the following tabs:
Recent, Titles, Authors, Categories.

On my Mac, "Categories" lets me see categories next to my books", but not on my iDevices. Kind of useless on those devices.

On my phone, the bottom gives me icons for:
My Books, Featured, Top Charts, Search, & Purchased. Search appears to search the Apple store instead of my phone.

On my pad, the bottom gives me icons for:
My Books, Featured, NYTimes, Top Charts, Top Authors, & Purchased.
Purchased keeps getting a red 1, even if I update the included sample of "Private".

I haven't figured out how to use Collections nor bookshelves. I haven't figured out how to search for a book on my iDevices. I have no idea why these 3 synchronized apps are so different from each other.

I have El Capitan 10.11.4, and IOS 9.3.1.

I have other e-readers, but now that I have an iPhone 6s Plus, I appreciate being able to pull up a book that I've started to read on my iPad and read the next chapter on my iPhone, the way I do with my Kindle app. But the above questions make me think Apple hasn't figured how to use this app in a user friendly manner.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

Those all seem to be showing the correct items, they are just presented a bit differently because of the screen size differences and the underlying OS - OS X vs iOS.

On the iPad and iPhone, you can tap where it says All Books/Books and a drop-down of Collections will appear with the choices - All Books, Books, Audiobooks, PDFs and + New Collection. If you "pull down" on the list of books, a search box will appear.

Collections are simply categories of file type - book, audiobook, PDF, etc. Items are put into these groups by file type.

If the Purchased tab continues to get a red update badge that won't clear, you could simply delete that book and re-download it to see if that clears it up.

Here are some additional support resources:
Frequently asked questions about iBooks
Mac Apps - iBooks - Support
iOS - iBooks - Support

Let us know if that answers you questions/concerns. If not, we'll be happy to answer additional questions you may have.

C

 

[Howard Brazee]

I found the search menu thanks to you. Boy it was well hidden!

I think the failure to update the purchased book is also the source of an error I keep getting with iTunes (iTunes found purchased items on my iPhone). My phone tells me "The Way of Kings" (The included Brandon Sanderson Sampler) needs to be updated, but I can't update it successfully. I also don't see how to delete it. When I open iBooks on my Mac and open that book I don't see any indicator that there's an update available. So I just deleted it on my Mac, and restarted iTunes. This time I told iTunes to not transfer to iTunes (hoping it's this book, but I have really no idea if it is). I synchronized and the icon on my phone switched from [update] to the download cloud. Restarting iTunes got the "not present in your iTunes Library" error again, so that wasn't it (iTunes doesn't show any purchased items except some TV shows not in my library).

But for the moment, I'm not getting an indication that I need to update the purchase, thanks

 

[Cory Cooper]

Books purchased from the iBooks Store are managed (downloaded/arranged/deleted) in the iBooks app, not iTunes on your Mac. The downloaded books only show in iTunes when your iOS device is connected for syncing purposes.

To delete that book and re-download:
OS X - iBooks
Right-click or Option-click the book and select Delete

iOS - iPhone/iPad - iBooks
-Press Select in upper right corner
-Press the circle to the left of the book name
-Press Delete

You can then re-download the book from the iBooks Store on the Mac or the iOS device from the Purchased section. It will not charge you again.

C