IPad – How to move from iTunes book library to iBooks app

booksdata synchronizationipaditunes

On my last mac system I used iTunes for syncing some PDFs and other books to my ipad.
Now on my new MBP with Mavericks and iTunes 11 there is no Books library anymore, but a new iBooks app.

I started to add some files to iBooks on my mac and followed the instructions to sync them to my ipad, but when opening iTunes and clicking the Books sync section, I still see only the old books formerly added to iTunes in the list. No new book from iBooks is being shown, so not synced to iPad.

I even don’t see a way to delete my old content (and move it to iBooks), because there is no library anymore.
Just deleting the Books folder under iTunes Library didn’t work – the Books sync section still shows the old content, although the sync now complains that it can’t find the files. (Deleting Cache files didn't work here)

So how can I actually enable iBooks app content sync from Mac to iPad and get rid of my former iTunes books library?

Best Answer

I finally managed it by re-creating my iTunes library as mentioned here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451.

After moving the .itl file I also moved the Books folder under iTunes Music.

It takes quite some time to import, depending on the size of the library, and it will finally warn that some items could not be found - which is obvious after deleting Books.

After that the contents of iBooks appeared in the Books sync tab.

Edit: Unfortunately, all my apps for my i-devices were gone, too. I had to manually transmit them device by device via the menu item File>Devices>Transfer Purchases from (device name). This step is clearing all the apps that I haven't synched to any of the devices at this time, which might be good or bad. However, I can download them again if I'm in the need for that.

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