Why won’t iBooks wirelessly sync epubs or PDFs to the iPad

booksdata synchronization

I'm aware of this question but it is now quite old. If I create a collection in iBooks on OSX (Yosemite, 10.10.3) and add a book (epub – not puchased via iBooks), it does not sync to my iPad (3rd gen, iOS 8.2) over wifi. The name of the collection itself is synced to the iPad but it is empty. Both devices are on the same wireless LAN and connected to the internet.

I believe syncing used to be via iTunes and this was the only way I could get books to sync to my iPad previously but this should now work using only iBooks. I have already performed the 'Move books from iTunes' operation from the iBooks menu on OSX.

'Sync Collections' is switched on in the iPad iBooks settings. I'm looking for a wireless solution, not USB sync.

Best Answer

I don't know if you still need this issued solved, but I struggled a lot to sync my ePubs (not bought through Apple) between my Apple Devices.

Here is the solution I've come up with (This can be done on both OSX or iOS):

  1. Save your ePub/PDF file on iCloud Drive (inside a folder, just for organizational purposes);
  2. Then open that file from the iCloud Drive folder into iBooks.

This way, the instance of your ePub/PDF will be the same running on both your iDevice iBooks and your Mac iBooks.

All changes that you make (add bookmarks, highlights and current page) will also sync.

Regarding your collections, they will behave as they should syncing normally between devices.

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