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I'm wondering if it's possible to keep iBooks in Sync between various computers (running Mac OS X mavericks) under the same iCloud account. I set up my iBooks but synchronization only happens between a single Mac and devices running iOS 7. What's the point of using iBooks, if when I'm not in my laptop, I want to read the book on my iMac, but iBooks doesn't get synced across Macs...Did I miss anything?

Thanks for any hints, answers, such as using File sharing with Dropbox, Team Drive, etc. to try to synchronize the iBooks database and Data Contents. I only tried the Books folder from ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data but it didn't work.

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  • I discovered that if the book itself is copied (with the same cryptic name) from one computer to the other, then the annotations get synchronized through iCloud in all the devices. My "hacky" solution is: 1. Copy the new cryptic ePub book (a folder) found in one machine to the other (the "target" computer). For example to a folder called ~/ToAddToiBooks 2. Go to the "target" computer and open the iBooks app since it doesn't show the book yet 3. Go to the ToAddToiBooks and drag the files (usually the cryptic ePub folder) onto the iBooks shelf (the GUI showing your books).
    – user819893
    Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 15:06

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You might have the wrong idea (in Apple's eyes) about syncing through iBooks. You will not be able to have content magically appear on your second Mac, if the book is not purchased through the iBooks Store. Syncing does not work iTunes Match-like.

For non-iBookstore files, like MobileRead epubs, you will need to transfer the same epubs you imported onto iBooks on machine 1 to machine 2 and import them again. I hope you still have copies of these files -- because as far as I can tell, iBooks splits up epubs you import into it, and you cannot get them back out as an epub again. (I would love to be wrong about this.)

The good news is: Once you have imported these files, syncing between Macs works for notes, reading positions and highlights, as long as you have enabled "Sync bookmarks, highlights and notes across devices" in iBooks preferences. Again: iBooks will only sync said bookmarks, highlights and notes, NOT the books themselves. You will also need to have logged in with the same Apple ID on both devices.

Needless to say, you should also make sure to run the latest version of iBooks (currently 1.0.1).

This might be the only advantage of (and reason for) not being able to change metadata in iBooks -- at least the software knows which files are identical...

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    You can export an EPUB and PDF titles from iBooks by dragging the title from iBooks onto the desktop or a Finder window.
    – Chris W. Rea
    Commented Dec 22, 2013 at 0:59
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I fond this from apple support forums. I know this comes late but hopefully this helps people who are having this problem in future.

  1. Copy this directory on the old mac from /Users//Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBook/Books to your new mac.
  2. Open iBooks
  3. File->Add to Library... and select all the Files in this Books Directory for importing.

If something goes wrong, you can close iBooks, delete the /Users//Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBo ok directory and start iBooks again. This will reset the structure inside iBooks and you can start from begin.

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you can create an ePub file of a single book by dragging it from the iBook app to the Destkop.

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  • How does this lead to a synching solution?
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 14:18

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