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I am looking here for my iBooks in macOS:

/Users/'USERNAME'/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

But the folder is empty. When I open iBooks (the App) in Sierra, then all my books are there.

So what is happening here? Is Apple just hiding my books now? Where can I display/find them?

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8 Answers 8

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77

If you’ve enabled iCloud, they’re stored in Mobile Documents folder.

Here’s the full path to books you've added:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents/

Here's the full path to books purchased through the iBooks store:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

The path is only accessible via Terminal. Going through Finder will only redirect you to the iCloud folder. So open up Terminal:

For books you've added type in:

open ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud\~com\~apple\~iBooks/Documents

For books you've bought on the iBooks store type in:

open ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

This will open a Finder window with your iBooks in it.

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  • 4
    Hm, I cannot see this folder in Finder, but over the command line it works...
    – ohboy21
    Nov 3, 2016 at 17:05
  • 👍 for adding more details to the original answer.
    – sayzlim
    Nov 18, 2016 at 13:04
  • 2
    Believe it's changed you guys, here's the path that worked for me ~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents
    – Donovan Dikaio
    Mar 24, 2017 at 3:05
  • hey listen i uploaded the book but it is still is not showing in mobile app
    – Mayank Wadhwa
    Nov 25, 2017 at 4:30
  • These are not all of your books, these are only the books you've added to iBooks. If you've bought books through the iBooks store they are at the location mentioned in @anika's answer
    – Bryan Bryce
    Feb 6, 2018 at 20:48
12

I simply dragged the books onto a folder of my choice in Finder and got the epub files that way.

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1
  • 1
    Oh wow. So simple. It worked flawlessly for me on macOS 10.13.4 Beta (17E150g) and Books 1.14 (1517). Thank you!
    – Gwyneth Llewelyn
    Feb 18, 2018 at 1:03
7 
/Users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

This worked for me in Sierra.

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1
  • By ‘new OS’ I presume you mean Sierra. ‘new OS’ could refer to anything later on once Sierra is no longer the most recent OS.
    – grg ♦
    Feb 8, 2017 at 13:51
5

If you've enabled iCloud for iBooks [1], any books you've uploaded are stored in:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents/

Although you can't see it when you browse iCloud Drive in the Finder, the are two easy ways to get to it:

  • Open any PDF; when it opens in Preview, right-click the titlebar and click "iBooks (iCloud)".

    or

  • In the Finder, press ⌘ command⇧ shiftG and paste the path.

Note that books you've purchased from the iBooks Store are stored in a different location:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

You can open this folder the same way (⌘⇧G), but there's not much you can do here. If you want to add books to your library, add them to the iCloud folder, not here.

Just checked and confirmed locations are still accurate in macOS High Sierra (10.13.4).

[1] If you're not sure if iCloud for iBooks is enabled (understandable, since you only see it the first time you open iBooks, and there's no setting within the app), go to System Preferences → iCloud, then click "Options" next to iCloud Drive. Look for iBooks in the list. If it's checked, you're using iCloud for iBooks.

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1
  • Nothing works for me to find the book I uploaded on Apple Books since the last update to Ventura 13.1, but your suggestion to right-click on the pdf name. I did, chose iBooks and it took me straight to the folder with all the books, which is now a shortcut in my Desktop. Thank you!
    – Andreea
    Jan 8 at 8:47
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In Sierra, I found some of my iBooks at the location listed above:

/Users/'USERNAME'/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

However, they were not all there, only a small handful. When I went to iBooks and downloaded them from the cloud, then they started to show up as ePub files there.

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0

I simply used finder cmd-f search with the name of a specific book, it finds the books and from there one can open the folder where whatever iteration of macOS one is running.

The books are stored with their names changed by the system to variations like "7B587F3FCFGD5A74FFE82AB3AB1BE9831FF.epub"

curious non?

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0

@sayzlim's answer worked for me-- type in terminal: open ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks A new window opens named books. Then, with the new window selected, go to Finder and select File->"Add to sidebar" Now a Sidebar Shortcut is created, but in order to use the shortcut, you have to Right-Click->"Open in a New Tab" to see all your ibooks

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-1

I switched to iCloud storage for iBooks and then iBooks immediately started acting funky and not responding. I searched "All My Files" for ePub files, then choose all of them (+500) and opened them all at once with iBooks and they all reloaded to iBooks.... and, importantly, before I did that, I turned off iCloud storage for iBooks. I resist using Terminal because I am a novice (at best) but this situation follows typical Apple nonsense: what seems like a good idea (storing all your books on iCloud) turns into a general threat to something pretty important. I choose rather a personal "cloud" via a 3TB hard drive (LaCie) with wi-fi.

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