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I'm using iCloud drive to sync my e-books via the iBooks app.

I noticed that the synced files show up in the All My Files view. I tried to find out their exact location, it seems to be iCloud Drive / iBooks (via Cmd+I) but when I try to navigate there from iCloud Drive, the iBooks folder doesn't show up, even when I turn hidden files on.

Is that a bug or how come this behaviour?

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5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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I've been trying to figure out the same thing. I did discover that in terminal you can navigate to the following directory to see your iBooks:

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

I have not figured out how to go here in Finder other than the method that you listed.

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    I was able to access it with Terminal and FTP the books from that location.
    – MiksiJeppeJuo
    Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 5:41
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You can open the directory easily, like that command in your terminal

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

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  • This is the only answer that works on Catalina as well.
    – David Pasztor
    Commented Oct 23, 2020 at 21:31
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    Thank you I was losing my mind. This is insane that it would be the only way to look at YOUR OWN files
    – JohnIdol
    Commented Feb 11, 2021 at 0:44
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    And from there, on Finder choose View -> Path Bar. Drag the Books folder icon to your sidebar to bookmark for future use.
    – TenLeftFingers
    Commented Nov 7, 2021 at 21:21
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you can't see it when you browse iCloud Drive in the Finder, a easy way to get to it:

Open any PDF; when it opens in Preview, right-click the titlebar and click "iBooks (iCloud)". When the iBooks finder window opens drag the iBooks folder icon in the titlebar to your sidebar. now you have quick access to your ibooks. You can now drag and drop books on that folder and they will be there when you open iBooks app.

In Mojave it appears it's no longer possible to drag the Books (formerly iBooks) folder icon to the sidebar. However with the folder open/frontmost (and with nothing inside the folder selected) selecting File > Add to Sidebar does the trick.

Or you can create a symbolic link in the home folder by running

ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud\~com\~apple\~iBooks/Documents/ ~/iBooks
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I used a utility called EasyFind to find the name of a book on my computer. Then I used an option in that utility to open in finder, and found a shared folder called Books. Get Info showed "Where: iCloud Drive > Books". Then, without selecting a book, I added that folder to my side bar. Kind of clumsy, but this may be useful.

I tried telling the finder to go to places mentioned in posts above, but failed. Although what would really be useful is if I could open my wife's Books directory and copy all of my books in it (she is the owner of our family plan).

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I confirm works on Ventura:

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

If You don't like terminal, here are steps:

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  • In macOS 13.6.1 the "Show in Finder" doesn't show up, only "Delete from iCloud".
    – MiB
    Commented Nov 7, 2023 at 2:08

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