Get/download books from iBooks to machine?

[neonbible]

Is there any way to extract books from iBooks back to my PC/Mac?

[drofgnal]

Just do a backup and sync in itunes. If you sync, then anything you downloaded directly to ibooks on you ipad from the ibooks store should show up in you books folder in itunes. You can then move it anywhere you want.

The reverse works as well. I've gotten a few epub formats from project Guttenburg and placed them in itunes books folder and sync'd so they would show up in itunes.

[neonbible]

I don't sync books in iTunes, just manage manually using drag and drop. I can get epub files onto my iPhone no problem, but not the reverse.

[harakiri]

hmm, bought a book on the iPad

Now it does not sync to my Mac. I did some research and it seems all thats necessary is that you are logged in to the iTunes store on the Mac with the same account used to buy the book.

Thats the case. Still no go

The book on the iPad is protected, but I thought this is only their form of saying that there is DRM inside?

[Rob_E]

I don't know if this works on iBooks purchases or not, but I seem to remember that you could right click on your device in the iTunes sidebar and select some option about transferring purchased content to the computer.

[harakiri]

will give that a try later at home.

Thanks!

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by neonbible

I don't sync books in iTunes, just manage manually using drag and drop. I can get epub files onto my iPhone no problem, but not the reverse.

You will have to go through a backup and sync to do what you want. It's not that big a deal to do so.

[harakiri]

@ Rob_E:

worked like a charm

Thanks!

[neonbible]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

You will have to go through a backup and sync to do what you want. It's not that big a deal to do so.

It is a big deal, I hate the whole syncing feature of iTunes. Because with syncing it can also delete content. Syncing should never delete content, but only update what isn't on each side.

Anyway I found a rather crude way of doing it by getting "iPhone Explorer". I can see a folder on there which contains all the ebooks. I could drag it off to my machine as a folder (appears iBooks unpacks the epub file). I zipped it up and renamed it to .epub but it didnt work. What I did in the end was imported all the XHTML files into Sigil and rebuilt the book.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by neonbible

It is a big deal, I hate the whole syncing feature of iTunes. Because with syncing it can also delete content. Syncing should never delete content, but only update what isn't on each side.

Anyway I found a rather crude way of doing it by getting "iPhone Explorer". I can see a folder on there which contains all the ebooks. I could drag it off to my machine as a folder (appears iBooks unpacks the epub file). I zipped it up and renamed it to .epub but it didnt work. What I did in the end was imported all the XHTML files into Sigil and rebuilt the book.

Did you try Rob_E's suggestion?

[neonbible]

They are my own eBooks and weren't purchased.

Only reason I wanted to do this is because I dont have access to my own PC at the moment so can't get the eBook on file to read on another machine.

[drofgnal]

Ok, I understand. I had sync problems when using two different machines, my work and home one. I load everything up and have it backed up at home. If I plugged in at work, it would sync and wipe out everything and I'd have to resync at home.

Once you limit youself and get all the settings right on one computer, you'll not have any trouble and syncing and backup will be seamless.

[Iain]

There's a product called iPad ePub transfer from aieesoft which does exactly what you want it will plop ePub books into the iPad or copy them out.

Iain

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by Iain

There's a product called iPad ePub transfer from aieesoft which does exactly what you want it will plop ePub books into the iPad or copy them out.

Iain

This is a partial reply from aieesoft support:
"But we want to confirm that the iPad Tranfer can not copy the ebooks from the iPad to the PC. The other function, like load and convert DVD files can work successfully."

I downloaded their trial version and when it would NOT copy an ebook from the iPad to the PC I wrote support.

Rob-Es suggestion, will transfer all your ebook purchases to iTunes and then they can be copied (right click) and pasted to your hard drive (wherever).

But... they have Apple's unique DRM protection so they cannot be copied to any other device

I know of no way to remove the DRM from an Apple ebook - thus, I won't buy any ebooks from Apple.