Calibre, iBooks, Yosemite, and Kindle

[Nyssa]

I received iTunes gift cards for Christmas that I would like to convert into books, however, I've never purchased a book from Apple/iTunes before, and after a quick search, I saw there were some issues with the previous OSX.
My question, though, is the reverse of what I saw presented in that case.

I would like to know how to get files from iBooks to Calibre? I would then be converting and transferring those books to my Kindle Paperwhite (and/or Kindle Fire).


Please & Thank You.

[itimpi]

There is no easy way to get eBooks from iBooks into Calibre - you can normally only go the other way.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by itimpi

There is no easy way to get eBooks from iBooks into Calibre - you can normally only go the other way.

Which is why 90+ people looked at this thread... whistled... and walked away, I guess! lol

:Sigh: Thanks.

[JSWolf]

Best bet is to buy movies or music.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Best bet is to buy movies or music.

Yeah.. Music. Thats where they usually go. I just wish I had sent out more Amazon vibes than iTunes vibes this year..lol

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Yeah.. Music. Thats where they usually go. I just wish I had sent out more Amazon vibes than iTunes vibes this year..lol

Before you spend the gift cards, see if anyone might want to swap Amazon for iTunes.

I know I most likely would not be able to use an iTunes gift card. I would be able to use an Amazon gift card. I don't spend much at iTunes.

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Which is why 90+ people looked at this thread... whistled... and walked away, I guess!

Pretty much. I have only converted one iBook to ePub. It was the Swift Programming Language manual, and I suspect that it was an abnormality (e.g. no DRM, which is atypical for ebooks).

For what it's worth, the process looked like this:

1. Find where the books are stored. (They're stored in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books.)
2. Figure out which cryptic file name corresponded to the book. (Easy in my case, since I only had one book.)
3. Compress the contents of the directory using zip, ensuring the extension was epub.
4. Import the book into Calibre.

I wouldn't count on this working for any old ebook, particularly purchased ebooks, since this manual was borderline promotional material for a new technology that Apple was introducing. Yet it does demonstrate how complex the process is for the simplest case.

[umi4ebooks]

Thanks a lot, "Bwinmill". I posted the same problem yesterday in a Calibre room and had failed until now because of a small detail I did not know- to name the zip file .epub....

I tried using the zip/rar option from Calibre instead and achieved strange results.

Thanks!

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Pretty much. I have only converted one iBook to ePub. It was the Swift Programming Language manual, and I suspect that it was an abnormality (e.g. no DRM, which is atypical for ebooks).

For what it's worth, the process looked like this:

1. Find where the books are stored. (They're stored in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books.)
2. Figure out which cryptic file name corresponded to the book. (Easy in my case, since I only had one book.)
3. Compress the contents of the directory using zip, ensuring the extension was epub.
4. Import the book into Calibre.

I wouldn't count on this working for any old ebook, particularly purchased ebooks, since this manual was borderline promotional material for a new technology that Apple was introducing. Yet it does demonstrate how complex the process is for the simplest case.

Thank you for the breakdown... I think I will stick with Music via iTunes for now.

You were able to help someone else, though, which is always cool!

Originally Posted by umi4ebooks

Thanks a lot, "Bwinmill". I posted the same problem yesterday in a Calibre room and had failed until now because of a small detail I did not know- to name the zip file .epub....

I tried using the zip/rar option from Calibre instead and achieved strange results.

Thanks!

You're welcome. Just out of curiosity, did you encounter books that couldn't be converted to ePub? My sample was small, and all freebies. (I tried some other books after posting, but I don't know what Apple's policy is with respect to DRM on ebooks.)

[umi4ebooks]

i just tried one freebie i desparately missed on my kindle. For DRM protected content i would be very surprised if it would work.
Though the learning was a quite interesting one on this example, my conclusion now is to avoid apple in the tool chain for books entirely.
For music i still use apple as a long time ipod user. This tool also does stupid things, but at least it doesn't create full proprietary and hidden formats. For now.

[gilbert1111]

BWinmill's excellent advice works. Just to be clear - leave the final extant as "zip," and do not convert to epub. That was an error I made. Here's another tip. If you add some books like I did today via Bookbub (ww.bookbub.com). I then go to the inside library folder, sort by DATE, and work on the books indicated TODAY. Once in Calibre they will have the proper author and title.

[LadyKate]

There is always regifting. If you have a music lover in the family it would make a great gift. Or a classic movie buff might enjoy as well.