How to transfer ebook from Calibre to iPhone?

[haertig]

I am not sure which subforum this question best belongs in. Calibre? Apple Devices? Right here in General Discussions? Hopefully a moderator will move this post to where it will hopefully get a response.

The task I want to accomplish:

Move an ebook from Calibre 5.44 to an iPhone 13. Sounds simple, huh? To be read in either the Kindle app on the iPhone or by the built-in iBooks app. Would consider installing a 3rd party reader app on the iPhone if it makes transfers simpler.

I would prefer not to use Send To Kindle unless that's the only possibility. I just don't like the idea of putting Amazon in the middle of things to collect data for marketing and advertising.

There are no other Apple products available to aid in the transfer (no MAC desktops or laptops, etc.) Windows computers are available to assist, but none of them have iTunes installed that I am aware of (is iTunes still even available?)

I have a Lightning to USB-A cable available, and physical access to the computer running Calibre (Linux), and it's network (both WiFi and ethernet). There are no USB-C connectors on the computer running Calibre, so even if I had a Lightning to USB-C cable, that wouldn't do me any good.

I know nothing about iPhones, their operating system, or their connecting cables - but I am a Linux guru.

I run "Calibre Web", a 3rd party server that works with Calibre's database. I access this with a web browser to download books. But I could enable Calibre's built-in Content Server if necessary.

For Android devices, I simply download the ebook from my Calibre Web server and then use an Android File Manager app to move the downloaded file to a place where Moon+ Reader Pro can find it. Apple doesn't appear to provide this same flexibility. Not that I can find.

I could make the ebook I want to transfer available via a WebDAV server if there are reader apps for Apple that support that. But I do not want to stream the book to read only while online - I want to download it for offline use. It would be great if Apple had a File Manager app where you could move stuff around on your iPhone, to be discovered by other apps. But I doubt that they do (I hope I am wrong). Apple seems to go out of their way to hide any concept of a directory or a file from users.

So what is the process to get an ebook (not bought from Amazon or Apple) onto an iPhone to be read? It can't really be as difficult as I am finding it. I am happy to use any solution - wired USB, or using Calibre server, or not using Calibre at all, etc. Everything short of buying a MAC computer to assist. Send To Kindle is an obvious option, but I want to explore other possibilities first. If there are any.

Thanks in advance for any help! I am a Linux/Android guy. But Windows/Apple is a knowledge black hole for me. Google searches on my questions have mostly turned up ways to download directly from the Kindle app (which doesn't work if you didn't buy the ebook from Amazon), or how to use a MAC computer as an intermediary in the file transfer (doesn't help if you don't own a MAC).

[Deskisamess]

Put the iCloud app on your pc. Save the book from Calibre to one of the iCloud folders/locations. Access icloud storage from your phone.

[haertig]

Thanks. Got the ebook (in EPUB format) copied up to the iCloud drive. No problems with that part. Now to pry the iPhone out of my wife's hands (it's her phone) and see if I can figure out how to "access iCloud storage from the phone". Do you do that from inside the iBooks app? I'll do some snooping around a little later, after the wife has gone to bed and I can grab the phone and start playing with it some more.

[haertig]

I couldn't find a way to access iCloud from inside the Books app (I have in incorrectly calling it "iBooks"). Nor could I find an app for accessing iCloud. But my wife has a ton of apps on her phone and I could have missed it. I gave her back her phone in frustration and she said to it "Hey Siri, access iCloud". Well son of a gun, that worked. We could see the two EPUB books I had put on her iCloud. Touching one of those displayed book icons and it jumped right to the Books app and there it was. The second book did not go as well. After doing the "Hey Siri" thing again to see iCloud, that second book was there - the cover picture was good and the reported file size was correct. But tapping on its icon imported a generic looking red book into the Books app. No title and no author were displayed. And when you tap it in Books, nothing displayed. When you try to remove is in Books, it won't remove. So something failed in that second import, but I don't know what yet.

Anyway, I can sometimes, almost, occasionally, partially use the iCloud to transfer books sometimes. So I'm on the right track. Still with some bumps in the road however.

Thanks for the help!

[Deskisamess]

Use the Files app, it looks like a blue folder.

[datostar]

I've found that the Apple Books App will only import one ebook while the app is running. This might explain your problem. The solution is to completely shut down the Books App - don't just click on the 'x' but do that then swipe up from the bottom of the screen when all running apps will be shown in miniature then swipe up on the books app. This closes it completely. When re-opened from the main screen you should be able to import the next ebook without a problem, then repeat for any others. I've no idea why this is necessary - another Apple foible!

[haertig]

Originally Posted by datostar

I've found that the Apple Books App will only import one ebook while the app is running. This might explain your problem. The solution is to completely shut down the Books App - don't just click on the 'x' but do that then swipe up from the bottom of the screen when all running apps will be shown in miniature then swipe up on the books app. This closes it completely. When re-opened from the main screen you should be able to import the next ebook without a problem, then repeat for any others. I've no idea why this is necessary - another Apple foible!

Ahhh, great to know!

We found that the second ebook was successfully imported at a later date. We never figured out why it was successful at that later date. However, that "later date" was after my wife had restarted her iPhone. This jives with your observation that you have to totally kill the app to import multiple books. A restart would kill the app. I don't think my wife ever kills her apps. No doubt she's probably got a bazillion of them running in the background at any moment in time. I have heard that Apple doesn't really kill apps, and just leaves them running - unless the user takes specific action to force the kill. I consider this a defect in design, but Apple probably has some reason for doing things this way. However, if indeed Apple's Books app can only import one ebook per app invocation, that's definitely a bug or design defect IMHO.

The next time we need to do a multi-book import, I will try your suggestion of killing the app totally in the middle. I guess we don't have to wait for an official "multi-book import", since EVERY import would effectively be a multi-book import if the app is left running non-stop. I can't believe nobody would have noticed this aberrant behavior, or Apple would have refused to fix it, but that appears to be the case from what you've seen. I will do some testing going forward and see if I can confirm what you have observed is the cause of my problem too.

Thanks!

[moocow]

This is an old thread, but perhaps this alternative reply is helpful for someone.

I use a different app for reading, avoiding Books altogether. I use Kybook 3 and it just lets me copy files directly to the app... probably other third party apps will work the same:

• plug the phone into the mac
• open the phone in the Finder
• click on the 'Files' tab (some apps appear below, including Kybook)
• use finder to copy epubs into the Kybook app

Or another way is to Airdrop to the phone, then share with the Kybook app. This normally works, the plug-in option above works best.