Decent review of the iOS12 books.app

[johnnyb]

Now if the iBooks revamp had also brought changes to the reading engine.
Still no customization
And I‘d still like to see a dedicated reading device.

Also beware: the library of the new app is incompatible with the old version, so if any of your devices cannot upgrade (e.g. every Mac in the first week), you best hold off for a while.
Running the beta briefly I also noticed that it breaks annotation sync between old and new versions. So, yah, iCloud quality I guess...

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Now if the iBooks revamp had also brought changes to the reading engine.
Still no customization
And I‘d still like to see a dedicated reading device.

Also beware: the library of the new app is incompatible with the old version, so if any of your devices cannot upgrade (e.g. every Mac in the first week), you best hold off for a while.
Running the beta briefly I also noticed that it breaks annotation sync between old and new versions. So, yah, iCloud quality I guess...

Hum, I ran the beta as well and had no issues with reading books and syncing on both the beta and the regular versions.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Hum, I ran the beta as well and had no issues with reading books and syncing on both the beta and the regular versions.

Syncing books or annotations?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Syncing books or annotations?

books, I don't do annotations.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

books, I don't do annotations.

Great!
(but why did you comment in reply to my post when you clearly had no idea because you “don’t do annotations”?)

[pwalker8]

Because you said "Also beware: the library of the new app is incompatible with the old version, so if any of your devices cannot upgrade (e.g. every Mac in the first week), you best hold off for a while." which wasn't what I experienced. It would be more accurate to say that annotations are incompatible with the old version rather than say that the library is incompatible.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Because you said "Also beware: the library of the new app is incompatible with the old version, so if any of your devices cannot upgrade (e.g. every Mac in the first week), you best hold off for a while." which wasn't what I experienced. It would be more accurate to say that annotations are incompatible with the old version rather than say that the library is incompatible.

The “library is incompatible” warning is not mine but Apple’s when you start the new app for the first time. It applies to changes to collections.

The “annotation do not sync” warning was my personal observation and immediately remedied after reverting back to iOS 11 (on an iPad Pro).

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

The “library is incompatible” warning is not mine but Apple’s when you start the new app for the first time. It applies to changes to collections.

The “annotation do not sync” warning was my personal observation and immediately remedied after reverting back to iOS 11 (on an iPad Pro).

All I can say is that I've been running the beta on my iPad mini for the last two months with no issues, while using the non beta version on my iPad pro, iPhone and Mac. All point to the same library, I use collections extensively and have had no issues. Your mileage may vary.

[pwalker8]

After updating my iPhone and iPad Pro to iOS 12, I have an answer of sorts. When I first opened Books after updating, I got the notice that collections would only sync with devices running iOS 12 or MacOs 14, which implies that when I update my iMac next Monday (i.e. when the MacOS update is released), I should be able to organize my collections on my mac and have that show up on my various iDevices. Since audible books don't get copied to iCloud, I will still need to sync those to my device via iTunes, but it's a big step forward if everything works. We will see on Monday.