epub created with Sigil invisible on iTunes

[IAmGrammy]

Back before the great MacBook crash of... well, 2013; a recent tragedy... I edited one of my own books, a work of fiction, with Sigil. It was my first attempt to use it and I thought I had the hang of it. It looked fine and I was able to save it as an .epub file, emailed it to myself and was able to both open and read it in iBooks on my iPhone and iPad. Life is good. Or was, until I lost the flash drive I saved all my work on (let's not forget the great MacBook crash). Today, I decided to sync my iPhone on this new computer and had no problem doing that without loss of data (replaced the Library ID string in the plist with my old one) but with this one exception: the book I'd edited on Sigil. It showed up in iBooks on my iPhone just fine but when I plugged the iPhone into the new MacBook, clicked its icon and took a look at iBooks, all of my books were sitting right there on my iPhone, except the edited one. When I unplugged the iPhone and looked directly at it (not via iTunes) the book was there. When I plugged the phone back into the Mac and looked via iTunes, it is not on the list. I went ahead with the sync and all of my books transferred over to the Mac, except my own edited one. It is no longer on my iPhone, either. It IS, however, on my iPad, but the same story: I can see it in iBooks on my iPad but can't see it when I view the iPad's contents via iTunes. It doesn't appear on the list. I'm afraid to sync because I have no other copy and it looks probable that I'll lose it. (Of course, I would back up the iPad first, but I backed up the iPhone and still lost the edited book.)

When I edited it with Sigil, it was saved as an .epub file. I do notice, however, that it has no category. It's the only one in my iBooks library with no category (i.e., Fiction and Literature, Science Fiction, etc.) which makes me wonder if this is why it won't show up and therefore won't sync to iTunes. And, of course, I can't edit it within iBooks, so I'm chewed, there.

All that to ask this: can any of you think of what I must have done wrong that has caused this book to only be viewed on iBooks' bookshelf from within the iPad (but not when viewing iPad's contents via iTunes)? And, more importantly, is there no way to recover this book, short of manually and painstakingly highlighting and copying each page into an App Store text editor? Or, question number three: is this an iBooks issue rather than a Sigil issue?

I have a headache.

[Toxaris]

This isn't a Sigil issue, but an Apple issue... Can't you just browse to your iWhatever and copy it from it with a filebrowser?

[IAmGrammy]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

This isn't a Sigil issue, but an Apple issue... Can't you just browse to your iWhatever and copy it from it with a filebrowser?

I see that you are a wizard. I am but a lowly serf. Please explain browsing to my iWhatever and copying it "from it" with a filebrowser. I'm sure you don't mean from within my iPad because you can't dance between open apps there, as you might with a laptop. Do you mean browsing to my iPad (if that is what you mean by 'iWhatever") via its connection to my laptop? If so, I've never copied with a filebrowser. Here is your chance to educate me as to how this is done.

[Faterson]

I have never understood why anyone bothers to use iTunes any longer. I haven't touched iTunes since 2011. It's just not needed for anything in relation to iDevices anymore. What iTunes is excellent at, is creating lots of headache for its users, as illustrated above. If I were you, I'd definitely forget about iTunes. That's my advice. If you need an iDevice file manager, get the free iFunBox instead. It's infinitely superior over iTunes; it's what iTunes should have been in the first place.

[IAmGrammy]

Originally Posted by Faterson

I have never understood why anyone bothers to use iTunes any longer. I haven't touched iTunes since 2011. It's just not needed for anything in relation to iDevices anymore. What iTunes is excellent at, is creating lots of headache for its users, as illustrated above. If I were you, I'd definitely forget about iTunes. That's my advice. If you need an iDevice file manager, get the free iFunBox instead. It's infinitely superior over iTunes; it's what iTunes should have been in the first place.

Hey, options, great! I love options. I'm not an iTunes loyalist; I'm game for any alternative. I'll download iFunBox and drive it around the block (and let you know if I still can't see my book in iBooks. Back in a bit to let you know. Thanks!

[IAmGrammy]

Originally Posted by Faterson

If you need an iDevice file manager, get the free iFunBox instead.

You are a rock star!

I managed to snag my book right out of Apple's tight grasp and iFunBox is so easy to use I now have the rest of my day free. (I had previously scheduled quite a large block of it to worry about this.) Thanks much!

[Faterson]

Glad you liked it; yes, it's very easy to use, compared to the convoluted navigation in iTunes. I especially like iFunBox for backing up mission-critical apps as installable IPA packages. (Because new app versions don't always work right, but iOS allows no app downgrades by default.)