Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia iTunes, iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV iPAD Books & PDFs Missing

I turned on my iPAD today and all the files and books in the iBOOKS app have disappeared. These were not intentionally deleted and all were there in their expected places yesterday . . . they just seem to have gone into hiding (??). When I click on the "Collections" tab, all the category folders remain - however, empty. These books and files were/are not stored in iCLOUD. The storage usage metre on the iPAD has not changed - that is, "available storage" has not increased - so I presume these PDFs and books still are somewhere on the iPAD.

Any ideas as to what has happened? Any advice as to how I might "find" these again on the iPAD?

First be re-assured your books are no permanently lost, Apple remembers what you purchased and they can be downloaded again without charge.

Second: assuming you backup your iPad either to iCloud or to a computer, as all wise users should, you can restore them from there.

iOS and iPadOS files are stored in one of two possible locations either Encapsulated within the application itself or on iCloud in a folder with the same name as the Application. So just to be sure, in Books there are three places books can be found, Books your are reading now, your Library, and the Book Store. Within the Library you find Collections and the number of books in each collection. I know this is elementary, but be sure you have selected a collection that has some books in it. It is an easy mistake to make.

If everything still indicates no Books then go to Settings > General > iPad Storage > Books touch the > symbol and you will find two listings…

1. The App Size (36.8 MB on my iPhone)
2. Documents & Data (Books stored on your iPad)

The space is occupied by Documents & Data is the best indicator of books physically stored on your iPad.

1. If the Documents & Data size is very small or zero that would indicate that by some mischance they have been deleted or lost. In that case your best and easiest recovery method is to restore your iPad from the last backup following these Apple instructions.
2. If it appears your documents have been lost and you do not have a backup then your only option is to be sure you are logged on with the same Apple ID and password you used to obtain the books in the first place and download them from the Apple Book Store once again.
3. If the size for Documents & Data indicates the books are still present on your iPad and you are running iPad OS 14.x or 15 then in Settings > General > iPad Storage > Books choose the option to Offload App and when that completes choose the Restore App option that appears. DO NOT DELETE THE APP as that will also delete any data. (This worked for me on more than one occasion.)

Let us know what happens.

Thanks for the response.

The books on my iPAD have not been backed-up in iCLOUD or in iTUNES. There is no iTUNES app in the desktop, as far as I can see. There is a MUSIC app, however. With it, there was no option for me to back-up the books or files to my computer from the iPAD. When I "choose restore" my iPAD, I get a warning that only the settings, contacts, etc. will be restored. Files and books are not backed-up, as far as I can tell. I did the "restore" and the iPAD re-booted as expected. Photos and music, all still there. However, again no books and PDFs.

When I open the MUSIC app with my iPAD connected to the computer, there are no books showing. Only a couple of documents. Alternatively, when I click on the iPAD in the "Locations" portion of the Finder Sidebar, there are 10 tabs across the top. I can view the contents under each tab. The photos show on the Photos tab. Music shows up on the Music tab. Books show up with the Books tab . . . BUT these are "greyed out" and I cannot do anything except view the list. 16GB are showing as used for Documents & Data (which, I presume includes the books and documents). All of the books and PDF originally transferred to the iPAD came from other sources, so cannot be retrieved from the Apple Bookstore.

So . . . I am stumped.

Up until yesterday, everything was just fine. IPAD II with 9.3.5. I realize this iPAD is a dinosaur - and the iOS cannot be updated further - but there was no issue at all with the books which I read yesterday. Only when I turned on the device this morning, the books and PDFs could not be found using the iBOOKS app.

It is not the end of the world because the files and books are on the computer in the folders where these were originally downloaded/created. If I want to go to the trouble, I could transfer these again from the computer to the iPAD. I just am just puzzled as to where the books/PDFs went from last use last night to first use this morning . . . and if there is a way to re-access on the iPAD without having to transfer these items again from the computer.

iTunes and iBooks are obsolete, having been replaced with Music (which is more narrowly focused on — music) and Books. In macOS, Finder has taken over the backup role for iPads and iPhones that used to be in iTunes. (Simply connect the iPad to the computer with a USB cable then open Finder and Violá your iPad appears click on it and you are asked if it is okay to connect. After that backups are automatic every time you connect). iCloud backups are even easier, simply turn it on in settings then leave your iPad charging overnight. Unfortunately my instructions were based on more recent versions of iOS/iPadOS and macOS and I don't have resources to dial back to whatever version you have to use as an example and incompatibility rears its ugly head when iOS/iPadOS and macOS versions get too far apart in time.

The remove and reinstall I suggest might work, but isn't available in your version of iOS. I would suggest taking the iPad to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store but the iPad 2 is officially obsolete and no longer supported so they would not help you (at least officially). Even removing iBooks and re-installing it runs a substantial risk that a compatible version of iBook or Books may not be available on the iOS App Store for reinstallation.

In other words: I have nothing to offer in the way of a solution.

Thanks, again, for the response. You gave it more than "the ol' college try."

I transferred e-books and PDFs from the computer to the iPAD last night. This morning when I turned on the iPAD - Who knew I was so seductive? - those "new" books I added still were there. It is a mystery to me as to where the previous collection went. Poof! Some little hiccup, I guess, since the iBOOKS app appears to be working as usual today.


P.S. Thanks for the tip/warning about NOT deleting the iBOOKS app. I imagine there would be little (read: zero) chance - of downloading and reinstalling it again.