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How to share iBook collections with family members (no, not purchases or purchased books)

Is it possible to share a iBook collections (PDF's) or all of iBook with a family member? I have a one or more iBook collections I want to share with a member in our iCloud Family Sharing, but I don't see any option for that. I see you can share an individual PDF (or other item in iBook), but that will not suffice. I need to share either a collection or my entire iBook. I store a lot of documents, manuals, etc. as PDF's and I use iBook to organize it. We have Family Sharing setup and I want to use that to share iBooks. And NO, I do NOT mean purchased books. Non of what I want to share is a purchased item, it's data I create/save usually on my iPhone that I then access on my Mac/iPad as needed.

Mac Pro

Posted on Sep 12, 2022 9:10 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 13, 2022 7:07 AM

Family Sharing is designed for Apple purchases and subscriptions to Apple things (Download family members' purchases on iPhone). I think if you want to share a non-purchased item then you have to do that at a more basic level such as copying the book files from your computer library to the personal user libraries to which other people sync their phones. If you share a computer then they have to have a copy of the file in their account. They would then sync the items to their devices. At least that's how you have to do it with music files you have from non-Apple sources.


Sync books between your Mac and iPhone or iPad - Apple Support


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 13, 2022 7:07 AM in response to Tech-Goddess

Family Sharing is designed for Apple purchases and subscriptions to Apple things (Download family members' purchases on iPhone). I think if you want to share a non-purchased item then you have to do that at a more basic level such as copying the book files from your computer library to the personal user libraries to which other people sync their phones. If you share a computer then they have to have a copy of the file in their account. They would then sync the items to their devices. At least that's how you have to do it with music files you have from non-Apple sources.


Sync books between your Mac and iPhone or iPad - Apple Support


Sep 13, 2022 9:03 AM in response to Tech-Goddess

Apple doesn't explain why but one line of reasoning is it might ultimately have to do with many media items being under copyright. If you are buying it from Apple then they know the initial distribution (namely you the purchaser) and that you sharing it is allowed under the Apple system. If you have something that originates outside the Apple media market system then you should easily be able to get a copy from the original source onto whatever device is used to then sync to your i-whatevers. Additionally, the company doesn't really profit by going the extra step supporting distribution of media that does nor originate with them. They don't stop you but you have to do it certain ways.

How to share iBook collections with family members (no, not purchases or purchased books)

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