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Import pdf to Books fails

I cannot import pdf files to Books anymore. The import fails. “Importing 0 of 3. Failed: 0”

How can I resolve this issue?

iOS 15.5 iPhone 7+.

I am logged in to iCloud, and have ample storage on my phone & on iCloud.

iPhone 7 Plus

Posted on Jun 13, 2022 6:15 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 30, 2022 3:27 PM

Ok, I’ve discovered the following that may be helpful to those experiencing this issue:


  1. You can save the pdf to “files” and view it there.
  2. If you try to import a pdf to Books and it doesn’t work, you can swipe up from the bottom (I’m on an iPhone X) and close out all the open apps, then go back to Books and the pdf will SOMETIMES be there.
  3. If you save the pdf to Files, you can open it and try saving it to Books from there. This also works some of the time! If the pdf doesn’t appear in Books, close all your open apps and check again as described above. Again, this only seems to work some of the time! Very frustrating!
8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 30, 2022 3:27 PM in response to jackieann01

Ok, I’ve discovered the following that may be helpful to those experiencing this issue:


  1. You can save the pdf to “files” and view it there.
  2. If you try to import a pdf to Books and it doesn’t work, you can swipe up from the bottom (I’m on an iPhone X) and close out all the open apps, then go back to Books and the pdf will SOMETIMES be there.
  3. If you save the pdf to Files, you can open it and try saving it to Books from there. This also works some of the time! If the pdf doesn’t appear in Books, close all your open apps and check again as described above. Again, this only seems to work some of the time! Very frustrating!

Aug 2, 2022 4:56 AM in response to jackieann01

I was having the same problem (also with epubs as well as pdfs).

I went to Settings > Books > Online Content and Privacy and clicked on "Reset Access to Online Content"

This seems to have fixed the problem for now.


I also turned on a setting that says something about downloading from other devices.


I download everything directly to my ipad (not to icloud) and wondered if that might be related, so before I did the above in settings I moved the file I wanted to icloud and tried to download from there.


Somewhere in the midst of changing each of the above and then checking in Books, the download appeared and when I tried another file it no longer said "Importing Failed" . . . so something worked . . . or it was just waiting and opening and closing like another responder indicated.

In any case, I agree it's frustrating and that no matter what options I choose it sometimes doesn't seem to work, . . . and it certainly doesn't work as seamlessly as it should!! . . . but the above are a few other things to try.


And if anyone actually knows what each of these various settings is SUPPOSED to do (and whether it might be related to this bug) please let us know!

Aug 2, 2022 7:05 AM in response to jackieann01

I have had this happen to me too. If I go to the message “Importing 0 of3. Failed: 0”.

solution that worked for me.

First make sure your wifi is connected. If you don’t have wifi, you may have to wait until you do…. Then, click on that message and it will go to the upload to the cloud and will start the process. All three of the pdfs should complete the process of converting to pdf and loading to iBooks. The only true “fail” will show as “Failed:1”

I hope this helps.

Import pdf to Books fails

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