The iPad has been shoved down our throats as an excellent way to read books and for the most part I agree. One of the things I don’t agree with however is having to purchase all of my books through Apple’s iBookStore. I have a large library of DRM free ePub books and many more are available on the web free and legally if you know where to look. If you too have a large library of ePub formatted eBooks you would like to get onto your iPad, read on!
Here’s how to download a DRM free ePub formatted ebook and get it onto your iPad for reading through iBooks.
1. Download the ePub title and save it on your desktop. I like to use a site called Epubbooks. Download the book to a spot that’s easy to locate.
2. Launch iTunes and select Add to Library… from the File menu.
3. Select the eBook you downloaded and click the Choose button.
4. Back in iTunes, select Books from the list of libraries on the left. Your book is now listed as part of your library, you’re halfway there.
5. Now, connect your iPad to the computer and select it from the list of devices on the left.
6. Click to select the Books tab.
7. Check the Sync Books checkbox if it isn’t already enabled. If All books is selected then all your Books will be transferred to the iPad. If Selected books is selected then you will need to look below for the newly added Book and check the checkbox next to its title. Now click the Apply or Sync button at the bottom right of the window.
You may receive a warning that this will erase all the books on your iPad if this is your first iBooks sync. Click the Sync Books button.
8. Once the sync has completed you can open iBooks on your iPad to read your newly transferred title.
*Note: If you do not have iBooks on your iPad you can download it free from the App Store.
That was fantastically easy with your clear instructions and screen prints! Thanks Guru!
great, I’m glad!
Any way of doing this without iTunes?
Yep.
http://www.theipadguru.com/2010/07/06/import-download-drm-free-epub-books-to-ipad-no-computer/
Thanks
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Step 7 is missing instructions regarding what to do if this IS the first time you have synced. The instructions say,
“You may receive a warning that this will erase all the books on your iPad if this is your first iBooks sync. Click the Sync Books button.”
But what should one do if this IS the first time – and you don’t want the books on your Ipad erased? (and, on my system, the message says it will erase books, songs, movies and tv shows)
Thank you for this tutorial!
I have the opposite problem. I’ve downloaded all my library directly to IPad from the free epub sorses, now I have new IPad2 and don’t know how to transfer old library to the new IPAd2.
Hi guru, wanna say thank you and greetings from the netherlands
Question …… I follow this and put 1 book on my iPad, now its fllashing ( my iPad). Hè Aude of ?? Do you know this problem?
Transferred first book (epub) to ipad as per instructions easy to follow thanks, however now ipad(2) says cannot recognise the format. Any suggestions?
OK, I have them (purchased epub formatted books) loaded on my iPad2 but I get a “Book Format Error” when I attemp to open them on the iPad.
Thanks for this article, it was very helpful and it worked like a charm
All my epub books imported just as you showed.. Thanks again!!
-wclang
Simplest way to transfer epub to iPad is as follows: 1. Download epub from sites you know 2. Email the epub file to yourself (eg. GMail) – do not zip or rar it 3. Open up the email in your iPad, and click on the attachment (the epub file) 4. Choose “Open in iBook” and that’s it. No need iTunes sync for that.
Thank you for the help. I haven’t actually got it all working yet, but I’m part way through the process and have now stopped to update my iPod software!
I have a huge library of epub books purchased to read on my Sony eReader. Delighted that I can now read them on my iPad or iPod too with the iBooks app.
Another shortcut if, like me, you already have the epub files on your computer hard drive:
open the folder with the epub files
open itunes and click on books
drag and drop the files into itunes
sync with ipod/ipad (follow instructions above to make sure books are set to sync)
I’m off to read some books…
Thanks all!
I have done all these steps and I cannot open an epub DRM free book from my iPad.
I like to save lots of annotations on the books I read, for which the Kindle and Kindle for Mac are ideal. I also like to know that my annotations are backed up. These are the steps to get an EPUB book onto Kindle platforms. Bit of a palaver, but it works…
1. Save the EPUB version to your Mac.
2. Use Calibre (free/shareware application) to convert the EPUB file to MOBI.
3. Email the MOBI file to the Kindle address given to you as part of your Kindle registration by Amazon.
4. It is then available as a User Document on the Kindle device and on Kindle for iPad, though not yet (December 2011) Kindle for Mac. Annotations will be backed up and shared between the capable platforms.
This is great information and I downloaded into the Ipad but when I try to open the book it says that it cannot read the format. It is Epub format for the Sony reader. Please help – what do I do now?????
Thank you for the tutorial. I was able to import all of my books except a few. And those are the ones I want to ask you about.
I have about five books that I actually purchased for my old e-reader, which died. I would like to put them onmy iPad. But when I try! I get a message that the books are protected by an incompatible technology.
I really don’t want to purchase them again. Do you have any suggestions how to get them on my iPad?
Ah – good questions. I stupidly forgot to say that my experience with this is with free books such as Google books from pre-copyright editions. I don’t know how to get round the DRM problems you mention.
I agree it is really annoying to have to pay again for a book you have already bought. I wish I had a simple answer.
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There is no “choose” button as described in step #3. Is this a different iOS your describing?
Great thanks for your help. Loving to get my “downloaded” book to my ipad
These instructions were great! Thank you!
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