iCloud Sync keeps your library the same on every Mac, iPhone and iPad signed in to your Apple Account. It uses your own iCloud storage; there is no BookShelves account to create.
Important: iCloud Sync is part of BookShelves Pro. Without Pro, your library stays on the device you imported it on.
Before you start
On every device you want to sync:
- Sign in to iCloud with the same Apple Account.
- Turn on iCloud Drive.
- Make sure there’s room in your iCloud storage for your books.
Turn it on
- Open Settings > Storage (on a Mac: BookShelves > Settings, Storage tab).
- Turn on iCloud Sync.
- Confirm the move. BookShelves copies your books to iCloud Drive and shows its progress.
- Restart BookShelves when it asks you to. On a Mac it quits by itself; on iPhone and iPad, close the app and open it again.
Turn it on the same way on each of your devices. The setting belongs to each device; it doesn’t switch on everywhere at once.
If the switch is greyed out, the device isn’t signed in to iCloud.
What syncs
- Your books, both the files and their details, including titles, authors and covers you edited.
- Reading position.
- Highlights, notes and bookmarks.
- Shelves, including shelves inside shelves, and tags.
- Ratings, favorites and read status.
- Saved OPDS catalogs, including their logins.
- Library and reader preferences such as theme, font and sort order.
What stays on each device
- Whether iCloud Sync is on.
- The storage mode and the books you chose to keep on the device.
- Text size, line spacing, margins, paragraph spacing, justification and two-page layout. Screens differ, so each device keeps its own.
- The Mac’s OPDS server and Calibre Wireless Server settings.
When it syncs
Changes are sent to iCloud as you make them, and your other devices pick them up in the background. BookShelves also checks for changes each time you bring it to the front.
To sync right away, open Settings > Storage and tap Sync Now under Sync Status. The same section shows Up to date, what it’s doing, or the last error. On the Mac and iPad a Syncing with iCloud… line appears at the bottom of the sidebar while work is in progress; on iPhone it appears under the library title.
Where the books are kept
With iCloud Sync on, your book files live in BookShelves’ own iCloud Drive folder. It’s managed by the app, so you won’t see it in Finder or the Files app. To choose which books also stay on each device, see Storage and Offline Reading.
Turn it off
Turn off iCloud Sync in Settings > Storage. BookShelves copies your books back to the device and asks what to do with the copies in iCloud:
- Migrate and Keep in iCloud leaves them there for your other devices.
- Migrate and Remove from iCloud deletes them from iCloud, and so from every device that syncs.
Restart BookShelves afterwards, as when turning it on.
Having trouble? See Sync Problems.