There are several ways to get books into BookShelves. They all end up in the same library, and a book you import on one device appears on your others when iCloud Sync is on.
BookShelves reads EPUB, KEPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW, AZW3, FB2, TXT, Markdown, CBZ, CBR and CB7. Kindle formats, FB2, text and Markdown are converted to EPUB while they’re imported, and CBR and CB7 comics to CBZ. The full list is in Supported File Formats.
On a Mac
Drag and drop
Drag files from Finder onto the BookShelves window. To put them straight onto a shelf, select the shelf in the sidebar first.
The Import panel
Click + in the library toolbar, or choose File > Import… (⌘ O). Select one or more files and click Import.
You can also select a folder. BookShelves searches it and every folder inside it for books.
Open With
Right-click a book file in Finder and choose Open With > BookShelves. The file is imported into your library. To make BookShelves the default for a format, select a file, choose File > Get Info, pick BookShelves under Open with, and click Change All.
On iPhone and iPad
From inside BookShelves
Tap + in the library toolbar, then Import from Files. The file picker can reach files on the device, in iCloud Drive, and in any storage app that appears in the Files app. You can select several books at once.
From the Files app or another app
Tap a book file in the Files app, or tap the share button in Mail, Safari or a cloud storage app, and choose BookShelves in the share sheet. The book is copied into your library.
Note: The iPhone and iPad apps import files, not folders. To bring in a whole Calibre library, import it on a Mac, or browse it through Calibre’s content server as an OPDS catalog.
Import a Calibre library (Mac)
- Choose File > Import… and select the root of your Calibre library (the folder that contains
metadata.db). - The panel shows Calibre Library detected. Keep Use library metadata turned on.
- Click Import.
BookShelves takes the title, authors, tags, ISBN, publisher, language and cover from Calibre. When Calibre holds a book in several formats, you get one copy in the best format (the order is in Supported File Formats).
With Use library metadata turned off, the folder is imported like any other folder: every file becomes its own book, so a book stored as EPUB and MOBI is imported twice.
Move books over from Apple Books
EPUBs and PDFs you added to Apple Books yourself can be imported like any other file. Books bought in the Apple Books store can’t, because they’re DRM-protected (see Import Problems). How to export books from Apple Books shows where Apple Books keeps these files on a Mac.
Download from catalogs
- Discover has free public domain books from several catalogs. See Free Books in Discover.
- OPDS catalogs such as a Calibre content server or Calibre-Web can be browsed and imported from. See Add an OPDS Catalog.
What happens during import
- Duplicates are skipped. A book that matches one already in your library (same ISBN, same title and authors, or the same file) is not added again. When the import finishes, BookShelves tells you how many were new and how many were already there.
- Details are read from the file: title, authors, cover, language and so on.
- Some formats are converted, once: ebooks to EPUB, CBR and CB7 comics to CBZ. Your original file isn’t changed.
- Common problems are repaired, such as broken navigation or missing metadata, so the book displays correctly.
The free version’s limit
The free version holds up to 10 books. When an import would go past that, BookShelves imports up to the limit and then offers the upgrade. BookShelves Pro removes the limit.
Something went wrong?
See Import Problems for what each message means.