You’ve added a new book to your Mac, and you’re excited to read it on your iPhone during your commute. But when you open the Books app on your phone, the book is nowhere to be found. This happens more often than you’d think, and it’s incredibly frustrating.
Thankfully, most sync issues are easy to fix at home. This guide will walk you through why your books aren’t showing up and how to get them moving between your devices again.
What’s Happening With Your Books
Books should flow seamlessly from your Mac to your iPhone through iCloud. You add a book on one device, and within seconds, it appears on all your other devices. That’s how Apple’s ecosystem is supposed to work.
But sometimes that connection breaks down. Your Mac might be holding onto the book file without actually uploading it to iCloud. Or your iPhone might not be checking iCloud properly for new content. Either way, you end up staring at an empty library on your phone while your Mac has everything.
This problem can snowball if left unfixed. You might end up manually transferring books, duplicating files, or worse, giving up on syncing altogether and managing separate libraries. That defeats the whole purpose of having multiple Apple devices.
The frustrating part is that nothing looks broken. Your internet works fine. Both devices power on. The Books app opens without errors. Yet your content sits stubbornly on one device, refusing to budge.
Books Not Syncing From Mac to iPhone: Likely Causes
Several things can interrupt the sync process between your devices. Understanding what’s blocking your books helps you pick the right fix faster.
1. iCloud Sync is Turned Off
Your Books app needs permission to use iCloud on both devices. If either your Mac or iPhone has iCloud sync disabled for Books, nothing will transfer between them.
This often happens after system updates or when you’ve been adjusting privacy settings. Sometimes people turn it off accidentally while exploring settings and forget about it. Your devices can’t share content without this feature active on both ends.
2. Different Apple IDs on Each Device
Your Mac and iPhone must use the same Apple ID for Books to sync properly. If you’re signed into different accounts, the devices can’t communicate about your library.
This happens more than you’d expect, especially in households where people share devices or have work and personal Apple IDs. Maybe you set up your Mac with an old email address and your iPhone with a newer one. The system sees these as completely separate libraries with no reason to sync.
Even if you’re using family sharing, that won’t help here. Books specifically need the exact same Apple ID logged into the Books app and iCloud on both devices. Family sharing lets you purchase content together, but it doesn’t merge your actual book libraries across different accounts.
3. Storage Space is Running Low
If your iPhone storage is nearly full, it might reject new content from iCloud. The Books app needs space to download files, and when there’s none available, it simply won’t pull books from the cloud.
This can happen gradually as you take photos, download apps, and accumulate messages. Your phone might have had plenty of space last month, but now it’s choking. The Books app won’t warn you directly about storage issues, so the sync just silently fails.
4. Network Problems Blocking the Upload
Your Mac needs a stable internet connection to upload books to iCloud. If your WiFi is spotty or if you have restrictive firewall settings, the upload might never complete.
Sometimes the book appears to upload because you don’t see any error messages. But behind the scenes, the connection keeps dropping. Your Mac tries again later, but if the network issue persists, the book stays stuck locally.
Corporate or school networks often block certain iCloud services for security reasons. If you’re using your Mac on one of these networks, your books might not upload at all until you switch to a different connection.
5. Corrupted Book Files or App Data
Sometimes the book file itself has a problem that prevents proper syncing. Or the Books app might have corrupted temporary data that interferes with iCloud communication.
This is less common than the other causes, but it happens. Maybe the file didn’t download completely when you first got it. Perhaps there’s a formatting issue Apple’s system doesn’t like. These quirks can stop a specific book from syncing while all your other content moves just fine.
Books Not Syncing From Mac to iPhone: How to Fix
Now that you know what might be causing the issue, let’s get your books moving again. Most of these fixes take just a few minutes to try.
1. Check iCloud Settings on Both Devices
Start by making sure iCloud sync is actually turned on for Books. On your iPhone, open Settings, tap your name at the top, then choose iCloud. Scroll down and find Books. Make sure the toggle is green.
On your Mac, click the Apple menu, select System Settings, then click your name. Choose iCloud from the sidebar, then check if Books is enabled. If you see it’s off, turn it on and give it a minute to start syncing.
After enabling it on both devices, open the Books app on each one. Sometimes that simple action kicks the sync process into gear. Your books should start appearing on your iPhone within a few minutes if this was the issue.
2. Verify You’re Using the Same Apple ID
On your iPhone, go to Settings and tap your name at the very top. You’ll see your Apple ID email right there. Make a note of it.
Now check your Mac. Open System Settings, click your name, and look at the Apple ID shown. It needs to match exactly what you saw on your iPhone.
If they’re different, you’ll need to sign out of one device and sign back in with the correct account. This can be a bit involved since it affects all your iCloud data, so make sure you have your password handy. Once both devices use the same ID, give the sync a few minutes to catch up.
3. Free Up Storage Space on Your iPhone
Check how much space you have left on your iPhone. Go to Settings, tap General, then iPhone Storage. If you’re running low (under 2GB of available space), you need to clear some room.
Look through your apps and delete ones you don’t use anymore. Check your Photos app for duplicate pictures or old videos you can remove. Messages with lots of attachments can eat up space too. Clear out old conversations with photos and videos.
Once you’ve freed up a decent amount of space, go back to the Books app and pull down on the library screen to refresh it. Your books should start downloading now that there’s room for them.
4. Restart Both Devices and Your Router
A simple restart can clear up temporary glitches blocking the sync. On your iPhone, hold the side button and volume button until you see the power slider, then turn it off and back on. For your Mac, click the Apple menu and choose Restart.
While your devices are rebooting, unplug your WiFi router for about 30 seconds. This clears its memory and often fixes connection hiccups. Plug it back in and wait for the lights to stabilize.
After everything’s back online, open Books on both devices. The fresh start often resolves mysterious sync failures that don’t have an obvious cause.
5. Sign Out and Back Into iCloud
Sometimes the iCloud connection itself needs to be reset. On your iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, scroll to the bottom, and tap Sign Out. Don’t worry, your data stays safe in the cloud.
After signing out, restart your iPhone. Then sign back in using the same Apple ID. This creates a fresh connection between your device and iCloud’s servers.
Do the same on your Mac through System Settings. This process can take a few minutes because your device needs to re-download some iCloud data. But it often clears up stubborn sync problems that other fixes can’t touch.
6. Remove and Re-Add the Book
If one specific book won’t sync while others work fine, the book file itself might be the issue. On your Mac, find the problem book in your library, right-click it, and choose Delete. Then add it back to your library from wherever you originally got it.
This gives you a fresh copy of the file without any corruption or weird metadata that might block syncing. After adding it back, check your iPhone in a few minutes to see if it appears.
If multiple books won’t sync, you might need to do this for each one individually. It’s tedious, but it works when the files themselves are causing the problem.
7. Contact Apple Support
If you’ve tried everything here and your books still won’t sync, something deeper might be wrong with your iCloud account or device settings. Apple Support can run diagnostics and check things you can’t access yourself.
They can see if there’s an account issue preventing syncing or if your devices have settings that need professional adjustment. Reach out through the Apple Support app, their website, or by visiting an Apple Store. They’re equipped to handle the tricky cases that home fixes can’t solve.
Wrapping Up
Sync issues between your Mac and iPhone are annoying, but they’re usually fixable at home. Most problems come down to settings that got switched off, account mismatches, or connection hiccups that a restart can clear up.
Work through these fixes one at a time, and there’s a good chance you’ll get your books flowing again. Once everything’s working, your library will stay in sync automatically, and you can pick up your reading on whichever device is closest.