Sync bookmarks for digital books between a Mac and an iPad?

December 24, 2012 12:55 AM

I like reading books on my iPad, but I also like reading them on my Mac. Is it possible to sync bookmarks between the two?

I mostly read DRM free books if I'm going digital. If I'm going to buy a book, I like buying the book. I like the physicality of it. I like owning the BOOK. But I also find that I love reading on my Mac and my iPad.

So... when reading DRM free stuff (an epub book, for example) is there a way to sync my iBook app bookmarks on my iPhone and iPad with an app on my Mac? It's easy to sync bookmarks between the iPhone and iPad using Apple's iBooks app and iCloud. But Apple didn't make an iBooks app for the Mac.

Is there a workaround?

Yes, I know I can use an app like BookReader on my Mac, but it doesn't sync the bookmarks from iBooks on my iPad. And that's what I'm really looking for. I'd like to read on my iPad and be able to pick up later on my Mac, or vice versa.

posted by 2oh1 to computers & internet (12 answers total)

The Kindle app suite does this and you can totally read DRM free books with it.
posted by chrchr at 1:15 AM on December 24, 2012 [3 favorites]

I have a whole folder full of books on my Mac. I must be missing something obvious, because I can't even figure out how to add a book to the kindle app for Mac.
posted by 2oh1 at 9:21 AM on December 24, 2012

Email them to your Kindle address. On your iPad hit the gear icon from the main library view to see it.

This will cause your books to be stored on Amazon's servers and you will get full page, highlight, bookmark sync. You should see them under archived items on your other devices/apps.

I don't believe this info gets synced if you just copy the file over.
posted by wongcorgi at 9:44 AM on December 24, 2012

Kindle address? I registered the app at my gmail email. The books are on my Mac, not my iPad.
posted by 2oh1 at 10:04 AM on December 24, 2012

Go into your account on amazon.com and you'll see a kindle devices section for each of your devices that have a kindle app installed. Near each one you'll see a [e-mail] and that is the email address you can send books to. Note you have to send it from an email account amazon knows about and it will show up on your device.
posted by birdherder at 10:46 AM on December 24, 2012

Wow. That's really poor design. I have to email myself a book that I have on my Mac so I can open it on my Mac? Oy.
posted by 2oh1 at 2:54 PM on December 24, 2012

"The Kindle Personal Document Service can convert and deliver the following types of documents:
Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
Rich Text Format (.rtf)
HTML (.htm, .html)
Text (.txt) documents
Archived documents (zip , x-zip) and compressed archived documents
Mobi book"

Grrr! Apparently, Kindle can't do epub. So... let's try this again... When reading DRM free stuff (an epub book, for example) is there a way to sync my iBook app bookmarks on my iPhone and iPad with an app on my Mac? It's easy to sync bookmarks between the iPhone and iPad using Apple's iBooks app and iCloud. But Apple didn't make an iBooks app for the Mac.
posted by 2oh1 at 2:58 PM on December 24, 2012

You can use Calibre to convert your epubs to mobis that you could then move into the Kindle ecosystem.
posted by chazlarson at 9:00 PM on December 24, 2012

This is just crazy. I downloaded calibre, converted the file, emailed it to the @kindle.com email address. It shows as available for my iPhone or iPad but not Kindle for Mac.

On Amazon, under "Registered Kindle Reading Apps" I see my iPad, iPhone and Kindle for Mac, and there's even an email address for my iPhone and iPad, but none for Kindle For Mac.

It shows my Kindle For Mac as registered. But if I try to deliver a book to my Kindle For Mac, it shows that option as grayed out.

Ho. Lee. Crap. Such. Poor. Design.

Why on earth does Amazon create all of these extra hoops to jump through? Why can't I open the file on my Mac with the frigging Kindle on my MAC! It's nuts.
posted by 2oh1 at 9:02 PM on December 25, 2012

Oh good lord. The Kindle Personal Documents Service is not currently supported for Kindle For Mac.
posted by 2oh1 at 9:11 PM on December 25, 2012

Again, just to be clear: Kindle For Mac is not supported.
posted by 2oh1 at 9:21 PM on December 25, 2012

Even if it was bookmarks and page location is *note* synchronized between devices when using the Kindle application on iOS... i.e. between a phone and an iPad.

I have a workflow to sync bookmarks and annotations on pdf documents between multiple macs and iOS devices running Goodreader, but I don't think that this is what you are asking for.

I'm interested in other people's answers because to my understanding what you are asking for doesn't exist... and I really wish that it did.
posted by n9 at 12:06 PM on December 27, 2012