Apple Book and .plists

Ken_Moorhead · 06-14-2023, 09:41 PM

Hello;

I have this working, but I am curious why it works and why it is needed.

I have an epub2 I made, and works fine in all the apps/devices I have so far tried.

But Apple Books gave me some fits; just a few!

If I dragged the book to (Apple) Books on my Mac it worked.
If I synced my iPhone and iPad with that same Mac it worked.
If I emailed it to either device the formatting fell to pieces in the Books app and all svg wrapped images failed to load.

But...

If I exported it from Books on my Mac and emailed the resulting ePub it worked in the Books app as expected.

That was a desperation move since emailing it worked for all other apps. So I used Calibre to explore what difference was. Lo and behold I found this:

iTunesMetadata.plist
iTunesMetadata-original.plist

Neither file seems to have any rending instructions in it. Indeed, the seem to contain hashes of some sort and a bit of meta-data. But without them the epubs lose all formatting except the base font -- they look a mess.

Can anyone explain to me why?

Does it have anything to do with com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml being in place?

All in all, it's easy enough to fix, but it is really annoying and a bit obscure. So, any insight would be appreciated.

TIA;
Ken

tomsem · 06-15-2023, 05:31 AM

Does it pass epubcheck?

Ken_Moorhead · 06-15-2023, 10:02 AM

I haven't tired yet. All know is it worked for my iPhone and my wife's iPhone and struck me as really really odd.

I strongly suspect it is a bug in Apple Books, which if the threads I have read are accurate, is prone to such oddities.

Ken_Moorhead · 06-15-2023, 10:06 AM

I've downloaded one of them, I haven't tried it yet. All I know is it works with my wife's iPhone as well as mine.

I strongly suspect this is a bug in Apple Books. The web is full of accounts of the odd things it will sometimes do.

That said, I was just curious if anyone had vaguest idea what Apple thought it was doing here so I know for next time. Still learning after all!

06-14-2023, 09:41 PM	#1
Ken_Moorhead Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2023 Device: Apple Books	Apple Book and .plists Hello; I have this working, but I am curious why it works and why it is needed. I have an epub2 I made, and works fine in all the apps/devices I have so far tried. But Apple Books gave me some fits; just a few! If I dragged the book to (Apple) Books on my Mac it worked. If I synced my iPhone and iPad with that same Mac it worked. If I emailed it to either device the formatting fell to pieces in the Books app and all svg wrapped images failed to load. But... If I exported it from Books on my Mac and emailed the resulting ePub it worked in the Books app as expected. That was a desperation move since emailing it worked for all other apps. So I used Calibre to explore what difference was. Lo and behold I found this: iTunesMetadata.plist iTunesMetadata-original.plist Neither file seems to have any rending instructions in it. Indeed, the seem to contain hashes of some sort and a bit of meta-data. But without them the epubs lose all formatting except the base font -- they look a mess. Can anyone explain to me why? Does it have anything to do with com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml being in place? All in all, it's easy enough to fix, but it is really annoying and a bit obscure. So, any insight would be appreciated. TIA; Ken

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06-15-2023, 05:31 AM	#2
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,742 Karma: 26974049 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	Does it pass epubcheck?

06-15-2023, 10:02 AM	#3
Ken_Moorhead Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2023 Device: Apple Books	I haven't tired yet. All know is it worked for my iPhone and my wife's iPhone and struck me as really really odd. I strongly suspect it is a bug in Apple Books, which if the threads I have read are accurate, is prone to such oddities.

06-15-2023, 10:06 AM	#4
Ken_Moorhead Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2023 Device: Apple Books	I've downloaded one of them, I haven't tried it yet. All I know is it works with my wife's iPhone as well as mine. I strongly suspect this is a bug in Apple Books. The web is full of accounts of the odd things it will sometimes do. That said, I was just curious if anyone had vaguest idea what Apple thought it was doing here so I know for next time. Still learning after all!