iOS 16.3 has deleted all my books on iPad. Lost 2000+ books.

[mrmacdi]

Hello,

Today iOS 16.3 has deleted all my books in Books App, it's now just an empty app with categories and 0 books or PDFs.
2000+ books and PDFs has gone. Collection I was creating for the past 5 years. 95% hand picked and sorted to almost 150 categories, including articles, which I've converted to PDFs and custom ePubs.
iCloud wasn't enabled for Books. I was making full backups with iTunes, but somehow Apple stopped including content from Books to backups. For third-party reader everything is backed up.
How crazy is that? Apple made AI in photos, but can't keep users data safe
Why not to:

1. Warn user when there is not enough space
2. Ask if user wants to delete something manually
3. Ask for confirmation when iOS wants to delete content in Books
4. Make a log about it! No log in my case in Privacy & Security -> Analytics & Improvements -> Analytics Data. Nothing about deleting the whole Library with books
5. Delete a few books, latest/largest
6. Backup database where I can at least see titles for further recovery!

Nothing from the list above. iOS just silently deletes all my books.
The funny part that iOS hasn't cleared caches for some apps (10Gb+ in total), instead it deleted all books. Unbelievable.

 

[mrmacdi]

Some update.
iTunes full backup is NOT backing up any books in Apple Books app, so if iCloud for Books is disabled then iOS can delete ALL your books without any prompt. So better to use third-party apps for books - their data is included in iTunes backup. In my case all books in third-party app is OK.

Definately not acceptable that Apple Deletes user data without asking.
So, my data is lost(

 

[dz5b609]

Apple doesn't delete books without asking, it also doesn't automatically delete books with asking. Deleting books to safe space isn't a thing on IOS.

Have you tried restarting your iPad? because it might just be some bug, where it doesn't show the books.

Quick google suggests doing this:

Turn off Books in iCloud on iPad​

Reboot iPad​

Turn on Books in iCloud on iPad​

Launch Books​

 

[mrmacdi]

Have you tried restarting your iPad? because it might just be some bug, where it doesn't show the books.

Sure, many times. It shows in Storage usage, that Books app has no data. So storage is not used by Books anymore.

Additionally, I've made a full backup via iTunes and I was able to retrieve current Books app database - it's empty, I can see only Categories I've made. That's all. No titles, from which it was possible to recover.

iCloud was turned off for Books, all epubs and pdfs were stored locally in Books app.

And yes, iOS has deleted my books - database is empty, so it's 100% lost.

 

[mrmacdi]

Here is the proof: Apple Books database, which was retrieved from my iPad - only iPhone manual is there, strange that it wasn't deleted as well. I went pretty low level to proove, that data has gone. Also iTunes doesn't include any books: epubs or pdfs in backup, which were added manually.

Update. iPhone manual is in iCloud, but iCloud is disabled for Books - strange.

 

[PeteBurgh]

I'm really sorry that you've lost this data, it sounds like it will be a real pain to reassemble. I've lost data before in somewhat similar ways - it's very aggravating.

That being said, I want to be blunt about something: your backup plan sucked. An important principle of any backup strategy is verification to confirm that that the data is where it should be and in a restorable form. Another is awareness that automated, mirrored backups without any kind of versioning are super dangerous, as events like accidental deletions or ransomware lockouts simply carry over to the backup.

I don't say this to let Apple off the hook. iOS is ripe for these kinds of problem in some ways, partly because of the platform's preference for 'failing silently' and not giving the user much control or visibility over background processes. Apple could and should have better solutions here. But equipment, software and users fail and/or behave unexpectedly - that's why we have backups.

So I think some responsibility falls on the user. I have a large library of PDFs that I assembled and annotated as part of my PhD and other work over many hundreds of hours. Day to day, I let them sync via iCloud, but I would never allow that to be their sole location. Lessons have been learnt from past data losses 😭. iCloud + a NAS + Backblaze, with calendar events to remind me to periodically poke around and make sure everything is there = now we're talking.

I'm sorry this happened to you. You are fully entitled to rage against the machine. But I think it's also a learning opportunity, however painful .

 

[mrmacdi]

Day to day, I let them sync via iCloud, but I would never allow that to be their sole location. Lessons have been learnt from past data losses 😭. iCloud + a NAS + Backblaze, with calendar events to remind me to periodically poke around and make sure everything is there = now we're talking.

I'm sorry this happened to you. You are fully entitled to rage against the machine. But I think it's also a learning opportunity, however painful .

Thank you. For sure, it will be hard to recover all articles and books. Good news that I was able to recover titles from a 6 months old backup, no books there, but at least there are titles, so I can start recovering. The past 6 months are gone, that's 99%.
Previosly, iTunes was backing up all data during the full backup, so I was confident enough it wouldn't stop doing it without any pop up. I have a third-party book app, that I was previosly using on a regular base for many years, and it's being backed up with all books by iTunes for the past 7 years (I have a separate backup, no new books there, so don't need to update the backup), this old app wasn't updated by a developer for many years,but it survived 6-7 major iOS updates, but then I've decided to switch to Apple Books app and add new books in it.🤦‍♂️
I do backup iCloud photos to several independent locations, because photos can't be re-downloaded from web if it's lost during iCloud bug etc. But Apple again makes things unconvinient for users: when iCloud Photos are enabled, Photos app on macOS doesn't let you to select which photos to download for a backup - pre-iCloud era it was possible to connect iPhone and Photos app showed new photos, click import and new photos are backed to a local stotage, where you can make as many copies as you want.

 

[Mr Todhunter]

I can feel your pain and I’m sorry. Once you’ve reassebled everything make sure to backup on an external HD. I use iMazing and never trust iCloud for any of my data (which includes 4061 books). Trusting iCloud only is a very bad idea. Anyway, good luck.

 

[baking soda]

lol Apple, collecting failures after failures. Their software is utter trash. I wish you could sue them or something

 

[PeteBurgh]

Good news that I was able to recover titles from a 6 months old backup

I'm pleased to hear that - a start at least! I hope it goes well.

 

[PeteBurgh]

lol Apple, collecting failures after failures. Their software is utter trash. I wish you could sue them or something

There's no such thing as software that never fails, just as there's no such thing as a car that never breaks down. Whatever the platform - iOS, Android, Windows, whatever - thousands of data loss incidents occur every day.

But we get to choose how to respond - we can moan and say 'lol Apple sucks', or we can prepare. Back-ups will always be an essential part of computing.

 

[marlman]

I always remember being told a long time ago that if you data or valuable info if not in at least three locations then it does not really exist!

I keep mine on the device that is I use it on, a cloud storage account and an external hard drive that is not attached to anything.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Sure, many times. It shows in Storage usage, that Books app has no data. So storage is not used by Books anymore.

Additionally, I've made a full backup via iTunes and I was able to retrieve current Books app database - it's empty, I can see only Categories I've made. That's all. No titles, from which it was possible to recover.

iCloud was turned off for Books, all epubs and pdfs were stored locally in Books app.

And yes, iOS has deleted my books - database is empty, so it's 100% lost.

Interesting. I have 300-400 books but I have iCloud turned on. I love dropping a pdf into my Mac’s book app and having it instantly available on all my apple devices.

You’d think with iCloud Books turned off that the iTunes backup would have backed up the books.

Just checked : My iCloud phone backup doesn’t back up books but Books shows storage used in iCloud storage for me because I have that on.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[floral]

That sounds like a LOT of books to redownload... one by one... yikes.

 

[mrmacdi]

Interesting. I have 300-400 books but I have iCloud turned on. I love dropping a pdf into my Mac’s book app and having it instantly available on all my apple devices.

You’d think with iCloud Books turned off that the iTunes backup would have backed up the books.

Just checked : My iCloud phone backup doesn’t back up books but Books shows storage used in iCloud storage for me because I have that on.

Sorry for your loss.

Yes, when you do iCloud backup and iCloud for Apple Books is enabled, then Books are kept in only, let's say, iCloud Drive/Books and not included in iCloud Device backups, otherwise it will be duplicating info.

 

[mrmacdi]

That sounds like a LOT of books to redownload... one by one... yikes.

A lot of books were also converted from other formats. Plus in PDFs I've had a lot of articles, regular and converted.
I'm not giving up and examining my iPad - trying to find more recent info.

 

[mrmacdi]

That sounds like a LOT of books to redownload... one by one... yikes.

With a list of titles it's not that hard That's why I'm trying to extract as much info as possible, so I will know exactly what to download.

 

[BigMcGuire]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/some-iphone-users-complain-of-icloud-backup-issues-after-updating-to-ios-16-3.2380084/

Interesting timing on this. I wonder if this had any impact?

 

[mrmacdi]

I wonder if this had any impact?

For me it's more related to the new Advanced Protection feature for iCloud, which brings end-to-end encryption. It's huge upgrade for how iCloud is working under the hood, so more bugs will come.

Some update for books recovery: I was backing up books/articles, which I was downloading/making, so less to re-download/search.
Still trying to go as deep as possible in iOS to find books data for the past six months, which is missing. BTW some books/articles during this perios are alive at my backup location Not so bad, but very time consuming But I enjoy the research

 

[MrWillie]

I have One Drive, 200 GB iCloud, and a real NAS drive (multi drive, mirrored).

I work out of the cloud, nothing important is kept on a device.

I don’t do backups. I pull photos off of iCloud every so often, delete the junk ones, save the rest to the NAS.

You can steal, damage, or wipe any device I own, anytime, and I can replace it and drive on. I learned a long time ago to never trust “backups” Keep copies of your files individually..

 

[Reeneman]

You were installing it in a wrong way.
It’s not a bug it’s a feature called storage clearing.

 

[mrmacdi]

a real NAS drive (multi drive, mirrored).

Will it survive multiple drives failure? NAS at home + backup at other location looks more solid.

You were installing it in a wrong way.
It’s not a bug it’s a feature called storage clearing.

Deleting users data is the bug, that's for sure. Proper storage cleaning should involve cleaning caches/temp and offloading apps, but only which are available at App Store and not deleting data.

 

[MrWillie]

Will it survive multiple drives failure? NAS at home + backup at other location looks more solid.

Of course. You can steal the NAS, and I would purchase a new one, pick up my off location drive, populate the new NAS with its data.

The only thing that I would do differently is I would purchase a two drive, instead of a four drive NAS. I only bought a four drive unit for future expansion, but that will probably never happen.

I’ve been burned with the conventional method of backing up in the past, never again. I’m only interested in data, not the OS and applications. So buy a new device, install a couple of applications, and bam, it’s all there. Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, it doesn’t matter.

 

[mlody]

Of course. You can steal the NAS, and I would purchase a new one, pick up my off location drive, populate the new NAS with its data.

The only thing that I would do differently is I would purchase a two drive, instead of a four drive NAS. I only bought a four drive unit for future expansion, but that will probably never happen.

I’ve been burned with the conventional method of backing up in the past, never again. I’m only interested in data, not the OS and applications. So buy a new device, install a couple of applications, and bam, it’s all there. Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, it doesn’t matter.

I would never call NAS (no matter what kind) a good backup solution. A good backup solution is the one that is not available 24/7 and is at rest. Otherwise, your data is still at risk of being infected with malware or viruses and exposed to data corruption.

 

[MrWillie]

I would never call NAS (no matter what kind) a good backup solution. A good backup solution is the one that is not available 24/7 and is at rest. Otherwise, your data is still at risk of being infected with malware or viruses and exposed to data corruption.

I disagree. A good backup solution is available 24/7 and accessible from anywhere in the world. If I need access to data, I need access.

Virus on my drive ? Simple solution. I stop by Bubba’s Hard Drive and Bait Shop, buy two new drives, pick up my populated drive that is stored offsite, remove old drives, install the offsite drive and a new drive, populate the new drive, do my routine data maintenance, replace the new drive with new drive #2 and populate.

I would then drill three or four holes through the old drives and toss them in the dumpster.

The keys are RAID 1, use a prosumer NAS such as Synology or Qnap (these are two that I have positive experience with), proper data management, and a third drive that is routinely swapped. If you’re really concerned, the third drive is kept off sight.

I’ve been burned in the past by Time Machine and another service that I signed up with an email account that I no longer had access to, and they wanted to verify who I was through email, even though I was using the correct user name and complex password. (Yes, I know, my fault.)