Removing inappropriate PDFs from iBooks index on Mac

Question

Level 1

61 points

Removing inappropriate PDFs from iBooks index on Mac

Is there any way to clean up iBooks from all the inappropriate PDF's, I have SEVERAL THOUSAND PDF documents from Recipe's to Genealogical images and their translation, that should not be in this file. What is even more irritating is that it also picks up any PDF document from several USB drives I occassionally use. The only place I note is 'Delete from this machine' capability and that is not what I want I just want the out of the PDF index.

If this is not possible, I will just have to somehow get rid of iBooks though it is the only app of its type I have access to.

WGB

p.s. this totally invalidates the primary index as absolutely unusable.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: ibooks major problem

iMac 24″, macOS 15.4

Posted on Jul 28, 2025 7:23 PM

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Answer 1

muguy

Level 10

91,100 points

Jul 29, 2025 11:23 PM in response to Sparkgapper

Drag and drop the PDFs from iBooks to wherever you wish. That will copy the files. You can then remove the PDFs from iBooks. This will take minutes, not days. PDFs are only added to iBooks if you add each into iBooks.

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Answer 2

muguy

Level 10

91,100 points

Jul 28, 2025 8:04 PM in response to Sparkgapper

I would drag the pdfs from iBooks to a different folder location, then delete the pdfs in iBooks. Pdfs in iBooks are those that you have added.

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Answer 3

Sparkgapper Author

Level 1

61 points

Jul 29, 2025 6:38 PM in response to muguy

As I said before theiBook file states, REMOVE FROM COMPUTER, which would be a horrendous loss as I have somewhere above 500 images in pdf format. There are also about the same amount in JPG format and both are in pages documents where I transcribed some of them where needed, most genealogical documents.

It would take several days to put all of them on a 1T USB stick to be able to recover them later BUT what happens when iBook finds that USB, like it has the other I use, and puts the right back into its PDF file.

I think iBooks needs to be updated with something about what PDF's are to be noted on it or if that is impossible, the total removal of that PDF hunt capability.

WGB

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Answer 4

Sparkgapper Author

Level 1

61 points

Jul 28, 2025 7:25 PM in response to Sparkgapper

That is supposed to be

iMac 24″, macOS 15.5

not 4 as I am up to date on updates.

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Removing inappropriate PDFs from iBooks index on Mac

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