If you’re fond of reading e-Books, then you’re most likely using Apple’s very own e-reader called the Apple Books (formerly iBooks) on your iPhone. With Apple Books, you can explore from a wide range of books collection based on categories, titles, and authors. Apple Books is the new and improved iBooks thus it’s expected to offer more and better features than the prior version.
To take advantage of the advanced Apple Book features, you can use the Books app on your iPhone with the latest iOS version. All you have to do is launch the Books app, navigate through the tabs at the bottom of the app and start downloading books to read, listen to audiobooks, or organize your library. A stable Internet connection is likewise needed for all these actions to be carried out. In case you will encounter some troubles using Apple Books or iBooks on your iPhone XR, you can refer to the outlined solutions below. Read on for more information.
First solution: Refresh your Wi-Fi internet connection.
Apple Books may not be able to work as intended if your iPhone is having some problems with the Internet connection. In this case, you will usually be prompted with a pertinent error message. To fix the problem, you can restart and refresh the Wi-Fi internet connection on your phone. There are many ways for you to refresh Wi-Fi internet connection on your iPhone. And they are as follow:
- Turn Wi-Fi off and then on again. This method refreshes your iPhone’s wireless Internet connection. To do this, go to Settings-> Wi-Fi menu, then tap the switch to turn Wi-Fi off and then back on again.
- Toggle Airplane Mode on and off. This method gives a quick restart on the phone’s wireless radios and clears out random problems affecting wireless functions of the phone. To do so, head over to Settings-> Airplane Mode menu, then toggle the switch to turn Airplane Mode ON and then tap to turn it OFF again.
- Reset network settings. Network problems particularly those attributed to invalid network configurations are generally rectified by this reset. To do this, head over to Settings-> General-> Reset menu, then choose the option to Reset network settings. Your iPhone will reboot automatically when the reset is finished and then loads the default network options.
Wait for the phone to boot up then reconnect to your Wi-Fi network to get back online and use online services including Apple Books.
Second solution: Force close Books app then reboot your iPhone XR.
The problem could also be due to some minor glitches on the Books app. Minor app glitches are usually taken care of by forcing the errant app to close and then restart. So here’s what you can try next:
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and then pause slightly in the middle.
- Then swipe right or left to locate Apple Books or iBooks app card/preview.
- Swipe up on the Apple Books/iBooks app preview to close it.
You can also clear out all other running apps to prevent them from causing conflict to the Books app. After clearing out all background apps, restart or soft reset your iPhone XR. This is often needed to dump junk files from the phone’s internal memory including corrupted caches and temporary data affecting the Books app. Here’s how to soft reset your iPhone XR:
- Press and hold the Power button and the Volume Up button on the side of your phone for a few seconds or until the Power Off slider appears.
- Drag the slider to turn off the phone.
- After about 30 seconds, press and hold the Power button on the top of your phone for a few seconds.
Wait until your phone is finished rebooting and then retry loading Books app when it’s connected to the Internet.
Third solution: Log out and back into your Apple/iCloud account.
Account-related issues are also among the factors that can cause Books and other Apple apps to act up randomly. To rule this out, logging out and back into your iCloud account can help. Here’s how it’s done:
- From the Home screen, tap on Settings.
- Tap on [Your Name] then scroll down and tap Sign Out.
- If prompted, enter your Apple ID password and tap Turn Off. You can turn on the data that you want to keep a copy of on your phone.
- Tap Sign Out twice to confirm that you want to sign out of iCloud.
After successfully signing out, restart your iPhone and then sign into your iCloud account again.
To do this, just go back to your iPhone Settings-> iCloud menu and then follow the onscreen instructions to log back into your account.
You can also try setting up a new iCloud account. Before you do, you need to remove the existing iCloud account from your iPhone first and then add the new account from Settings-> iCloud menu. This could help fix the problem if erratic account is to blame.
Also ensure that iCloud Drive is enabled on your iPhone XR. Apple’s iCloud Drive is vital in terms of keeping all your documents including Files and iBooks up-to-date and accessible across all your devices. To use iCloud Drive, an iCloud account is needed. And to get started using iCloud Drive, you have to enable it first on your iPhone XR. To check and ensure that iCloud Drive is enabled, follow these steps:
- Tap Settings from the Home screen.
- Tap on the Apple ID header.
- Tap iCloud.
- Scroll down and tap the switch next to iCloud Drive to enable the feature, if needed.
If your iCloud Drive storage is shrinking, you can add storage space by upgrading and availing for a storage plan.
For missing books, you can access your hidden purchases and see if they’re in there. To view missing iCloud books, follow these steps to unhide iCloud Books on your iPhone XR:
- Open iBooks/Apple Books on your phone.
- Tap the Reading Now icon at the bottom.
- Tap the option to Manage Hidden Purchases.
- If prompted, enter your Apple ID password.
Then scroll to find the book you want to use and tap Unhide to make it visible in your iBooks library again.
Fourth solution: Update your iPhone software to the latest version available.
Malwares and bugs that caused Apple services to stop working are often resolved by an update. If it’s a widespread issue, then Apple will likely fix the required patch code through minor update. You can check for new OTA updates if your iPhone is connected to the Internet. Here’s how:
- Tap Settings from the Home screen.
- Select General.
- Tap on Software Update.
An update notification pops up if a new iOS version is available. Read and review the message then follow the onscreen instructions to download and install new update whenever you’re ready.
After updating, reboot your iPhone to apply the recent system changes and to refresh its memory.
Fifth solution: Offload or Delete Books on your iPhone XR.
The Books app might have been totally corrupted and thus it’s still not working. At this point, your next option would be to either Offload or Delete the application. Here’s how:
- From the Home screen, tap Settings.
- Select General.
- Tap iPhone Storage.
- Scroll down and tap Books from the list of apps.
- Then tap Offload App to free up space by clearing the app data. If you wish to delete the app and all its related data, then select the option to Delete App instead.
- Once you’re done offloading or deleting Books app, restart/soft reset your iPhone.
- Then go back to the Settings-> General-> iPhone Storage menu and tap Books.
- Tap the option to Reinstall App.
Restart your iPhone after reinstalling Books then open the app and see if the problem is gone.
Other options
You may opt to carry out a full system reset or restore your iPhone XR in iTunes if none of the prior methods is able to fix iBooks or Apple Books on your iPhone. There might be some major system errors that need to be cleared out so as to make iBooks working properly on your device. In this case, you can start with a factory reset through settings. Otherwise, use iTunes to perform a standard system restore or restore your iPhone via recovery or DFU mode. A more detailed walkthrough on how to perform a recovery mode restore and DFU mode restore is outlined on the iPhone XR Tutorials section from this site’s Troubleshooting page. Feel free to refer to the step-by-step guide whenever you need help in the process.
For other recommendations and more advanced solutions, you may contact Apple Support. Let them know exactly of what has happened or how and when iBooks or Apple Books stopped working on your iPhone XR.
I hope that we’ve been able to help you fix the problem with your device. We would appreciate it if you helped us spread the word so please share this post if you found it helpful. Thank you so much for reading!