fixed : share EPUB (with digital watermark) accross Books.app on iPhone, iPad and Mac

Posted on 06-03-2024 by MacManus.nl

Question :
I want to purchase an eBook that is not available in Apple Books. I have found it is available on the website of a bookstore in EPUB (with digital watermark) version. It seems like I should be able to download it after purchase and then read it in Books.app on my iPad or iPhone, but is it also possible to read it in the Books.app on my Mac ?

How do I do that ?

Answer :

Yes, you can buy an EPUB (with digital watermark) [ a.k.a. EPUB with social DRM ] and then read it on Apple’s Books.app on either iPhone, iPad or Mac. To do that, do this :

NOTE : if you buy an eBook on Amazon, it will only be available in the Kindle.app (that will automatically sync across your devices also), but getting a Kindle eBook into Apple’s Books.app is problematic… so if you prefer to read all your eBooks in Books.app, avoid buying eBooks on Amazon.

first, make sure that you are logged into your iCloud account on your iPhone, your iPad and your Mac (with the same iCloud account)
on your iPhone (or iPad) go to the online bookstore that sells the eBook in EPUB (with or without personal watermark or Social DRM)
purchase the eBook
when the download link appear, click on it
now the eBook will be downloaded to the Files.app on your iPhone (or iPad), which means it will be visible on the Desktop of your Mac also (which is automatically synced in iCloud)
now, on your iPhone (or iPad), click on the eBook in the Files.app and choose “open in Books”
now, the eBook will open in Books.app and is ready for reading
it will stay in the Library of your Books.app
if you have iCloud syncing switched on (most of us have) the eBook will now be available for reading in Books.app on your iPhone, your iPad and your Mac
if the eBook is not showing up on all devices, recheck in Settings.app if iCloud-syncing is switched on for Books.app
if you want to manually add the eBook to your iPhone or iPad, do this :
- – open the Files.app and find the eBook
- – click on the eBook and choose “Open in Books”
- – then wait for the eBook to open in Books.app
- if you want to manually add the eBook to your Mac, do this :
- – on your Mac, find the eBook on your Desktop (or in the Desktop folder)
- – Option-click (right-click) on the eBook icon
- – from the pulldown menu that appears, choose Open With > Books
- – now wait for the eBook to open in Books.app

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : Nintendo Switch can’t see iPhone’s Personal Hotspot

Posted on 02-05-2023 by MacManus.nl

Question :

I am on holiday and since there is no WiFi-internet here, I would like to connect my Nintendo Switch to my iPhone’s unlimited internet plan by connecting to it’s WiFi using the Personal Hotspot feature in iOS. But if I have Personal Hotspot turned on, my Switch can’t see it… even if I can connect to the Personal Hotspot from another iPhone.

What is wrong ?

Answer :

There’s an easy fix for this :

on you iPhone, goto the Settings.app
in the Settings window that opens, click on “Personal Hotspot” (should be just below “Mobile Data” – if it is not, your mobile phone provider has blocked this and you have no way of wirelessly sharing your iPhone’s internet connection)
in the Personal Hotspot window that opens, set the “Allow Others to Join” slider to ON
you can just use automatically generated WiFi password for your Personal Hotspot, but if you want to set your own password, click on the triangular arrow right next to the password and a new page wil openen where you will be able to set the password of your liking
now, the one crucial step : set the “Maximise Compatibility” slider to ON
then exit the Settings.app
goto your Nintendo Switch and now you will see your iPhone’s personal hotspot listed as an available network

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : new iPhone photos not showing up in macOS Photos.app

Posted on 02-11-2018 by MacManus.nl

Question :

I am trying to get my photos from my iPhone onto my Mac. But after connecting my iPhone using USB the Photos.app does start up in macOS, but the newest photos I’ve made with my iPhone never show up my Mac.

Disconnecting and reconnecting my iPhone doesn’t help. Restarting the iPhone doesn’t resolve this problem, neither does restarting my Mac.

What can I do to solve this ?

Answer :

Even though you are encountering a very annoying problem, it’s rather easy to solve :

disconnect your iPhone (or iPad) from your Mac
open the Photos.app in iOS (on your iPhone/iPad)
click on the Photos-button (bottom-left ; the icon consisting of a double rectangle with the text ‘Photos’ below it)
select one photo one of the newest photos
then click on the Share-button (bottom-left ; the icon consisting of a square with an arrow pointing upward)
select all photos that are not showing up on you Mac, by swiping the photos to the left and right and tapping the bottom-right circle of each individual missing photo (the circle will turn into a blue checkmark)
then swipe in the row of app-icons to the Shared Albums icon and click it
wait while the clock says ‘Preparing’
then click Cancel (top-left)
now connect your iPhone (or iPad) to your Mac
open the Photos.app in macOS (on your Mac)
unlock your iPhone (or iPad) using your fingerprint/face-scan/screen-unlock-code
then, on your Mac, in Photos.app goto the left side bar and at Devices, click on your iPhone/iPad
then wait for the photos to appear as New Items
and click on the Import All New Items button top-right (or select only the photos you want to import and click on the Import Selected button)

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : need to close Google Doc to prevent further adjustments

Posted on 09-10-2018 by MacManus.nl

Question :

We have been working on an online Google Doc with several people and since we have reached the final version, I want to prevent anyone from making adjustments to the final version.

How do I do that ?

Answer :

If you want to close a Google Doc (or Google Sheet or Google Slide) to prevent additional editing, you should change the sharing setting of the Google Doc (or Google Sheet or Google Slide). Here’s how to :

go to http://docs.google.com and login
find the Google Doc (or Google Sheet or Google Slide) that you want to close ; select it from the list of documents
open the document
click the SHARE-button (the blue button, top-right)
then adjust the sharing from “anyone with the link can edit” to “anyone with the link can view” (or “anyone with a link can comment” if you still want people to be able to comment without actually editing the document)
Note : if you click the white Advanced-button, you will also get the options to “Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people” or “Disable options to download, print, and copy for commenters and viewers”
then, click the blue Done-button to fix your new sharing-setting
to check if your document’s sharing-setting is correct, hover your mouse-pointer over the blue SHARE-button and you will see the current sharing-setting

…that’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : use one printer in two networks at the same time

Posted on 11-11-2017 by MacManus.nl

Question :

I have a network printer on my (private) network that I would like to make available to the people on my AirPort Guest Network, but I don’t want guests to access my private network.

Is there a way to do this ?

Answer :

There are options to do this, but it can’t be done the way you would find most elegant probably… the problem is the restriction in AirPort Guest Networks that users can’t connect to each other, so adding the printer to the AirPort Guest Network won’t make it available to any AirPort Guest Network user.

On the other hand, an other restriction on most network printers is that they only have one Ethernet-card that is shared between the UTP-cable port and the WiFi connection, so the cable-connection and the WiFi-connection will always have the same IP-address, making it impossible to connect the cable to your private network and joining the Guest Network using the WiFi-connection at the same time…

Your best option is to connect the Ethernet/UTP-cable and/or the printer’s WiFi to your private network and creating a separate network to be used as a Guest Network to which the printer can be connected using it’s USB-cable. Since you will need an extra wireless router or an extra (secondhand) AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule to create this separate Guest Network, you can plug the printer’s USB-cable into that wireless router / AirPort Base Station / Time Capsule.

You could also use a printer server, if it isn’t possible to connect the printer’s USB-cable into the wireless router / AirPort Base Station / Time Capsule. You can find relatively cheap print servers on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de

Regarding the setup of your networks, you will probably be best off doing it like this :

set your internet modem in router mode (if you would set it in bridge mode, you wouldn’t be able to connect two separate networks behind it)
connect both routers (or AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule) to the internet modem
setup one router (or AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule) to create the private network and private WiFi network
setup the other router (or AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule) to create the Guest Network and Guest WiFi Network
make sure that the IP-ranges issued by both routers are completely different (to prevent easy connection from the Guest Network to your private network (and the other way around)
if any of your routers give a “Double NAT” error, just ignore it

That’s it !

the only downsite is that having such a complex network setup with multiple routers will have negative influence on your (internet) connection speed ; this difference in speed will probably not be very big if you have few devices connected, but if you have a lot of devices connected that also use a lot of bandwidth (like video streaming) you will probably have slower internet speed than you used to…

enjoy !

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