When you’ve paid money for a book, or even taken advantage of a free offer, you deserve to read it at your convenience. Convenience might mean reading a book on your PC, although you downloaded it on your iPhone or iPad.
Apple encrypts iTunes electronics books so that you cannot read them without the iBook’s software. When you want to transfer these files to the PC, you need to find ways of reading these books. But that is the second part of the puzzle. The first part is transferring the books; iTunes is usually sufficient for this.
Apple locks the files using its Digital Rights Management (DRM) software to prevent copyright infringement, but this also prevents you from accessing books you’ve bought with any device you choose. There are various ways that you can use to go around it and read the eBooks using your PC in the following steps:
- Installing iTunes for Windows
- Transferring iTunes books to Windows PC using iOS Transfer
- Removing DRM protection from the iTunes books using third-party programs
- Reading the eBooks
1. Installing iTunes for Windows
Apple recommends proprietary software, but it has an iTunes application for Windows. It is freely available on the internet from the Apple website for download. This program lets you access iTunes content on Windows PC conveniently.
You must be registered with Apple iTunes market to use iTunes for Windows. After registration, you get an account with which you can buy the iTunes books. Launch the iTunes program and go to ‘account’ then navigate to ‘purchased’ to see the list of books you have bought.
2. Transferring iTunes books to Windows PC using iOS Transfer
Apple has a file transfer tool that works on iPhone and iPad. This tool is called iOS Transfer. It will help you transfer iTunes books and other content like music from an iPod or iPhone to your Mac or PC. The good thing about this program is that it removes all the DRM restrictions such that your iTunes files can be played from other devices.
Apple has created a version of this tool for Windows; you can download it from their site and install it on your PC. Once you connect your iOS device to your PC, this program will automatically detect the connected device.
You can then select the eBooks you want and export them to PC and voila! Your eBooks will be ready to be read from your PC.
3. Removing DRM protection from iTunes books
What makes the iTunes books unreadable from software outside of Apple’s proprietary software is the DRM protection. Even though these books encoded using international ePub standard, another ePub-compatible program cannot open books with DRM lock. To read these books with another software, you need to ‘unlock’ them.
A third party application can remove the DRM. The TunesKit iBook DRM removal tool is the most reliable option for removing Apple FairPlay DRM, and it is a paid service. It renders the files to be readable using third-party apps.
This method is not an infringement of copyright since you bought the book from iTunes market. Once you purchase the books, then you should have the freedom to read from your preferred device. Unless you intend to redistribute the book, then that is illegal.
4. Reading the eBooks
This is the easy part after all the hard work transferring files and removing DRM. Some applications on your PC are already capable of opening the ePub files. Here is a brief look at browsers, but you should consider looking at the best eBook readers for a superior experience.
How to read iTunes book on Google Chrome browser
Chrome browser for Windows PC is a powerful browser you are probably using. This browser allows for extensions and add-ons from the Chrome web store. You can search for MagicScroll Web Reader and install it by clicking add to Chrome.
The add-on sets a shortcut on the Chrome toolbar for quick launch. To read your iTunes book using the MagicScroll Web Reader, drag and the book to chrome and it will open.
How to read iTunes books on Mozilla Web browser
Mozilla Firefox is another common web browser for various platforms including Windows. It also supports the addition of add-ons. One of these add-ons in the EPUB reader. This tool helps you read those ePub files on Mozilla.
Final Words
If you are using OS versions from the Mavericks OS and later releases you will not need to follow the above steps to read books on your PC. Apple recognized this problem and fixed it for those operating systems.
You will find many apps that claim to help you read iTunes on Windows PC and most work, but vet them carefully to avoid getting infected applications into your PC. Happy reading.