Automate the adding and updating of books to iTunes

The common way to add a book purchased outside of the iBooks store is to add it to the library and sync it to your iPhone/iPad. But what happens when the publisher releases an updated book? How do you get the update copy onto your devices? This was asked by another member and so I did some digging.

First - let me make clear that the major credit for this scripted solution goes to Doug Adams of http://dougscripts.com. I found the base script on his site and I made a minor adjustment so it would handle PDFs in addition to ePubs.

Solution: The idea here is leverage AppleScript and create a folder that functions as a book depository. When you copy a PDF or ePub into this folder it automatically adds/updates it to iTunes. On you next sync your device will pick it up as well.

Requirement: In your iTunes preferences, under Advanced, you need to have "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" turned ON. This script assumes that this is the case so when you add a file to the folder it deletes it afterwards.

Testing: I did this on an iMac with the latest version of Snow Leopard (10.6). I'm pretty sure this will work with 10.5 but beyond that I don't know.

Warning: No warranties here, use at your own risk. Just saying, don't come hunting me down if something runs off the range here.

Step 1: Download this AppleScript file, it's what does the moving/adding: add - books to iTunes.scpt

Step 2: Move the script downloaded in step #1 to: /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts

Step 3: Create a folder on your Desktop called "Book Depository". Actually you can call it whatever you want and place it where ever you want.

Step 4: Control-Click on the "Book Depository" folder and choose "Folder Actions Setup..."

Step 5: You should see a choice list for "Choose a Script to Attach", choose the script you downloaded called "add - books to iTunes.scpt".

Step 6: You should now have a "Folder Actions Setup" window with your folder "Book Depository" on the left and your script "add - book to iTunes.scpt" on the right. Both of these should have checkmarks turning them on. You should also have the "Enable Folder Action" box checked at the top of the window. Close out this window.

That's it. If put either a PDF or an ePub in the this folder it "should" take it and add/import it into iTunes. I noticed that once in a while it gets stuck and something doesn't move. Just drag it out and then drag it back in.