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iBooks Store blank Screen how-To Fix

iBooks Store Not Working Shows Blank Screen, How-To

By 108 comments Last updated April 2, 2017

Several users have reported that they run into their iBooks Store, not working Readers can see their own books on the iPad, but clicking on Featured /NYTimes / Top Charts just shows a blank screen. This problem happens time to time, especially when there’s an iOS or app update (based on our Reader’s emails and comments that we have received in the forum).

iBooks Store blank Screen, iBooks Store Not Working

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Before You Troubleshoot

If this problem occurred just after an iOS or App Update, occasionally Cellular Data internet access for iBooks gets turned off during the update and not automatically turned back on following the update. The solution is simple! Go to Settings, select iBooks and turn on Cellular Data under the heading Allow iBooks to Access.

iBooks Store shows Blank Screen, iBooks Store Not Working

Another way of checking is to visit Settings > Cellular > and toggle on Cellular Data AND under the heading Use Cellular Data For: toggle on iBooks.

Check Apple System Status Page

Sometimes it really isn’t you, it’s me (or Apple.) Like any technology, Apple system goes down time to time, whether for maintenance or unexpectedly. It happens. It’s part of life. So before you perform a bunch of troubleshooting steps unnecessarily, check Apple’s System Status page. Make sure there aren’t any problems with the iBooks Store.

If issues are detected, time is your friend. Be patient and check again in an hour or so. Apple works diligently to fix things, so chances are the iBook Store won’t be down for long.

Troubleshooting Tips for iBooks Store Not Working Shows Blank Screen

Step – 1- > Log out of the iCloud Account

Tap Settings > iCloud. Check your iBooks Store and see if it’s still not working. Log out of your iTunes account on the iDevice (Settings >iTunes and App Store > Tap on Apple ID > Sign out). See if that updates your access to the iBooks Store

iBooks Store shows Blank Screen, iBooks Store Not Working

Step – 2- > Look at Restrictions

Tap on Settings > General > Restrictions and toggle the Restrictions ON and OFF a few times. Make sure that your iBooks store is OFF (No restrictions). Check iBooks and see if there are any changes and if you are now able to access the iBooks Store.

Step – 3-> Reset Location and Privacy

Some readers report fixing this problem with iBooks by doing some resets. Go to Settings >General > Reset Location and Privacy. You need to enter your passcode to proceed with this reset. When you reset location and privacy, it returns these particular settings back to factory defaults. This means that all your apps immediately stop using your location until you grant them permission again via Location Services (Settings > Privacy > Location Services.)

It appears that the Reset Locations and Privacy option fixed the issue for many but not all. If this tip didn’t work for you, continue in the list below.

Step – 4-> Check Your Date and Time

For some reason, date and time stamps often cause a lot of problems. So let’s check that these are correct for where you are currently located. Tap Settings > General > Date & Time and turn Set Automatically ON. This updates the day of the week and the time to match your current location.

Step – 5-> Check Your Language and Region

Another strange but true tip. Changing your language or region often fixes these types of problems! So go to Settings > General > Language & Region. And change your current language. Select any language you are familiar with or a version of your current language, like English (Canada.) Now, try again to open the iBooks Store. If books show up, go back to Settings > General > Language & Region, and change your language back to your preference.

Step – 6-> Clear the iBook Store App Cache

Tap on any one of the bottom toolbar buttons (My Books, Featured, Top Authors, Purchased) rapidly 10 times. It sounds strange but it refreshes the iBook Store App and may just solve your problem.

Step – 7-> Reboot

Press both the Home (or Volume Down for iDevices without a mechanical Home) and Power/Wake/Sleep buttons together for about 15 seconds until the device shows the Apple Logo. Release the buttons and let it start on its own. Check iBooks and see if there are any changes and if you are now able to access the iBooks Store.

Step – 8-> Connect to iTunes

Connect iDevice to iTunes via Computer and check for available updates. If an iOS update is available, update it using iTunes. Remember to backup with iTunes to your local computer before performing any update. Check iBooks and see if there are any changes and if you are now able to access the iBooks Store.

 

iBooks Store Blank Screen, iBooks Store Not Working

 

For most people, either a Reboot or updating to the latest version of iOS for your iDevice fixes the issue. Try steps 3 through 8 and see if it helps you with this problem.

Reader Tips & Tricks for iBooks Store Not Working Shows Blank Screen

  1. For me logging out and back into my account via Settings > iTunes & App Store briefly fixed it (until I next opened a book on my bookshelf), other people appear to have had some success by closing the app via the iPad’s taskbar and/or doing a soft reset/reboot. If you want to leave feedback to Apple about the problem
  2. I had similar issues this AM. When I tapped on any of the store icons, it just showed me a completely blank screen. I had saved a note with links to iBooks Store pages. These were links for books in my future reading list. Upon clicking a link from the list, it opened it up in the iBook Store and seemed to work. I don’t know if it refreshed the store or what, but the link loaded properly in iBooks, and the rest of the store seems to be working. iBooks has been working fine for me since
  3. Essentially, you open for an iBook link in Safari and then click on it so that it can open it in your iBooks app
  4. Renee Riffey tried the following: I just reset my location and privacy settings and iBook is now working! Settings >General > Reset Location and Privacy
  5. Chris suggests: go to iTunes, search for iBooks, when it comes up, select any book and request sample, then hit Store in top right corner, takes you to iBooks, works for me
  6. I fix this problem with my iPad! Go to Purchased in iBooks app. Under books, tap on your Recent Purchases. Look and see if any of your books have the cloud symbol next to them. If so, tap the cloud symbol to manually re-downloaded everything back to your iPad
  7. For those of you connecting to iTunes or iBooks and only seeing a blank white screen, go to your Settings> Safari and change Block Cookies to Allow from Websites I Visit. This worked for me–iBooks Store back
  8. This is how I solved the problem on my iPad. Open iBooks and tap Select from the upper right corner. Tap Select All. The choose Move from the upper-left corner. In the drop-down menu, create a New Collection and call it Move Folder. Then move all selected items from your Bookshelf to that new folder. Once you move all items go back to the main iBooks screen My Books. Now iBooks should connect to the bookstore. If not, restart the app by double tapping Home and swiping up. Once everything is working again, go back into that new Move Folder and return your books to their original location or whatever location you prefer
  9. I asked a friend or family member to share a book link to something in the iBooks Store via iMessage or SMS Text. Just ask them to open the iBooks Store on their phone or computer, find any book, and share the link with you via text. Then all you have to do is open this link and everything works again

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Show 108 Comments

  1. Kathy says

    Amazing, I reset the language and it finally worked! Would never have figured this out on my own.

    Reply

  2. Rhonda says

    iBooks won’t let me buy after checking out a sample. Also when I go to the other tabs I get a white screen. Can only see the books in my library

    Reply

  3. PETER BALL says

    Resident of UK. Same problems as above – installed 9.3.3, pressed and held Wake/sleep.
    After reboot all OK. (29th. July 2016)

    Reply

  4. jan says

    Tried all of the above actions many times, since July 19th, with no fix. But, tried a hard reset (Home and Off/On button at the same time) this afternoon, July 24th at 1:30 pm (PDT), and iBooks, on my iPad 2 Air, now works as expected. Don’t know if this is dumb luck or if Apple actually determined the source of the problem and fixed it. If anyone still has this problem now, I’ll assume it was dumb luck and Apple hasn’t a clue after five days.

    Reply

  6. Dave says

    Did all of the above without success
    Eventually reset privacy and location/downloaded a sample from the store then did the hard reset and it’s working !!!!

    If you can’t be good – be lucky

    Reply

  7. Michelle says

    Another success story from one who commented earlier. For whatever reason, it iBooks works this evening ( though it wasn’t working this morning).

    Reply

  11. Hersch says

    ibooks has blanks screens except for my books on iPad Air 2 and iPad mini after updating to IOS 9.3.3. Tried many of the above suggestion with no positive results.

    Reply

  13. Shaun says

    Tried everything in the list on my iPad Pro and was still getting the problem. Contacted apple support and everything they suggested didn’t fix it either. Was looking at the iBooks section in settings to get the version number for submitting feedback to Apple. Saw all the options listed for iBooks, so tried toggling all the options in the iBooks settings to off. This fixed it for me (still works after toggling everything in settings back to what it was before).

    Reply

  14. Frank says

    Reset Location and Privacy and hey presto it worked! But I don’t get the NYT logo at the bottom, it just looks same old.

    Reply

  15. AnnB says

    Just now! Opened I Book app,….while the wheel was spinning, I pressed the ‘featured’ category down below, then pressed TOP CHARTS, & the store opened. Pressed top authors & that opened. Went back to Library, my books were there. Closed iBooks app, reopened & ALL WAS STILL OPENING. MY LIBRARY & STORE!!!! Yea!!! Hope it works. Good luck

    Reply

  20. LE says

    I have iPad Pro 9.7 and an iPad Mini 4. Both were fixed by just syncing with iTunes. I had the issue on my mini prior to updating to 9.3.3. I was reading issues with the iOS update 9.3.3 so I checked my pro and I saw the issue so I looked at mini, which hadn’t been updated, and it had the same issue with iOS 9.3.2. I’m not an iBook user so it wasn’t a big deal for me. I updated mini to 9.3.3. Found this thread of info and synced both to iTunes and issue seems to be resolved for me. Our iPhones weren’t affected.

    Reply

  22. Michelle says

    Read through most of the above and tried pretty much everything, to no avail. On iPad Air. Any new suggestions come up, I’m all ears! What a pain in the ass!

    Reply

  23. Sharon says

    Just reset my Apple ID through settings (second part of #1) and now iBooks is working, Tried everything earlier without success though.

    Reply

  24. Steve says

    Chris’s tip: after doing it (it brought up the iBook store) and then force-closing iBooks and restarting it, it worked. Thanks Chris!

    Reply

  25. Maggie Nguyenphuoc says

    I have the iPad Pro and I did as the author suggested and ‘ reset my location and privacy settings’ then shut down my iPad and restart. iBooks is back on as usual.
    Just a side question, what happens when I reset my location and privacy?

    Reply

  26. Weez says

    I have an iPad Pro 9.7, and nonr of the above has helped. When I tried tapping the features button while the gear was still spinning, it worked. But then I closed the iBooks app and the screens went blank again when I reopened it. And now pressing the features or other icons while the gear is spinning doesn’t work, either.

    Reply

  27. Loretta says

    Follow up to Chris’s suggestion – going to iTunes and searching for iBooks got me to free books but no further, still couldn’t get into the iBooks store. I tried searching for Books and was finally able to get to the iBooks store. Quite a run around but it will work until Apple fixes it.

    Reply

  28. Tina says

    The last tip on 7/22 (going through iTunes, search for a book, click sample, then click on store on the top Rd corner) worked for me. None of the rest did although the restart did work for me yesterday when this problem started only to have it not work again today. So try the tip from the 7/22 update.

    Reply

  29. CVH says

    2 iPads – one iPad 4 and one iPad Air both running iOS 9.3.3. The Reset Location and Privacy clue worked on iPad 4 to show the bookstore again. iPad Air resolved itself after update from iOS 9.3.2.

    Reply

  31. Monica says

    I tried all of the suggestions above, and it only resulted in deleting the majority of books I already had. I had to re-sync with my computer just to get them back. I have an iPad Air 2 and still nothing but a blank screen when I try to go to the iBook Store. Extremely frustrating and time consuming.

    Reply

  33. Dan says

    Further to my previous report, I tried restarting my Airport Extreme. AND IT WORKED! Until I closed iBooks and re-opened it; blank screens again. So, I experimented with using the personal hotspot on my iPhone 5C. That did not work. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

    Reply

  34. Rich says

    Thanks SK at AppleToolBox. As stated earlier, I was very happy with my sudden good luck until I went back to iBooks on my iPad Air and the problem was back. Only my downloaded books open. What to do? Thanks! Is Apple doing anything about this?

    Reply

  35. Debbie Smithey says

    I have tried all suggestions but nothing has worked. Please help. My problem started last night. I just assumed it would be fixed by morning. WRONG

    Reply

  36. Craig Schauffert says

    I can fool it by going to iTunes, putting iBooks in the query and can get a free book that way. Still only loads blank page when trying to load free books from book bub and other free book sites. So leads me to believe it’s not an apple site issue??

    Reply

  40. Rich says

    Tried everything suggested all to no avail. HOWEVER, just now — 1:10 pm ET — I tried it and, voila! It works. Prices are still substantially higher that on Kindle for iPad. Get with it Apple. Steve Jobs is probably turning in his grave. All in all, I’m happy and I hope and pray others have had their iBooks problem solved. Thanks, AppleTools.

    Reply

    • SK says

      Thank You Rich. We are glad that it is working for you. Thanks again for taking the time to share your comment. – AppleToolBox

      Reply

  41. Sylvia says

    After trying all the other steps mentioned above with no changes, I finally reset my location and privacy and now it works! I guess I should have read farther down the comments first!

    Reply

  43. Ezio Micheletti says

    This is what I found in another forum and it worked for me.

    If you have iBooks open – close them.

    Open them again and while little circle on top of iBooks left side (next to Wi-Fi bars) is spinning, (which indicates it’s loading the content) press Feature tab.

    It should force the content of Feature tab to start loading.

    Once it’s loaded all other tabs start working, but sometimes is reported that is working only until you go to back again to “My books” tab.

    For me is still working even I go to My books and than I come back to any other tab.

    I hope it helps !

    Reply

  44. Sallie says

    I tried everything quite a few times and still get blank screen and also get I have update for a book and can not do it because that is also a blank screen

    Reply

  45. JPP Smorenburg says

    Thanks for the advice, tried it all to no avail. Great advice none the less, discovering iOS update 9.3.3. as a result. An irritant is that the iBook store unavailability for some users can remain so long and is not even listed on Apple Support to boot.

    Reply

  48. har says

    I followed all of the above steps to no avail. The last step with the reset location and privacy worked on both my iPad and iPad mini. Voila!

    Reply

  49. Dan says

    I have tried all of the above suggestions with no success. I am running on an iPad Pro 9.7 with iOS 9.3.3. No problem with my iPhone 5C; no problem with my old iPad 2 running 9.3.3. On my iMac (El Capitan), all is well also, This is very annoying.

    Reply

  52. JPP says

    Thanks for all the great advice! I’ll bookmark your site as a good reference. Being new to Apple, I recently bought an iPad Mini 2 as my main tablet and internet access and it works beautifully. That is, recently I had Safari crash that needed switching the settings and now the iBooks store blank for quite some time. It reinforces my trust in my reliable Android Moto X phone as go-anywhere always works in a pinch device. The main irritant for me is that the showstoppers I mentioned were not listed at Apple Support, but were listed as having no issues.

    Reply

  53. Chris says

    A way around the problem.
    Go to iTunes, search for iBooks, when it comes up, select any book and request sample, then hit store in top rh corner, takes you to iBooks, works for me.

    Reply

  56. Terry says

    Tried all above, including resetting location and privacy.. Did not work for me. Still have blank screens on all but my books. I have an iPad Air 1 running 9.3.3. Ack! This is frustrating

    Reply

  57. Julian says

    The problem still persists even though I have tried all the methods described in other posts: iBooks does not get to the store on an iPad mini even though it works on an iPhone or on an iPad Pro. Updating the software did not help. I therefore contacted the Apple helpline and asked for help. They suggested resetting all settings and waited while I did it; it still didn’t work. Finally, the help-line person, having consulted her supervisor, said that they thought that there was a problem with their server in the UK and told me to try again in a few hours. So one must conclude that it is a central Apple problem.

    Reply

  58. Hans says

    None of the suggestions working for me either. iPad mini retina, updated to 9.3.3, hard restart, privacy/location options reset another hard reset… still nothing 🙁

    It is working fine on my iPhone, but I want to access my purchased books on my iPad!

    Reply

  60. Janine says

    I am having same problem now. Tried all of these fixes and no luck. Can access iBooks via safari but can’t do anything like search an author. Any new ideas?

    Reply

  61. Helen says

    As suggested, I reset location and privacy, and mine is now working! Thanks so much for the idea – I never would have thought of that on my own!

    Reply

  64. Robin says

    Followed all the steps, then tried the reset mentioned at bottom of this, nothing. Then tried the update, then steps 3 through 6, then did the reset location and privacy again after carefully doing Step1 from the correct logout area again, then rebooted, (step 3 method, except I didn’t wait till it restarted, just until it went black, then let go of the buttons. Then manually restarted) and am now back to full functioning iBook store! Likely dumb luck.

    Robin

    Reply

  65. Alison says

    Add me to the listed of frustrated customers. I have tried all of the suggestions, nothing has worked. I can only see my books. all other options are blank screens. Not happy.

    Reply

  68. Sheree says

    I’m on an iPad Pro 12 inch running iOS 9.3.2 and just experienced this problem. I’ll try rebooting and hope they work ot out soon.

    Reply

  70. Tracey says

    I did the the 9.3.3 update,did nothing to fix the problem……
    Then I did the location and privacy reset and it now works

    Reply

  71. Anne Shannon says

    Resetting location and privacy did NOT work for me. I have tried all other suggestions……nothing. So frustrating.

    Reply

  75. Denise says

    I tried all of this as well and got nowhere. I did buy a book on my iPhone and it downloaded to my iPad.

    Reply

  84. Marg S says

    Add me to the list of frustrated customers. I have 2 iPads (one Air, one Generation 4) and a much older iPod Touch. The Touch is accessing the iBooks store without a problem. Both iPads just display a blank screen. I have installed the most recent software updates on both iPads.

    Reply

  88. Linda Spencer says

    Have the same problem even after updating, switching on & off, can access my own books screen but no access to iBook store in general

    Reply

  95. Terry D says

    Tried all steps above. Still cannot access other pages of iBooks. Only my books show up. Everything else blank. 5:25 pm Thursday July 21.

    Reply

  96. Tom says

    Have tried all of the recommended fixes, still can’t access anything other than the books in my library.

    Reply

  99. Tom says

    The problem occurred on my iPad Pro (small version) only after updating to iOS 9.3.3. Thus, none of the suggested fixes worked. Hope Apple gets on this soon since we can’t add any new books.

    Reply

  100. Julian Ross says

    The problem occurred yesterday and then was resolved by rebooting. Now it has. Occurred again and cannot e iced by anything suggested above.

    Reply

  101. Jay says

    Updated to IOS 9.3.3, then rebooted, and iBooks still showing blank screen. So annoying. Using my Kindle app and paying Amazon

    Reply

  105. S Hamilton says

    Did not work for me either. It was a waste of my time. Then tried to comment and rejected with “This is a duplicate comment.”

    Reply