Copy non-DRM PDFs Out From iPad

Hi guys,

I'm in a rather strange situation. My mom's friend bought her an iPad (yay) and she loaded a bunch of stuff into it (using her own iTunes acc) and added in a bunch of PDFs.

She was kind enough to share her iTunes account username and pw with us, so that I can re-download the apps if I have to reset the iPad. The question is, she also loaded a bunch of eBooks into iBooks and I want to back that up.

From what I know, I can reinstall the apps and download the Kindle books again since I have her account etc, but my mom wants to keep the PDF files too, so I need to be able to back that up and put it back once the iPad has been cleared. I don't think you buy PDF books from iBooks (right?), so I'm sure there isn't any DRM on these files, so is there any way I can copy it out from the iPad, using a program/app?

If I can't it would mean waiting 2 months for her to come back and not being able to load videos and such into the iPad since the iPad keeps prompting me to erase when I try to sync or something.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers.

Connect the iPad to your computer and run iTunes. Log in using your Mom's friend's iTunes account info. Right click the iPad logo in iTunes and select 'transfer purchases'. I believe this should transfer a copy of all the apps into iTunes on your computer. (I've never used this feature for this purpose, but I believe it will work.)

Next sync the iPad w/ iTunes. This will create a backup of all your iPad data in your iTunes. It will contain everything in iBooks, which would include the pdfs. If you ever need to restore the iPad, the pdfs will reappear. (Make sure you transfer the purchases first. You don't want iTunes to delete the apps off the iPad because it doesn't find them in iTunes.)

You didn't mention whether your Mac or PC, but...

On a Mac, you will then find the pdfs stored on your HD in
User > Music > iTunes > iTunes Music > Books

On a PC, they should be stored in a similar file structure such as...
My Documents > My Music > iTunes...

If you're going to share apps, then you'll have to keep using your friends iTunes account. Apple permits the same account to be installed on up to 5 different computers, so this may not be a problem. But, you'll lose the apps if your Mom creates a new account. If you just want the pdfs, then you could copy them off the HD, create a new iTunes account for your Mom and put them back into iBooks under the new account.

Hope this helps!

Hi, Thanks for the speedy reply.

OK, I just found out it's a little more complicated. Seems that the lady synced the iPad with two iTunes accounts, and I only have the username/password for one of them. She uses one account to buy apps and share with friends and one for personal use.

Halfway to "transferring purchases" as per your suggestion, it prompts me for the username for another account, which I don't have the password for. I can only select authorize/cancel, and I obviously choose to cancel. The sync is done. The funny thing is that only the ePUB books are in iTunes. Some ePubs are missing, which is fine, since I assume that is due to the user account, but all the PDFs aren't there? Could the PDF books be legally purchased ones? (I assumed all books bought in iBooks would be in "iBooks" and not "PDF")

On a possibly related note, there are no apps synced into iTunes either and the "sync apps" checkbox is unchecked. If I check it, it prompts me that apps on the iPad will be replaced with what is on the iTunes lib (nothing at the moment).

Yeah, copying the PDFs to a flash drive would be the obvious solution, but the friend is in New York for two months, lol. So it's a little tricky, and she wasn't tech savvy enough to extract the PDFs and pass them to me (*mutter)

This iPad is currently trying to sync with a Windows PC, but I think it was originally synced with a Mac, if that makes a difference.

Thanks again.