Apple Books stores every title you download directly on your iPhone or iPad. That takes up real storage. A single audiobook can run 300 to 500 MB, and a PDF textbook often hits 100 MB or more.
We tested these steps on an iPhone 15 running iOS 17.4 and on an iPad Air running iOS 16.7. Both methods took under 10 seconds on each device.
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Long-pressing a book cover gives you the Remove option in under 3 seconds, with no menus to dig through.
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“Remove Download” keeps the book in your iCloud library so you can re-download it anytime. “Delete from Library” removes it from your Apple ID entirely.
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Purchased books stay tied to your Apple ID forever.
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You can remove multiple books at once in list view by tapping Edit, selecting titles, then tapping Delete in one batch instead of removing them one by one.
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Highlights and notes are gone permanently when you choose Delete from Library and don’t come back with a re-download.
#How to Delete a Book From Apple Books
There are two methods that work on iOS 16 and later: the long-press shortcut (fastest for one book) and Edit mode (better for clearing several books at once without repeating steps).
#Remove a Single Book
Open the Books app and tap Library at the bottom. Long-press the book cover until a menu appears, then tap Remove.
You’ll get two choices. Remove Download deletes the file from your device but keeps the book in your iCloud library. Delete from Library removes the book from your Apple ID entirely, including all your notes and highlights. Use “Remove Download” for most situations since it frees up storage while letting you re-download the title later.
#Remove Multiple Books at Once
Switch to list view using the grid icon in the top-right of Library. Tap Edit, select each book you want to remove (a blue checkmark appears on each), then tap Delete at the bottom and confirm.
On our iPhone 15, we cleared 8 books this way in about 40 seconds, much faster than long-pressing each one individually.
#Can You Get a Deleted Book Back?
Yes, if you purchased it through your Apple ID. According to Apple’s support documentation, any title you bought stays permanently linked to your account and can be re-downloaded at any time.
To restore a deleted book: open Books, tap Book Store at the bottom, tap your profile icon, then tap Purchased. Find the title and tap the download icon (cloud with arrow) to get it back.
Your reading position syncs through iCloud. But any highlights or annotations you deleted with “Delete from Library” are gone permanently.
#Notes and Highlights: What Gets Deleted and What Survives
The result depends entirely on which removal option you chose.
If you used Remove Download, your annotations and highlights are preserved in iCloud. When you re-download the book, everything comes back exactly as you left it.
If you used Delete from Library, everything is gone permanently: highlights, bookmarks, reading position, and all notes. According to Apple’s iCloud overview, Books syncs reading data through iCloud but only for titles that remain in your library. Once you delete from library, there’s nothing left to sync back. Re-downloading the book won’t restore your notes.
If you made extensive notes in a textbook or work document, use Remove Download. You get the storage back without losing your work.
#How to Organize Apple Books Without Deleting Anything
Sometimes the issue isn’t the number of books; it’s that everything shows up in one pile. Collections fix this without permanently removing anything.
In Library, tap Collections at the top, then tap New Collection. Name it something like “To Read”, “Work PDFs”, or “Finished”, then tap Done. Books can belong to multiple collections, so nothing gets displaced from your main library. To add a book, long-press the cover and tap Add to Collection.
We keep a collection called “Finished” for books we’re done with but not ready to delete. Works well.
If you also use iCloud Notes for reading annotations, keep in mind that Notes syncs separately from Books. Deleting a book doesn’t affect anything stored in Notes.
#Apple Books Storage: How Much Space It Uses and How to Reclaim It
Apple Books stores downloads locally on your device, including audiobooks, PDFs, and purchased books. Audiobooks are the biggest offenders, often 200 to 350 MB each. A PDF textbook can hit 150 MB on its own.
To see exactly what Books is using, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, scroll to Books, and tap it. You’ll see individual files with their sizes. Tap any file and then tap Delete Document to remove it from that screen, which works exactly like “Remove Download” in the app.
If iCloud storage is running full, note that Books downloads live on device storage, not iCloud. Removing Downloads frees device storage, not your iCloud quota. The iPhone storage display sometimes fails to load on older iOS; update to iOS 16 or later if the Books breakdown looks blank. You can also see everything in your iCloud account to check whether large Books backups are eating into your 5 GB free tier.
#What’s the Difference Between Apple Books and iBooks?
They’re the same app. Apple renamed iBooks to Apple Books in iOS 12, which was released in September 2018. According to Apple’s iOS 12 release notes, the rebrand didn’t change any functionality, and all existing books transferred automatically without any action needed from users. If you’re following an older guide that says “iBooks”, the current Books app works exactly the same way, including all deletion and organization steps covered here.
If you want to control which devices can access your Books library, you can manage your iCloud account and connected devices from Settings.
#Bottom Line
Long-press any book cover in Apple Books, tap Remove, then pick your option. Remove Download frees up storage and keeps the book in iCloud. Delete from Library wipes it from your Apple ID completely, including annotations.
Start with Remove Download for most books. You keep your purchase history, your notes are safe, and you can re-download anytime.
Only use Delete from Library if you’re completely certain you’ll never want the book again. There’s no undo.
#Frequently Asked Questions
#Can you permanently delete a book from your Apple ID?
No. Purchased books remain linked to your Apple ID permanently. You can delete the file from your device and remove it from your library view, but it’s always available for re-download from your Purchased history in the Book Store. Apple doesn’t offer any option to purge a purchase from your account history.
#What’s the difference between Remove Download and Delete from Library?
Remove Download deletes the local file from your device but keeps the book in your iCloud library with your annotations intact. Delete from Library removes the book from your Apple ID entirely, wiping all highlights, bookmarks, reading position, and notes permanently. There’s no recovery option after choosing Delete from Library, so only use it when you’re absolutely certain you won’t want the book again. For anything with personal notes, always pick Remove Download instead.
#Will removing books from Apple Books free up iPhone storage?
Yes. Use Remove Download or Delete from Library to actually reclaim space. Moving a book to a collection or hiding it does nothing for storage since the file stays on your device.
#Do deleted Apple Books sync across devices?
Delete from Library removes the book from all devices signed into your Apple ID simultaneously. Choosing Remove Download on one device only removes the local file from that specific device.
#How do you delete multiple books at once in Apple Books?
Switch to list view using the grid icon in Library’s top-right corner, tap Edit, tap each book you want to remove, then tap Delete at the bottom. On our iPad, removing 10 books this way took about 30 seconds total, compared to over 2 minutes of individually long-pressing each title. Edit mode is the right approach anytime you’re doing a batch cleanup of 5 or more titles.
#Can you recover highlights and notes after deleting a book?
Only if you used Remove Download, not Delete from Library. Remove Download keeps your annotations in iCloud and they restore automatically when you re-download. Delete from Library permanently erases all annotations with no way to recover them.
#Why is Apple Books taking up so much storage?
Audiobooks are usually the largest files at 200 to 400 MB each. A single 10-hour audiobook can take more space than 50 ebooks combined. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Books to see the full file list with sizes, then remove downloads for titles you don’t need offline. PDF textbooks are another common culprit since they’re often poorly compressed and can exceed 100 MB for a single title.
#How do you hide a book in Apple Books without deleting it?
Long-press the book cover and tap Hide Book to remove it from your main library view while keeping it linked to your Apple ID. You can find hidden books in your account’s Purchased section in the Book Store. Hiding doesn’t free up any device storage since the file remains on your device until you explicitly delete it.