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Getting Started with Alcove

Alcove is a personal ebook library manager for Mac and iPad. It catalogs, organizes, and tags the ebooks you already own and keeps your library in sync via iCloud.

What Alcove Does

  • Catalogs your ebooks in one place, regardless of where you bought them
  • Organizes books with tags, ratings, reading status, and series information
  • Syncs your library across all your devices via iCloud
  • Opens books in your preferred reader app with one keystroke

Alcove is a library manager, not a reading app. It stores your files and metadata; you read them in Apple Books, PDF Expert, or any other app you choose.

First Launch

When Alcove opens for the first time it creates a new default library and, if you're signed into iCloud, starts syncing it automatically.

If you prefer a local library (no iCloud sync), choose Library → New Library… on Mac or tap New Library in the Library Manager on iPad, and uncheck Sync via iCloud before creating it.

Where Your Books Are Stored

Alcove manages your books in its own private storage — you don't need to navigate to them in Finder or Files. When you import a book, Alcove makes its own copy; your original file is left exactly where it was.

To see the book count, total size, and sync status for the current library, click the ⓘ (Library Info) button in the toolbar.

What's Next