How to search in the Apple Books app on iPhone and iPad

When browsing doesn’t cut it, you can use the search in Apple Books to find a new book or audiobook or one that’s in your library, and this tutorial shows you how to do that.

Books on iPhone Search

The Apple Books app is a great tool for catching up on your favorite reads or finding something new to delve into. And over time, the Books app has received its share of new features like dark mode and a sleep timer.

But when you just want to use the app to find a good book or one that you’ve heard of, you’ll need the Search feature. Like many of Apple’s other apps, the Books app’s search feature is flexible, gives you suggestions, and hopefully helps you find just what you want. Here are some tips for how to use Search in the Books app on iPhone and iPad.

Use Search in Apple Books

When you open the Books app, you have a handy tab for the Search tool. This setup is nice because you can keep what you’re doing on the other tabs separate from your search.

Tap the Search tab to start looking for a book or audiobook you want.

As you start entering letters into the search box at the top, you’ll see suggestions below. And the great part is that the Search tool in Books looks in your library as well as the Book Store. So if you downloaded a book you cannot locate or what a new one, you get both options.

Search Books on iPhone

You can tap See All next to In Your Library at the top to view all books, audiobooks, and documents you own that include the search term.

Books on iPhone See All in Library

When you finish using Search, you can tap Cancel at the top.

You’ll then notice moving forward that the Search tab contains your Recent or Recently Searched. This is terrific for revisiting a previous search, especially if you’re waiting for a particular book to arrive in the Book Store. Simply tap one of your Recent searches to view updated results.

While you’ll only see your most recent three searches, you can tap Clear to remove them all and start fresh if you like.

Books on iPhone Recent Searches

You’ll can also see what other users are looking for with the Trending searches list. And you can select one of those as well.

Use Spotlight Search

In addition to using the Search option inside the Books app, you can also open Spotlight Search by swiping down on the Home Screen and typing the book’s name. In most cases and with most popular titles, Spotlight should show you the book there, and tapping it will take you directly to it in the Books app.

Finding books in iOS Spotlight Search on iPhone

Finding a new book, or even one in your extensive library, is easy when you use the Books app on iPhone and iPad. What do you think of the Search tool in Books? Has it provided you with the results you wanted, or could it use an update? Let us know!

Other tips for the Books app: