How to Scroll Instead of Turning Pages in the Books App

By Sarah Kingsbury Updated 05/21/2020

Apple's Books app, formerly iBooks, allows iPhone and iPad users to purchase, save, and read books and PDFs. The Books app offers a page-turning animation to mimic the experience of reading a hardcopy book. Some people enjoy this type of e-book reading experience, while others find it unnecessary or annoying. Fortunately, it's easy to switch off the page-turning animation. We've already gone over how to buy e-books and audiobooks in the Books app, as well as how to save e-books and audiobooks to purchase later. Now, let's cover how to read those e-books by scrolling through, rather than turning virtual pages. 

Related: Free E-books: The 7 Best Apps That Bring a Library of Books to Your iPhone

To turn on scrolling in the Books app:

  1. Open the e-book that you'd like to scroll through and tap the page.

    apple books appebook on iphone
     
  2. Tap the double-A icon.
  3. Toggle on Scrolling View.

    ebook settings on iphoneturn on ebook scrolling on iphone
     
  4. The scroll bar is to the right; you can see how far you've progressed in your reading, and move the circle to jump to different parts of your e-book.

    ebook scroll bar

Any time you want to switch back to page-by-page turning, just toggle off Scrolling View.

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Topics

How-To
Apps
Books
Apple Apps
Books & Reading

Author Details

Sarah Kingsbury's picture

Author Details

Sarah Kingsbury

Sarah Kingsbury is the Senior Web Editor and SEO Content Manager at iPhone Life. She manages the web editorial team and oversees all web and newsletter content. A long-time Apple enthusiast, Sarah can't live without her iPhone, Macbook Air, HomePod, Apple TV, or Apple Watch. As the original contributor to the iPhone Life Tip of the Day Newsletter, she wrote hundreds of iPhone how-tos to help users master their iPhones. It's safe to say that she has written or edited every tip published on iPhoneLife.com! In her 20 years of editing and writing, Sarah has done everything from working as the associate editor of the Iowa Source magazine to developing recipes and reviewing cookbooks for a vegetarian cooking website. But teaching people how to use their Apple devices is her favorite job so far.