If you’ve discovered Prof. Grant Horner’s Bible reading system to be a blessing, like me, then you might be interested in this tutorial for adding his Bible reading plan onto your iOS device (iPhone or iPad) *without the need to jailbreak*:
- Download the Bible reading plans here. Thanks to a guy called Robert who’s put all the hard work into creating these, you have coded 7 years worth of daily readings which rotate per Prof. Horner’s system. You can use the reading plan as one large file on the iPhone. However, it is a bit unwieldy like that so it’s broken it up into 7 separate yearly plans. [UPDATE August 2014: the above link is now broken but you can get a full year’s worth here]
- Now you just need to get these files onto your iOS device. Until Olive Tree add an official way to add them you will need to download another application. Go to http://www.macroplant.com/iphoneexplorer/ and download the free app, iPhone Explorer. This app allows you to look in certain areas of your iOS device’s file system and view, copy and paste the content. If you don’t have a jailbroken device then the extent of this is limited, you couldn’t add your own SMS ringtones, but you can add reading plans to BibleReader!
- Install and launch iPhone Explorer on your computer and plug in your iOS device. You will be able to see your device in the app, click on it, select the App folder and then find BibleReader. This may take a little time if you have a lot of apps on your device as the list won’t appear to be in any order (it is, but is based off the random folder names iOS uses for your apps, luckily iPhone Explorer doesn’t show you their real names as you’d be completely lost!).
- Within the BibleReader folder there are four folders, one which is named Documents, and two files. To add your reading plans (the 7 files not the folder), then drag these files into the Documents folder in iPhone Explorer. Now unplug your iOS device, and close BibleReader. If you don’t have iOS4 then all you need to do is leave BibleReader (if it was even open in the first place). If you do it is a little more fiddly. Leave BibleReader if you had it open, then double-tap the Home button, find BibleReader in the opened dock, hold down on it till it enters wiggle mode and then tap the close button.
- Now open up BibleReader again and you’ll find your reading plan!
SamMarsh.net 
[…] [If you have an iPhone with Olive Tree installed, you may well also be interested in this article.] […]
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iphone reader will not allow me to “drop” files from Finder. I tried one at a time, but it will not copy over to BibleReader -> Documents -> readingplans, any ideas?
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Thanks, this worked great!
One note (and probably an obvious one): the folder to look for might not be “Bible Reader” if you had originally downloaded something besides the free reader, as in my case. The correct folder for me was “ESV Study Bible” because that was my original download/purchase. Great work!
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I tried this, and I think you need to modify your instructions a little bit – the files should be placed in the Reading Plans folder (inside the Documents folder), and you may also want to delete the bundleFileNameCache.plist file from within the Documents->Config folder. : )
Excited to start this plan myself…
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They act just like the apostles who told Jesus that he should call fire down from heaven to consume those that had rejected Him in Samaria. Jesus’ reply was, ” I came to save life, not to take it” People can sometimes get just as heard hearted and heard headed as these disciples were. Jesus even told them that their hearts were hard because they did not consider the miracle of the loaves and the fish, when they were so surprised at Jesus calming the storm.
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I would LOVE to have a version of this for Android. If anyone knows of one, please let me know! 🙂
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I know OliveTree are on Android – not too sure if Bible reading plans are also?
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Two questions:Per the above comment should the files go into Documents or Reading Plans?
I put the seven files in the Documents folder and now I have the reading plan “Professor Grant Horner’s Bible-Reading System” – there are no “year x” versions.
Can someone help? Thanks!!
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Yes they go in re ‘Reading Plans’ folder.
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I tried this multiple times on my iPhone 5, I was able to transfer the files into the reading plans folder using the iExplorer demo (currently the only free version), however it does not show in the app. After reconnecting to iExporer the files still show in “Reading Plans” so it looks like the transfer was successful. I’ve tried rebooting my phone, i deleted the app and did it all multiple times. Let me know if anyone has any suggestions. ( I tried deleting the cache per Joe above and that did not seem to do anything), thanks
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The current version 5.3.3.5 as at 22 April 2013 syncs Bible reading plans across devices but unfortunately breaks compatibility for custome reading plans. According to the Olive Tree Forum, this functionality will be returning in a future update and any plansyouhaveakready added are not lost but ‘hidden’.
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The 7 years of reading plans link is broken. Is there a new link at which we can download the codes?
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Hi Sarah, Sure I’ll dig out the codes and repost. The code has changed a little since I wrote this post with an update to the app. You can also now sync between devices which is extra useful if you use multiple devices.
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Hi Sarah, sorry for the delay – I’ve now added the first year’s worth… Hope you enjoy it!
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