iPod Apple needs to make Audiobook imports work like Audiobooks

[Black Belt]

I prefer to buy my audiobooks on CD (better quality, instant backup) but iTunes does a terrible job of making Audiobooks from imports. Basically you have to buy some crazy utility to do what iTunes should do in the first place. I thought Apple products were supposed to be intuitive! There is nothing intuitive about Audiobooks, what a nightmare!

 

[gnasher729]

I prefer to buy my audiobooks on CD (better quality, instant backup) but iTunes does a terrible job of making Audiobooks from imports. Basically you have to buy some crazy utility to do what iTunes should do in the first place. I thought Apple products were supposed to be intuitive! There is nothing intuitive about Audiobooks, what a nightmare!

In iTunes, select the files that you imported, right click + "Get Info", then under "Options" change "Media Kind" from "Music" to "Audiobook".

So instead of getting all excited and posting a rant on MacRumors, you could have posted a question "How do I convert audiobooks imported from the CDs to audiobooks in iTunes" and I am sure you would have got lots of answers.

 

[benlangdon]

In iTunes, select the files that you imported, right click + "Get Info", then under "Options" change "Media Kind" from "Music" to "Audiobook".

So instead of getting all excited and posting a rant on MacRumors, you could have posted a question "How do I convert audiobooks imported from the CDs to audiobooks in iTunes" and I am sure you would have got lots of answers.

y i figured that out the other day.
a while ago it was so hard to make it into an audio book.

 

[instaxgirl]

In iTunes, select the files that you imported, right click + "Get Info", then under "Options" change "Media Kind" from "Music" to "Audiobook".

So instead of getting all excited and posting a rant on MacRumors, you could have posted a question "How do I convert audiobooks imported from the CDs to audiobooks in iTunes" and I am sure you would have got lots of answers.

They STILL don't play right on mine, even when made into audiobooks in "get info". For some insane reason I can't import a whole cd as one track (the option is forever greyed out, I honestly can't figure out why) and then it refuses to play back the 500 or so individual minute long files in the iPod's "audiobook" menu properly. I can only listen to them in order and one after another if they're in a playlist which obviously doesn't remember what track of the 500 or so you were on.

It's a complete pain in the arse. Now I use audiobook builder, which is great.

 

[chrish]

Can you not use Advanced > Join CD tracks?

 

[Black Belt]

So instead of getting all excited and posting a rant on MacRumors...

Obviously you're unfamiliar with how Audiobooks work. The classification in iTunes only places it in the Audiobook listing, it does NOT give it the functionality of an Audiobook. Importing a CD set gives you HUNDREDS of tracks. Joining them is pointless as that doesn't give you chapters.

So back to my original point - I should be able to import audiobooks properly the first time instead of going through a bunch of ridiculous, obscure, costly steps to make it work.

 

[superflush]

In iTunes, select the files that you imported, right click + "Get Info", then under "Options" change "Media Kind" from "Music" to "Audiobook".

So instead of getting all excited and posting a rant on MacRumors, you could have posted a question "How do I convert audiobooks imported from the CDs to audiobooks in iTunes" and I am sure you would have got lots of answers.

Wow, thanks for that. I can't believe I never new you could do that.
I just started the renaming the extension to m4b to get bookmarking, and moving in into the Audiobooks section is great.

 

[superflush]

Obviously you're unfamiliar with how Audiobooks work. The classification in iTunes only places it in the Audiobook listing, it does NOT give it the functionality of an Audiobook. Importing a CD set gives you HUNDREDS of tracks. Joining them is pointless as that doesn't give you chapters.

So back to my original point - I should be able to import audiobooks properly the first time instead of going through a bunch of ridiculous, obscure, costly steps to make it work.

Wrong, joining them is not pointless. If there are five CDs with 25 tracks each, joining them will let you do 'Part 1 of 5' and so on. Then, you can easily rename the extension from .m4a to .m4b and I believe this gives you proper bookmarking