Audiobooks in Catalina

[straddle]

My biggest frustration with audio books in MacOS Catalina is that the Books app doesn't let you edit the tag/art of your books. You can still edit them in Apple Music if they are mp3s/m4a but if they are in m4b files it won't let you add them to Apple music to edit them. This means there is now no native way to edit m4b tags in Catalina. Absurd. I really hope someone from Apple is reading this.

In the mean time, I heartily recommend the Prologue app in combination with Plex. It's by far the best solution for accessing your audio book library that I have discovered. I've been using it for a few months now and it has replaced Bound as my preferred solution.

If you need to edit your audio book tags, the best solution I have found for the Mac is kid3, which is free and open source.

 

[page3]

I moved all my audiobook over from iTunes to Plex/Prologue about a month ago now. It been brilliant. So much better than iTunes. CarPlay is well supported as is streaming or downloading as required.

Personally, Apple Books is so the wrong place for audio books, especially how it has been designed. They should be in the podcasts app, leaving Apple Books to manage the written word.

 

[Bodiccea]

I listen to audiobooks ALL the time. The way I've been doing it is downloading into iTunes, then dragging and dropping onto my iPod. Now I find that Apple has discontinued all iPods except for that classic. I've got a couple of Nanos, which are my favourite for listening - small enough to fit into a pocket, not too heavy but enough controls for audiobooks.

On top of that, when I plug my iPod Nano into my Macbook, it shows up in Music but not in Books....so I don't have any idea if I can even load books onto my Nano anymore! Also, I used the "Rating" column for sorting my books into what I've listened to and what I haven't. And that seems to be gone.

VERY frustrated. I wish I'd never updated to Catalina. Anyone have a suggestion? I'm thinking about downloading some other program to manage my audiobooks but only if I can use my Nano with it.

I feel like no one in the design considered how people use audiobooks. It's all about music.

 

[page3]

I feel like no one in the design considered how people use audiobooks. It's all about music.

It's not even about music, if that music happens to be classical.

 

[rishi.talreja]

On top of that, when I plug my iPod Nano into my Macbook, it shows up in Music but not in Books....so I don't have any idea if I can even load books onto my Nano anymore! Also, I used the "Rating" column for sorting my books into what I've listened to and what I haven't. And that seems to be gone.

Sorry to hear about that. You should check the Finder sidebar as that's where syncing happens now. I can sync audiobooks from there although you're right about the ratings. You cannot edit metadata for anything in books.

 

[Patrick Hirayama]

Sorry to hear about that. You should check the Finder sidebar as that's where syncing happens now. I can sync audiobooks from there although you're right about the ratings. You cannot edit metadata for anything in books.

As near as I can tell, syncing is supported, but copying a single (or a few) audiobooks to an iPod nano is not. Has anyone found a way around that limitation?

 

[rishi.talreja]

As near as I can tell, syncing is supported, but copying a single (or a few) audiobooks to an iPod nano is not. Has anyone found a way around that limitation?

Does the iPod Nano show manually manage music option? My iPhone does show that and while I've not enabled it (I use Apple Music), I presume it will show up in Music and allow you to add songs from there. My iPhone shows up in Music sidebar already.

 

[Wayfarer]

Resurrecting this thread for 2020, to see if anyone has found a better solution or workaround? This is apparently a huge issue for a lot of people. With a lot of folks purchasing refreshed MacBooks, there's bound to be others like myself who are hesitant to make the transition...

I've been avoiding Catalina precisely because I have a large audiobook collection pulled physical CDs I've collected over the years. I need to be able to edit the metadata and edit album art, like we used to in iTunes. Unfortunately this is broken in Catalina. Any new insights??

 

[Jack Neill]

The 15 books app is such trash, only seconded by the music app.

 

[adrianlondon]

I've been avoiding Catalina precisely because I have a large audiobook collection pulled physical CDs I've collected over the years. I need to be able to edit the metadata and edit album art, like we used to in iTunes. Unfortunately this is broken in Catalina. Any new insights??

Don't use Books. Keep all your audiobooks as ripped mp3s (or whatever format you converted them to) in the Music app.

If you wish, create a genre to file them all under and use playlists. That's what I do with all the language mp3s I've ripped from CDs included with various language books.

When I first upgraded to Catalina, I moved them all over to Books, which changed the file format, removed all metadata editing features, and even moved the files and hid them deep in the Library folder. I restored the mp3s from backup and left them in Music.

 

[TSM]

Since they separated podcasts / music / books in different desktop apps now is not possible to change "kind" of files as it was through itunes (not that that worked that great, but was something).
Is there any way to direct your mp3 files to appear as audiobook on the ipone or ipod now, or to change them once they appear as music?
(I mean, separately. Otherwise I can convert to audiobook on the mac and then sync, but that would erase all previous content in the phone and create a host of new problems).
Thanks.
[automerge]1592357640[/automerge]

Don't use Books. Keep all your audiobooks as ripped mp3s (or whatever format you converted them to) in the Music app.

If you wish, create a genre to file them all under and use playlists. That's what I do with all the language mp3s I've ripped from CDs included with various language books.

When I first upgraded to Catalina, I moved them all over to Books, which changed the file format, removed all metadata editing features, and even moved the files and hid them deep in the Library folder. I restored the mp3s from backup and left them in Music.

Having the books as songs is a terrible solution sadly. No extra speed, no chapters index, bad ff/rw, no position memory, etc.
[automerge]1592357689[/automerge]
Here is to the "just works" slogan : (
[automerge]1592358115[/automerge]

My biggest frustration with audio books in MacOS Catalina is that the Books app doesn't let you edit the tag/art of your books. You can still edit them in Apple Music if they are mp3s/m4a but if they are in m4b files it won't let you add them to Apple music to edit them. This means there is now no native way to edit m4b tags in Catalina. Absurd. I really hope someone from Apple is reading this.

In the mean time, I heartily recommend the Prologue app in combination with Plex. It's by far the best solution for accessing your audio book library that I have discovered. I've been using it for a few months now and it has replaced Bound as my preferred solution.

If you need to edit your audio book tags, the best solution I have found for the Mac is kid3, which is free and open source.

Do you need to have both apps in the phone and the mac if all you want is to listen in the former, for sync reasons?

 

[TSM]

Since they separated podcasts / music / books in different desktop apps now is not possible to change "kind" of files as it was through itunes (not that that worked that great, but was something).
Is there any way to direct your mp3 files to appear as audiobook on the ipone or ipod now, or to change them once they appear as music?
(I mean, separately. Otherwise I can convert to audiobook on the mac and then sync, but that would erase all previous content in the phone and create a host of new problems).
Thanks.
[automerge]1592357640[/automerge]

Having the books as songs is a terrible solution sadly. No extra speed, no chapters index, bad ff/rw, no position memory, etc.
[automerge]1592357689[/automerge]
Here is to the "just works" slogan : (
[automerge]1592358115[/automerge]

Do you need to have both apps in the phone and the mac if all you want is to listen in the former, for sync reasons?

Since they separated podcasts / music / books in different desktop apps now is not possible to change "kind" of files as it was through itunes (not that that worked that great, but was something).
Is there any way to direct your mp3 files to appear as audiobook on the ipone or ipod now, or to change them once they appear as music?
(I mean, separately. Otherwise I can convert to audiobook on the mac and then sync, but that would erase all previous content in the phone and create a host of new problems).
Thanks.
[automerge]1592357640[/automerge]

Having the books as songs is a terrible solution sadly. No extra speed, no chapters index, bad ff/rw, no position memory, etc.
[automerge]1592357689[/automerge]
Here is to the "just works" slogan : (
[automerge]1592358115[/automerge]

Do you need to have both apps in the phone and the mac if all you want is to listen in the former, for sync reasons?

I tried those Prologue / Plex apps and they are too complicated for what I want. I just need a place or a way to dump my mp3 audiobooks and get them recognized as so.
This capping and pushing by apple is beyond ridiculous.

 

[Javabird]

I tried those Prologue / Plex apps and they are too complicated for what I want. I just need a place or a way to dump my mp3 audiobooks and get them recognized as so.
This capping and pushing by apple is beyond ridiculous.

There's an app called BookPlayer on the App store which will play files you have in your iCloud:

‎BookPlayer

‎A wonderful player for your M4B/M4A/MP3/FLAC based audiobooks. Import – Using AirDrop from your Mac or iOS device – From Files and other apps on your device – Via File Sharing in iTunes on your Mac or PC – Zip files with your folders and books Manage – Maintain and see progress of your...

apps.apple.com

 

[TSM]

There's an app called BookPlayer on the App store which will play files you have in your iCloud:

‎BookPlayer

‎A wonderful player for your M4B/M4A/MP3/FLAC based audiobooks. Import – Using AirDrop from your Mac or iOS device – From Files and other apps on your device – Via File Sharing in iTunes on your Mac or PC – Zip files with your folders and books Manage – Maintain and see progress of your...

apps.apple.com

Thanks! Appreciate the hint! I am amazed that's so hard to get any plain solution for just dumping your mp3's and go listen. Seems that all available ones are through an aditional service (possible need for upgrading icloud storage in this case).
[automerge]1592682254[/automerge]

Thanks! Appreciate the hint! I am amazed that's so hard to get any plain solution for just dumping your mp3's and go listen. Seems that all available ones are through an aditional service (possible need for upgrading icloud storage in this case).

Or maybe you can do that with this one, as I guess from reading the app description.
I'll try it! Thanks again!

 

[Wayfarer]

Thought I'd bump this thread, because I'm still suffering the same gripes. I am forced to sync my devices to an older second computer with High Sierra that has my audiobook collection intact.

Any word on this being fixed for Big Sur??? This would be my top feature. I really, really, really want to be able to sync and manage my custom audiobook library effortlessly again.

 

[IscariotJ]

Thought I'd bump this thread, because I'm still suffering the same gripes. I am forced to sync my devices to an older second computer with High Sierra that has my audiobook collection intact.

Any word on this being fixed for Big Sur??? This would be my top feature. I really, really, really want to be able to sync and manage my custom audiobook library effortlessly again.

Nope, still the same in Big Sur ( I've been running the developer betas ). I've raised a bug / feature request for it, but I doubt it'll ever get fixed... This is reason my Mac Mini is still still on High Sierra ( that, and the internal drive isn't big enough for my audiobooks to be relocated to it... ). TBH, I'd even settle for iCloud syncing....

 

[Wayfarer]

Nope, still the same in Big Sur ( I've been running the developer betas ). I've raised a bug / feature request for it, but I doubt it'll ever get fixed... This is reason my Mac Mini is still still on High Sierra ( that, and the internal drive isn't big enough for my audiobooks to be relocated to it... ). TBH, I'd even settle for iCloud syncing....

Thanks for your response! That's a shame. I also summarized and reposted this at the Big Sur forum for greater visibility.

Here's the link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/audiobooks-in-big-sur-still-broken.2250909/

 

[LizKat]

Thanks for your response! That's a shame. I also summarized and reposted this at the Big Sur forum for greater visibility.

Here's the link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/audiobooks-in-big-sur-still-broken.2250909/

I find this so annoying. I had thought that complaints about Books app and audiobooks in particular would have been addressed by time Big Sur rolled out to production. Doesn't sound that way. Thanks for that link though, I'm going to make use of it. My old MBP will never see Big Sur but the 2020 MBA sure will and I'm not going to be a happy camper without a better Books app.

[starting to feel in general like the breakup of iTunes solved about as many actual consumer problems as did the breakup of Ma Bell back in the day lol]

 

[TSM]

We still have this problem under ios 14, right?