I have an extensive audiobook library (mostly DRM-free) in iTunes, which I actively curate (that is, I break books into chapters, combine chapters into sections, edit the metadata, etc). With Catalina, I understand this content will be moved to the Books app.
If you have played with the Catalina beta, do you know whether I will able to edit audiobooks in Books in the same manner that now is possible in iTunes? If no, any suggestions on non-Apple apps to use for this purpose, not only to edit the content, but then to play it on both Mac and iOS devices?
Audiobook Metadata Program For Mac
And I'm not sure what happens if the audiobook files are just audio files. Perhaps then they are just in the Music app. Or maybe you can choose. You may just have to wait until you get Catalina and then see.
You can't edit audiobook metadata in the new Apple Books app in macOS Catalina. iTunes was better for this. Also, raw Audiobook files are moved by the system to a hidden location and there is no "Show in Finder" feature available for them. The book files do not sync in icloud either. Make sure you backup your books before upgrading to Catalina.
This has become a bit of a pain for me as well.iBooks wants to transfer my extremely large audiobook library to my very small internal hard drive.I don't have enough space for the transfer, so now all my audiobooks are in limbo. I can't play them in iBooks or iTunes.
I have 640GB of Audiobooks (so far, it's always growing), all DRM-free. I keep my iTunes Library (1.4TB in total, not including videos) on an external 2TB SSD drive, since it would never fit on my MacMini. Some audiobooks are .m4b, but most are just mp3's. Files are managed and sorted manually. Anytime I get a new one it always requires extensive metadata editing to fix their year of print, add cover art, etc. It sounds like Apple is finally telling me that they no longer want me as a customer
James: I wouldn't go that far. It is just one feature in the iTunes-to-Books transition that is missing. I would take your audiobooks out of iTunes before upgrading and leave them as files on your external drive. Maybe there is another app that you can use to access them for a while?
The Audiobook/ books app in Catalina is a nightmare. I cant delete ANY book, about 1/5 of my books moved over, the rest stayed in my itunes folder. To syncing you have to go through the WHOLE list of Audiobooks in the finder window , find the book you want to select, then sync. No more syncing by collection. I have hundreds of audiobooks, like looking for a needle in a haystack to choose each title. apart from that, my Mac barely even operates now.
Gary Rosenzweig, thanks for the info mate, your right with music and TV shows and films it behaves as before apart from the TV and films artwork but easy to sort, I cannot fathom out a fix for my audiobook collection think it will have to be different player doing some research, if can fix will post back, when find a good audiobook player that works for putting on an iPhone will let forum know.
I have the same issue - several hundred GB worth of audiobooks all sitting on my external hard drive and I can't find any way to point iBooks to it. I don't think Apple thought about audiobook users very much, if at all, when they implemented this change.
There is no way to point Catalina's Books application to an external HD unlike iTunes and Podcast. I don't believe it's a mistake. I have almost 1000 audiobooks. I cannot read more than a page because of a disability that affects my sight. So this is a major problem. Audible doesn't have a desktop app either. I lost the use of 2 major apps when I upgraded to Mojave. Apple is not the same company anymore. Sorry, Apple apologists but Apple is not the cozy cuddly company u think it is.
I have around 350 audiobooks and growing, a mix of DRM and open source. the breakup of iTunes has devastated me, I cannot manage my library I cannot modify metadata or sort. the loss of support for OverDrive Media Console has locked me out of public libraries. I do not want to use multiple different applications. I need to upgrade to take advantage of the new security features within the new macOS. I am scared and totally stressed out.
I'm so glad to realise I'm not a complete idiot and missed something obvious in Books. I can understand Apple thinking that with ebooks the location hardly matters because the files are small, but either they forgot about, or want to discourage, people trying to manage large libraries of audiobooks from other sources.
This is a nightmare. All my audiobooks are gone, dissapeared. Mostly those, which I converted from audiobook CDs. When I try to import it again, this is even worse, every single file is added as single book. Go to hell, Apple.
Hey guys,I stored all my audiobooks in iTunes on a NAS drive. Funny thing is, Books finds all the audiobooks in the old iTunes Media/Audiobooks folder and doesn't store/copy the audiobook files on my local MacBook drive. But as by now I realized how to make different folders on the NAS for "TV"- and "Audio"-App content I just wanted to add a folder "Audiobooks" to my NAS share. But I do not have a clue how to point Books-App to that folder or other way round, move files and change library...
Short update: I copied my iTunes Audiobooks-folder to the root of my NAS and cleared the Books library. Then I added the new folder on my NAS in hope to get Books to re-import my audiobooks to the library and still keep the data stored on the NAS - guess that was a stupid idea....now I also reduced my local hdd to 0 MB. Apple what did you do?
Here's my plan: I am loading my books into a folder on an eternal drive (I've got about 500 GB of audiobooks), divided into subfolders by author, all tagged correctly within iTunes. Then, I point Plex (the media server app, free of charge) to that folder as a Library. Then, I am using an app called Prologue on my iPhone, which can browse the Plex library wirelessly and download books as needed to my iPhone. Will be happy to share more details if needed.
I tried to create an alias of the audiobooks folder on my NAS and pasted this alias into the above iBook/Books folder. However, I could not import books into this alias folder or recreate the plist file based on the audiobooks inside this alias folder.
I was prepared for the audiobooks moving over to the Books app, but I don't like the fact that all my collections for audiobooks are gone. And my 628 audiobooks take up almost 250GB on my 1TB drive. The way I buy audiobooks, I'm going to fill my drive up quickly. Apple needs to make an easy way to fix this. I love the idea of moving the files over to an external drive... if they will let us. For now, though... I'll listen to them on my iPad. Even though the speakers SUCK.
Probably it's better to leave the original audiobooks folder intact in its original place. Manually add only those needed to the new Books app for listening and sync'ing. And, manually replace them with new titles when finished.
Tried to update my audiobooks on my iPhone. It failed when some audiobooks weren't authorized on the Mac(!) and only one audiobook was downloaded. I went to the library on the Mac and was able to listen to the books so the Mac is authorized. After repeated fails and a long useless chats with Apple "Help" I found this thread. Thanks for the note about the Audible app. I'll use that for now and hope for a better resolution later.
iTunes was perfectly adequate. We were promised a much better media experience with Catalina. I'm now looking at replacing my Apple machines with Microsoft products. Ones that JUST WORK. Catalina has destroyed my audiobook collection. 'Get Info' would help to reorganise, Tune Span to store and transfers to mobile devices by 'drag and drop', but they are no longer available for audiobooks. The player in Books is ridiculously small and useless. Catalina is just for Apple Music subscribers.
When I installed Catalina, I opened up I books and it imported all of my audiobook files I had in iTunes over to Books. It took a while because I had so many, but I didn't lose anything. I have been clicking and dragging the audiobooks I have on my external hard drive into Books and I have been able to link it to my iPad or iPhone. My issue is how to change the media data like I did in iTunes?
What a nightmare. On Itunes, I had all my audiobooks as playlists so eg for a series I would number the playlist name and books in a folder were in the series order. Now manually reorder in collections - after I have made them - I suppose. Categories are nonsense and apparently can't be edited. Can see that lots of my audiobooks haven't come across just by smaller list but will have to check to see which haven't. I foresee days of work for a vastly less satisfactory experience.
My Books library is over 260GB (mostly audiobooks) on my 1TB iMac. Cannot 'move' the library to my Drobo where my music and movies/tv files are. Like others here my audiobooks were removed from my iPhone and will not sync back on. I have done the 'update library' and deauthorized/reauthorized both my computer and Audible account in Books but that does not solve the syncing problem. I am currently using the iPhone apps from Audible and Big Finish Productions.
Unfortunately I did not do any research before I "upgraded" to Catalina and also did not back-up collection of my Audiobook. It took my old MacBook pro almost 2 days to transfer to iBook and they are all messed up and out of sorts. All the countless hours i spent to in preparing a single audiobook, all in disarray! Any help out there? Can you imagine how long to transfers Games of thrones to audiobook with 38 discs? i think i found my next company to boycott!
It deleted all my audiobook playlists. They're gone. I put 15 years of work into those, over a thousand audiobooks cut up and organized and Catalina deleted it all. Why wouldn't they transfer to iBook's "Collections"? This is catastrophic data loss for me. How could they do this. Why not warn people before you delete their work 2ff7e9595c
Comments