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pwalker8 · 05-12-2019, 02:51 PM

This particular discussion has been mentioned in a couple other threads, but I thought that I would start a new thread since I couldn't find the others.

My primary audiobook database has been iTunes. The main reason is that I have been using iTunes to transfer audiobooks to my iPhone/iPad and I can put both Audible books as well as books from other sources (I've got about 30 or so from non audible sources such as the LOTR and Harry Potter audiobooks)

A few months ago, I upgraded my car audio system to a new unit that included support for Apple's CarPlay which supports both Audible's app as well as Apple's Books app. I mostly use Audible's app at the moment and it works pretty well for me. The downside is that it only support's audbile books downloaded via the app from Audible to the device (i.e. iPhone). It works well enough in the car, I just have to remember to keep 4 or 5 audible books downloaded to my phone and I can easily pull up the next when a book finishes.

However, it doesn't really solve my problem with keeping my some 700+ audiobooks organized. iTunes has all the audiobooks, but it doesn't support series or narrators, plus one can not update certain info manually such as last played or if a book was listened to or not. So I decided to try Calibre.

I use Calibre for ebooks, but one can have multiple libraries, so I created a new library for audiobooks. I had tried Calibre before, but I couldn't get it to read the metadata for my audible books. This time, I downloaded an older calibre plug in that is suppose to read the meta data from audible, and I loaded the mp3 files that had the DRM removed rather the original audible files. This worked a lot better for me.

The downsides - first it's slow. I've been reading them in groups of about 10 or so at a time and it takes a good 5 minutes per group. Second, the metadata doesn't read in perfectly. The book name, author name and series info is all there, but it's repeated in the different fields, so I need to edit each book after I load them. Oddly, some books come through mostly correct while others are a little more mangled. It seems to be based on when I downloaded them. It's not horrible, it takes less than a minute to fix the info for each book, plus I can download the cover art. Last, the narrator isn't included in the meta data.

Fortunately, the narrator is included in the iPad version of the Audible app, so I can type that information in over a period of time. So it's going to take me a certain amount of time to get everything in to my satisfaction, but once I get the initial load done, adding new audiobooks as I buy them won't take more than a few minutes since I typically buy in groups less than 10.

The payoff - it will be a lot easier to see what books I have, what I haven't listened to, series and to be listened to lists.

05-12-2019, 02:51 PM	#1
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,196 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	Audiobooks and Calibre This particular discussion has been mentioned in a couple other threads, but I thought that I would start a new thread since I couldn't find the others. My primary audiobook database has been iTunes. The main reason is that I have been using iTunes to transfer audiobooks to my iPhone/iPad and I can put both Audible books as well as books from other sources (I've got about 30 or so from non audible sources such as the LOTR and Harry Potter audiobooks) A few months ago, I upgraded my car audio system to a new unit that included support for Apple's CarPlay which supports both Audible's app as well as Apple's Books app. I mostly use Audible's app at the moment and it works pretty well for me. The downside is that it only support's audbile books downloaded via the app from Audible to the device (i.e. iPhone). It works well enough in the car, I just have to remember to keep 4 or 5 audible books downloaded to my phone and I can easily pull up the next when a book finishes. However, it doesn't really solve my problem with keeping my some 700+ audiobooks organized. iTunes has all the audiobooks, but it doesn't support series or narrators, plus one can not update certain info manually such as last played or if a book was listened to or not. So I decided to try Calibre. I use Calibre for ebooks, but one can have multiple libraries, so I created a new library for audiobooks. I had tried Calibre before, but I couldn't get it to read the metadata for my audible books. This time, I downloaded an older calibre plug in that is suppose to read the meta data from audible, and I loaded the mp3 files that had the DRM removed rather the original audible files. This worked a lot better for me. The downsides - first it's slow. I've been reading them in groups of about 10 or so at a time and it takes a good 5 minutes per group. Second, the metadata doesn't read in perfectly. The book name, author name and series info is all there, but it's repeated in the different fields, so I need to edit each book after I load them. Oddly, some books come through mostly correct while others are a little more mangled. It seems to be based on when I downloaded them. It's not horrible, it takes less than a minute to fix the info for each book, plus I can download the cover art. Last, the narrator isn't included in the meta data. Fortunately, the narrator is included in the iPad version of the Audible app, so I can type that information in over a period of time. So it's going to take me a certain amount of time to get everything in to my satisfaction, but once I get the initial load done, adding new audiobooks as I buy them won't take more than a few minutes since I typically buy in groups less than 10. The payoff - it will be a lot easier to see what books I have, what I haven't listened to, series and to be listened to lists.