KOA2 - Can you sideload Audible books?

[Mavrique]

Hi All,

Just a quick question. I know it is not possible to sideload MP3 formatted books onto the KAO2; but has anyone tried or does anyone know if it is possible to sideload an audible (formatted) book and have it work?

I'm hoping the answer/s will help make the decision on whether to go for an 8GB or 32GB model.

Thanks in advance.

M.

[tomsem]

Yes, it will work, but only for .aax (Enhanced), not .aa (Format 4, which is about half the size). Only .aax format is supported by Kindle, it seems. (I have Kindle 8th gen, which just got Audible support and so it should also be same with Oasis).

This is baffling to me, since I suspect most people would prefer to conserve space in exchange for the negligible difference in audio quality. Moreover, .aax will not download in ‘parts’, whereas .aa will. But I think this was also the case with Kindle Touch, which was the previous Kindle supporting Audible (but you seem to have one, so you can verify it yourself).

The steps are (assuming your Audible and Amazon accounts are linked):
- go to Library page on Audible.com
- select ‘Enhanced’ Audio Quality
- click Download link
- connect Kindle and drag .aax file to /audible folder
- eject from computer

One cavaet: the one side-loaded .aax I tried had noticeable distortion when played at 1.25x or higher speed (maybe even at 1x speed - I would need to repeat the experiment to verify). When I deleted it and downloaded wirelessly this distortion went away. I don’t know if this is an issue with the download in question or would if it would affect all downloaded books. Certainly if it is the latter, it should be brought to Audible’s attention that the issue exists, it should not be so. I don’t have any requirement to side-load .aax myself, as it is far more convenient to download wirelessly (and you can start listening right away).

I may experience with a different book later on.

Is there some reason you prefer side-loading instead of WiFi? Or using a Kindle instead of a smartphone?

First impressions: it works better than I had expected. I don’t know that I’ll be using it much, however.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by tomsem

This is baffling to me, since I suspect most people would prefer to conserve space in exchange for the negligible difference in audio quality. Moreover, .aax will not download in ‘parts’, whereas .aa will.

I am assuming the one file vs multiple files (if that is what happens with 'parts' in .aa) is the reason that only .aax is supported. Since the Kindles are relatively slow it probably makes sense to have the file format that requires less cpu power to decode.

A partial download of an audiobook can be listened to right away after some of it is downloaded - IIRC it says something "ready to listen" after a while. So it is not necessary to wait for the download to finish. Downloading The Stand with 670 mb took quite a while when I was testing Audible out.

[vrf]

So how might one convert a bunch of MP3 episodes of Radio Lab to an AAX file to listen to on KO2? Is that sort of conversion even possible?

[Mavrique]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Is there some reason you prefer side-loading instead of WiFi? Or using a Kindle instead of a smartphone?

First impressions: it works better than I had expected. I don’t know that I’ll be using it much, however.

It's a long story which I won't go into now but I have a number of books from different sources all converted to MP3 so that I could listen to them on my phone and/or tablet. However I thought it might be nice to have all my books and audiobooks together on one device.

Having now bought the Oasis (at a brilliant knock-down price I might add ) I tried side-loading one of my other audiobooks (converted to aax) on to the device. Unfortunately although it recognises it it won't play it.
It basically says it can't play it as its not recognised as one of the books in my audible account.

Its a bit of a shame really because (like many of the community) I wanted to do the same as I do with my ebooks. i.e. use Calibre or some other library management tool to backup and manage my collection offline and then load the books I want to read (or listen to) when I'm ready.

Gutted! Unless anyone has any ideas about how to solve this little conundrum?

[tejasvi88]

.....

[tejasvi88]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Yes, it will work, but only for .aax (Enhanced), not .aa (Format 4, which is about half the size). Only .aax format is supported by Kindle, it seems. (I have Kindle 8th gen, which just got Audible support and so it should also be same with Oasis).

This is baffling to me, since I suspect most people would prefer to conserve space in exchange for the negligible difference in audio quality. Moreover, .aax will not download in ‘parts’, whereas .aa will. But I think this was also the case with Kindle Touch, which was the previous Kindle supporting Audible (but you seem to have one, so you can verify it yourself).

The steps are (assuming your Audible and Amazon accounts are linked):
- go to Library page on Audible.com
- select ‘Enhanced’ Audio Quality
- click Download link
- connect Kindle and drag .aax file to /audible folder
- eject from computer

One cavaet: the one side-loaded .aax I tried had noticeable distortion when played at 1.25x or higher speed (maybe even at 1x speed - I would need to repeat the experiment to verify). When I deleted it and downloaded wirelessly this distortion went away. I don’t know if this is an issue with the download in question or would if it would affect all downloaded books. Certainly if it is the latter, it should be brought to Audible’s attention that the issue exists, it should not be so. I don’t have any requirement to side-load .aax myself, as it is far more convenient to download wirelessly (and you can start listening right away).

I may experience with a different book later on.

Is there some reason you prefer side-loading instead of WiFi? Or using a Kindle instead of a smartphone?

First impressions: it works better than I had expected. I don’t know that I’ll be using it much, however.

Is it for any .aax files or only audible?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by tejasvi88

Is it for any .aax files or only audible?

Only for .aax files you can convince the Kindle to recognize as being in your Audible library as this post suggests:

Originally Posted by Mavrique

I tried side-loading one of my other audiobooks (converted to aax) on to the device. Unfortunately although it recognises it it won't play it.
It basically says it can't play it as its not recognised as one of the books in my audible account.

Hard to tell how much you need to modify a non audible .aax to play. In case of ebooks it is enough to have the correct ASIN number, I believe. No idea about audiobooks.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Only for .aax files you can convince the Kindle to recognize as being in your Audible library as this post suggests:

Hard to tell how much you need to modify a non audible .aax to play. In case of ebooks it is enough to have the correct ASIN number, I believe. No idea about audiobooks.

I just tried with an aax from a different aax account than the one that is associated with my Kindle and it did not play. Gave me a message that the file is not in the cloud and therefore cannot be played.
Has anyone found a way to overcome this?

[mergen3107]

They are most probably DRM’d or something like that.

[johnnyb]

Yeah most likely some DRM type resteiction.
I really think that Amazon has an account problem. I discovered that I actually have three sets of Audible books (one on the US account, one on the German side of my US account, and one on the German account I opened with Amazon‘s blessing to be able to use German Prime Video on a Fire TV while still retaining the possibility to purchase books from the US on my main account). I never noticed until now because I always downloaded my books into iTunes right away.
There seems to be no way to consolidate these (so I stopped my subscription).

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Is there some reason you prefer side-loading instead of WiFi? Or using a Kindle instead of a smartphone?

A lot of us sideload stuff not bought from Audible. So, far, I've only been able to sideload on the Kindle Keyboard, which accepts Mp3. I usually have only the next 2 or 3 books in a series. As to the Smartphone, there are really people like me who either don't own a smartphone or have a company smartphone were personal files aren't allowed (think government owned).

[tomsem]

You can purchase dedicated MP3 players for under $20. Much better than a Kindle Keyboard for this purpose.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by tomsem

You can purchase dedicated MP3 players for under $20. Much better than a Kindle Keyboard for this purpose.

I think this is well understood. However, at least in my case, I already have the 32GB player, I just cannot use my audiobooks with it

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by tomsem

You can purchase dedicated MP3 players for under $20. Much better than a Kindle Keyboard for this purpose.

True - I normally use the text-to-speech rather than audiobooks on the Kindle Keyboard but it's a nice option if you can only take one item. Remember, not everybody has a smartphone. I know, hard to believe. We're even thinking of dropping the flipphone because I barely use it.