Import Audiobooks Metadata (Import Plugin)

[PetrusV]

I couldn't find a plugin that could handle all the metadata features I wanted for audiobooks, so I expanded on Artur Kupiec's excellent audiobook metadata plugin (https://github.com/akupiec/calibre_p...obook-metadata) and created a companion GUI plugin for reprocessing existing audiobooks.

Import Audiobooks Metadata (Import Plugin)

Description: This expanded version of the original plugin automatically imports metadata when adding new audiobooks to Calibre.

Version: 0.2.7

Released: January 09, 2025

Minimum Calibre Version: 7.0

Platforms: Windows, Linux, macOS

Author: Artur Kupiec, expanded by Petrus Vermaak

History: Initial release for the expanded version.

Supported Formats: m4b, m4a, mp3, ogg, opus, flac, wma, mp4, aiff

Features:

1. Automatically processes metadata when adding new audiobooks
2. Extracts and imports:
   • Title (removes common suffixes like "Unabridged" and "Audiobook")
   • Authors (combines album artist, artist, and composer fields intelligently)
   • Publication year
   • Cover image
   • Copyright information
   • Genre tags
   • Comments/description
   • Duration (requires custom column setup)
3. Robust error handling and validation
4. Fallback to ffprobe for duration if the primary method fails
5. Prevents duplicate author entries while maintaining proper order

Important Note: To use the duration feature, you must first create a custom column in Calibre:

1. Go to Preferences → Add your own columns
2. Create a new custom column with the following settings:
   • Type: Text
   • Heading: Duration
   • Column name: duration
   • Description: Audiobook duration in HH:MM:SS format

The plugin will then automatically populate this column with the audiobook's duration when importing or updating metadata.

The plugin handles errors gracefully and provide feedback if any metadata fields couldn't be read or if files are damaged/unsupported. The GUI plugin particularly makes it easy to batch update metadata and see exactly what was updated or if any issues occurred during processing.

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[fidvo]

Thanks for this plugin! I've been looking for something like this since an older similar plugin stopped working. I can't believe I didn't see this until now.

I do have a couple of ideas that might improve it. They're not really bugs, because there might be a reason why you did it this way, so let's just call them suggestions.

I took a look at the source code and even made these changes in my personal copy of the plugin, so I know they're easy to implement if you think they're worthwhile.

1. Currently, Album takes precedence over Title when populating the Title field in Calibre. To me it seems it should be the other way around.

If you want to change it, simply swapping the order of tag.album and tag.title in the first line of the get_title_from_tag function would make Title take precedence.

2. Album and Track seem like a good match for Series and Series index in Calibre.

A handful of additional lines in the get_metadata function would take care of this.

Thanks again!