Audiobook Metadata Plugins for Calibre

[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.

These plugins requires Calibre version 7.0.0 or above to function correctly.

Both plugins support the following audio formats: m4b, m4a, mp3, ogg, opus, flac, wma, mp4, and aiff.

Plugin 1: 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

Plugin 2: Fetch Audio Meta (GUI Plugin)

Description: This new companion plugin adds a graphical interface for updating metadata of audiobooks already in your Calibre library.

Version: 0.1.22

Released: January 09, 2025

Minimum Calibre Version: 7.0

Platforms: Windows, Linux, macOS

Author: Petrus Vermaak

History: Initial release for the expanded version.

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

Features:

1. Select multiple books to process at once
2. Choose which metadata fields to update:
   • Title
   • Authors
   • Duration
   • Year
   • Genre
   • Comments
   • Cover Image
3. Visual progress tracking with percentage complete
4. Detailed error reporting for any issues encountered
5. Preserves existing metadata for unselected fields

Important Note: To use the duration feature in either plugin, 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 plugins will then automatically populate this column with the audiobook's duration when importing or updating metadata.

Both plugins handle 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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[PoP]

Nice! Thank you. Have you considered indexing your plugin?

[PetrusV]

OK submitted

[dunhill]

Testing the plugin I have all the data complete, but this error appears when selecting all the items. If I only select duration there is no error.
My question is, apart from the duration column, should I create the year and comment columns? Or is it a language issue?

calibre, version 7.24.0
ERROR: Processing Complete with Errors: The following errors occurred:

Missing metadata:
• El Miserere by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer - Could not read selected metadata (year, genre, comments) - The file may be missing these tags

[PetrusV]

The software only needs the Duration column created (if you want the duration, it will work without), and I did not create it to update year, even though it reads it. It means your audio file is damaged or does not have the proper tags saved before hand.

Remember: Most audio file formats, including MP3, have built-in redundancy and error-resilience mechanisms that allow them to continue playing even if parts of the file are damaged. So you may never even notice it was damaged to begin with.

[mietek81]

Originally Posted by PetrusV

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

So I guess that for now there is no support for zip, rar, zab (zip with changed extension) archives of audio files?

[PetrusV]

Originally Posted by mietek81

So I guess that for now there is no support for zip, rar, zab (zip with changed extension) archives of audio files?

The plugin is designed to read audio files directly, so it doesn’t support ZIP, RAR, or ZAB archives. If your audiobooks are stored in an archive, you’d need to extract them first before adding them to Calibre. Once the individual audio files are available, the plugin can process their metadata as intended.

[vlkirkpatrick]

When I import the m4b file, the narrator is not found. I created a column for narrator as a comma separated text, shown in tag browser and checked the box for contains names.
I use OpenAudible to get my audiobook files. In that app, it shows all the metadata, including the narrator name/names. Why isn't that info being included when I add the book to my library?

[PetrusV]

Narrator metadata wasn’t included in the scope of this plugin. The details in my original post specify which metadata fields are imported, and unfortunately narrator isn’t one of them. With so many tag fields available, I had to focus on the most essential ones. If you need that information, you’ll need to add it manually or modify the code. My main priority was ensuring the plugin works reliably for the supported fields rather than covering every possible scenario. Hope that helps!