iOS 5 Music.app on iPad doesn't support audiobook chapters

I too use Apple products as tools everyday — to run my business. And of course to enjoy personally as well. I trust the quality and attention to detail. I was feeling somewhat pacified because I knew I had the Audible App to use while Apple got its act together and fixed the new Music App. Now however there is real urgency… since this looks deliberate.

You mentioned a few days ago that you feel Apple does not read these forums… you provided a link to Apple Feedback. If that's true then we ALL need to start sending our complaints directly to Apple – use the Apple Feedback link.

Also send complaints about the Music App (specific to Audiobook playback) to online tech magazines who review Apple iDevices and iOS upgrades. If Apple sees this as a public relations issue or anything that may undermine the famous perception of "ease of use" for which Apple is so famous, then perhaps they may be more inclined to make fixing the Music App a priority – IF, it really is a quality control problem… though as I said, it is starting to appear that the deletion of features and functionality for local use on iPhone, iPod and iPad were deliberate decisions and iCloud user migration is job one for Apple right now – where those features magically are restored. Worrisome.

iOS 5 update has destroyed the functionality of the Music.app that I used primarily for listening to Classical Music and Audio Books.

The noise on the forums is getting louder, and is starting to increase in the tech media.

The Music.app has been changed to such a point that product functionality is so degraded even keeping iOS 5 devices is in question. The Apple eco system seems to have already begun to fragment!

😟 sent to Apple Feedback

I have over 98 audio books and I updated from 4.3 to 5.0.1 to find that I too now have this non next chapter automatic play so I called apple care for help where basically I was told just to reinstall iTunes and restore my iPad as well which like a lot of you I have done and like the rest no joy so the only other solution I could think of where I could still enjoy my audio books was to stitch the audio files together and convert them to mp3 and then enjoy them as one large file ok you loose the chapters but you still enjoy the book most audio books unless their ripped from sharing sites when the new chapter starts it tells you any way with chapter number and or title so as long as you have ticked remember position and skip shuffle in iTunes get info then I see this as a rather worth while solution until a bug fix is deployed.

The free prog is called Audacity 1.3 for windows you can also get this prog for the mac as well it allows you to stitch audio files together so in stead of having for example 3 large files for and audio book with say 5 chapters in each file you can stitch them all together as one large 15 chapter file it also allows you to adjust the meta data which is very handy.

Depending on how many chapters you have can take some time to do this but is so well worth it when if it was not done you could have an audio book with 150 chapters of 3 mins long which would mean every 3 mins you would have to select the next chapter to play.

I hope that this info has helped any one who like myself is having the same fault with their audio books not playing correctly.

btw as an example it took me all in all 34 mins to stitch the whole audio book of eclipse together and then convert it save it and then drag and drop the file in to the automatically add to iTunes folder this included sorting out the meta data too. So not to bad and that was the fourth audio book I'd tried to do this process to with such a programme.

Not really?! Are you kiddin' me?
I don't wanna potter around with my iPad like on a Windows PC!!! This is still a Mac and therefore I demand Apple to restore it's previous functionalities and ease of use. Nothing against improving a product, but it really gets me angry when it comes to a downgrade - like this.

ok how about another solution to the problem till a bug fix is released if evtough at about you turn you're audio book files into mp3's if they arnt already re-author them as music make a separate play list in iTunes named audio books and then place you're audio books in there for the time being yes I know it's not what any of us want we don't want to have to look for work rounds we all want our products to work right out of the box I paid a **** of a lot of money for my iPad 64gig 3G and I've had to have it replaced twice because it's not a perfect world and things don't always work right right out of the box if ever that's the world we live in where corps are hungry to take you're money then trickle feed you tech at premium price with substandard components and software and feel its ok to hold of fixing an excisiting problem because they ignore you then with big fat Chester cat smiles they announce the next best bit of tech that will run faster run longer be tougher have more functions do more for you in you're busy life that could be done right now with every thing else not working well this one brand new piece of tech will solve all this buy buy buy now so we buy and low and behold the battery runs for only half the time of the last improved tech what's this the same faults on the new tech as the old tech arrrr con'ed the corps got my money again this year I promised I wouldn't by until I was sure that this new piece of god like tech worked as promised but the temptation to be one of the first few thousand to own this new tech got the best of me and here I am in a forum asking does any body know how to get my tech to read and show chapters **** I bet if I bought the next bit of tech they will have it sorted out oh wait you mean it's happening to the latest bit of tech too **** well not long I know that they will be releasing some new tech in just a few months that more than likly why they haven't had time to address the fault in this device and the latest one but I'm sure they will have it sorted out in the next bit of tech till then I'll save all my money so I can be sure to be in the first few thousand to get this new tech and all will be right in the world again when it plays my audio book chapters one after the other with out have to manually select the next chapter my self plus I'll be able to see the missing chapter titles again but looking back on things I could have saved myself a lot of time anger and money and just used one of the work rounds that ppl put up in the forums I went to in the beginning where I was looking for help in stead of stand fast and repeating the point being that I shouldn't have to do any thing to sort this problem out its not my fault the device isn't working as it should and I'm not going to work with any other programme that might help me to have a modicome of enjoyment from the very files I asked for help with in the first place no, noway not at all I want a full fix right now and nothing short of what I want will make me happy time to face facts they are not going to sink lots of time and money into sorting this bug out when they are so close to releasing their next big piece of tech which I'm sure will have another major down load update for us to do so that we get the best out of our devices and to which we will find in that new update right away that the fools have missed out functions that we used previously on other devices and that the bugs that we were promised that would be non existent in the new tech are indeed still there in abundance waiting for ppl to find and to start new threads again in the devices forums complaint of functions not working and how it's down to the big corps to sort out and how that we are not going to use a work round as it defeats the problem that the corps should have fixed and in the first instance and not have had an issue with in the first place and and since it's a new bit of tech there will also new bugs new updates new ppl who are p:$$3d off than the people. So sorry if this isn't what you're all looking for It's an idea you could use for now till a better work round or patch is released.

Hay it's an idea that works so far what have you acomplished nothing you ask for help you deny the suggestions because it involves work in doing so you're just happy to bleet about a problem that we are facing and dont seem to be any closer to the fix now the 98 audio books that I have didn't take me very long to convert them and to move them to the suggested play list in music I guess you'll never be happy till the iOS has its music.app back exactly the way it was before the dreadfully messed up 5.0-5.0.1 well you carry on moaning while I plug my sound bar into my iPad and listen to one of my favourite audio books with chapters an all. Please save some energy and time don't reply to this post as I've no intention in following it up with a reply back to you instead use the time you would have spent constructing another argument in looking for some thing else to moan and argue about or go make you're self a warm drink and chill out and listen to one of you're audio books. I wish you all the best.

@ csayce

What if one is visualy impaired. How is it even possible for such users of iOS5 products to do what you suggest?

Mac users are used to ease of use and an 'It just works' environment. If I wanted to do what you're suggesting I'd buy a Windows PC and tinker and hack.

I have an iPad 2, not Jailbroken but just as Apple intended, so I am locked (yes I admit freely by my chjoice to buy Apple products) into the Apple eco system, so when functionality is stripped from the products I have paid a premium for I become confused, frustrated and angry, as it seems are others.

Apple have made a huge miscalculation over this decision to strip functionality from the Music.app and sideline AudioBook users, this may well bite them in the A%*$! and really for what purpose, I don't understand these changes at all to be honest and with no word from Apple on the subject people are going to become more and more angry!

Hi hugothebear.

I too am very annoyed at this situation and for the ppl who do not have the ability to do the suggested work rounds that I put forward this is trully a pain in the butt I wish that this hadn't happened as like many if not all iPad user I don't want to have to tinker with audio files to get them to work where only the night before I unfortunately updated my iOS they worked fine and I have contacted apple care and tried to get to speak to all manner of ppl only to be told that these ppl don't talk to customers over the phone and that they don't have a direct email addie that they can be contacted on the only way to contact them is to write them a letter or through customer feed back?????? Fat lot of got that is to me as I can't write since I broke my neck and I'm now a quadriplegic so I found out this work rounds and yes some take a while to do but as a lot of ppl I'm guessing already have their audio books as mp3 files and all that's needed is that they swap them from their book folder in iTunes to their music folder then drag and drop them into a custom made folder with a title for example audio books this would then allow them to list to the audio books again as if the were in the genuine book folder as for ppl like you're self who have no PC or IMac then this ***** worse of all for you as you simple have no choice but to either wait for a fix when ever that may be or do an app search for an app that allows you to cut and splice audio files with the hope that it allows you acces to you're audio books folder to do the job and see if you can do some thing that way there is nothing else I can suggest short of seeking advice from you're local consumer advice agencie and see if you could perhaps get an action against apple for its will full damage of you're iPad and it's operating system which I doubt you'll find much luck with as you agreed to the terms when you upgraded for free now put you're hands up in the air if you'd rather an apple with a bite taken out of it (ipad ios not working correctly) or a whole apple ( iPad iOS working fully).

I used my iPad for audiobooks since day one. IOS 5 have stripped me of the pleasure of listening to my audiobooks. This is a major flaw and a huge pain in my rear. This needs to be fixed ASAP. As an Apple Campus Store rep I have been receiving a lot of complaints about this error. You have alienated a lot of loyal customers (and a few sales people) by removing the continuous play for audiobooks. I am very disappointed.

This is strange. I do have rewind 30 sec backward on my iphone, but I also lost chapter functionality

on iphone 4 (and ipod touch 3) after upgrading to ios5. So this is not only ipad issue.

Really? That's an interesting issue. Mine does. No prob with the music.app on my iphone 4 and everything works as it should. I own audible audiobooks and self-ripped CDs converted to m4a.

I am using only my own m4b prepared by audiobook binder from mp3 files. I checked my old books which worked perfectly on ios4 - they also do not show chapters now.

Keep sending our frustrations over this functionality stripping to Apple through feedback!

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html