Can't change media type to Audiobook

BocaBoy wrote:

The answer to this ended up being that Audiobook had to be chosen from both the Info and Options tabs of the Get Info dialog box.

Genre on the Options tab does not decide where it goes in iTunes.

It was simply a fluke that it worked when you selected that.

It is not the Genre you need to change.

In the Get Info dialog select the Options page and change Media Kind from Music to Audiobook

Ah you are using Audiobooks that are a series of mp3 files. Just checked on my machine and it works for mp3 files. Not sure why yours are greyed out.

This article may help. But first close and reopen itunes to see if they functions are freed up

http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/audiobooks.asp

iTunes 11 isn't letting .M4a Music files use the Media Kind to change them to .M4b AudioBook files. Verify your file type by right/option clicking show in finder on your problem album.

My guess is if you delete (but keep original) from iTunes, change the file type and re-add you should be fine.

Hi,

Do you have iTunes Match? If so, this is a reason why media kind cannot be changed.

Jim

Doing this makes no difference for me. I'm able to choose "Audiobook" for the Media Kind, but I find it does not stick. It just reverts to Music when I get info again. But it does, having chosen Audiobook for Media Kind, put the files into the Books section.

I really need to get the Audiobook setting to stick for the Media Kind somehow. I think it's attrocious that this basic funcitonality isn't working. This is for iTunes 11.0.4 now. Still not working.

Mine is similar....sometimes happens with TV Shows too but they are grouped in the right section and do show up in the right section on iOS devices and Apple TV.

Best not to keep looking at the info after you have changed it and it looks like it's working ;-)

Problem is it needs to change/stick for my iPod to treat it properly. It's failing to remember my position which is the whole reason I'm using iTunes and bought an iPod.

So, the deal for me was kind of simple. Since iTunes Match was engaged it was not allowing me to switch my audio book from music to audio book. So, what I did was, drag the media to the desktop, then I deleted the media from within iTunes. When it asked me to delete from iTunes Match / Cloud as well, I said, yes. Then I reimported and before it 'Synced' up to Match again. I was able to 'get info' and switch all from music to audio book. Hope this helps.

This solves the problem. You're most likely only having this issue if you are an iTunes Match subscriber.

I have the same issue with audiobooks, some podcasts and even some ring tones that relentlessly appear within the Music folder no matter what you do.

I did discover that switching iTunes Match to 'off' would make the previously grayed-out Media Kind option re appear for changing (although note: there's strangly no Ringtone option here). This then enabled iTunes to automatically re-locate the Media Kind to it's correct location when selected within options. Problem is that I've paid for iTunes Match and would prefere if it was not disabled but as you may be aware, is that when re-enabling iTunes Match the problem re-appears again.

I have read Matt Miller3's solution and will no doubt have to perform that task as a fix (thanks Matt Miller3). But I'm left wondering on a couple of issues; firstly, is iTunes Match incapable of auto-refreshing changed and edited information & attributes to the referenced and stored information within the cloud? (I am shocked), secondly, if dragging all those files/audio books in question out of iTunes (with Match disabled), then deleting within iTunes before finally draging back into iTunes and setting the correct Medi Kind in Options before re-enabling Match, does any re-compression take place when dragging out of and then back into iTunes resulting in a slighlty lesser quality that before?

Mmmm.... as a side note iTunes Match does have some surprises and I was caught out with many higher quality lossles files not being matched even though they're probably the most widely available albums in history which I had manually added from my CD albums (Bad, Dangerous,Blood on the Dance Floor, etc). I would have thought that Match at the very least would run a kind of Shazam short listening test regardles of stored song quality type and then match and make available in the cloud as Apple's iTunes Plus only quality - this would have been more than acceptable.

ℹ I had the same problem. AFTER i had imported the audiobook c.d i went onto my music library and highlighted all of the tracks. After higlighting I right clicked and selected get info. i went to the options tab and changed the media kind to audiobook. I did change the genre (on info tab) to books and spoken. I dont know if this needed to be done but you can try it. I could then change the option for it to be missed out of shuffle and to stay in order. FOR ALL OF THIS TO WORK YOU HAVE TO HIGHLIGHT ALL OF THE TRACKS AND GET GROUP INFO.

Hope this helps.

And good luck! 🙂

THX Matt Miller3 That worked!!!