Can't change media type to Audiobook

I found none of the solutions here worked for me however I tried selecting all the tracks of the audiobook right clicking and selecting "create AAC version" This took a while to convert but once converted the files were free to move as normal I hope this helps others having the same problem as me.

Thanks!!!!!!!! How do I do one of those stars to say this helped me?

itunesEP wrote:

FOR ALL OF THIS TO WORK YOU HAVE TO HIGHLIGHT ALL OF THE TRACKS AND GET GROUP INFO.

OR YOU COULD SELECT THEM ONE AT A TIME AND DO THE SAME.

I think your original files are set to read only. Try going to the .mp3 files, highlight them all, right click, properties and then untick read only. Then try to change in iTunes again. It should work :)

god this helped, everything else seem to be pointless solutions since this one is quite obvious and east

Does not work for me. All the files (which I have already changed with Automator from m4a to m4b) are read-write, but the Media Kind is still grayed-out in the Options tab of lthe Get Info box.

@Amt_2001uk ty very much

Poof, fixed it with simply unchecking read-only. Thanks!

Thank you soooo much!

I have struggled with this since iTunes match and i think IOS6. iTunes match would not load any of my audiobooks I bought outside of Apple, they would have the cloud crossed out, and of course you can't synch any "music" anymore manually with iTunes match so I figured I was SOL, no longer being able to listen to my audiobook library on iPhone or iPad. I was embarassed to mention the limitation because it was one more thing people would bash iPhone/iTunes limitations for, paying more to lose your ability to listen to audiobooks....

I did not realize manually changing it to audobook type now allows me to synch and listen to audiobooks again without disabling itunes match! It's weird that itunes recognizes it's an audiobook and says it's not eligibile for itunes match but doesn't allow it to synch any other way by default, but changing it to audiobook type unbinds my audiobooks for synching again! Sorry. I'm blabbing. Gaining back the ability to synch audiobooks makes me happy. I used to just have them in music playlists before itunes match disabled them, and I didn't realize I could re-enable by changing media type. I'm embarassed but happy! Thanks again!

Thank you!

I had the same problem as BocaBoy after adding a mp.3 audiobook.

This tip helped for me! The audiobook ended up right and I could even add artwork! :-) *phu* 🙂

My discovery, using Windows computer and iTunes 12:

I transfer mp3 audiobook files by dragging them (using Windows Explorer) into a playlist in iTune (I create an appropriately named playlist first). In iTunes I then select all the files in the playlist (Ctrl+A), right-click and select 'get info'. On the 'Options' tab I change the 'media kind' to Audiobook. If all the files have the same album name, they appear in 'Books' and 'My Audiobooks' as an audiobook in the iTune list. I then sync the book to my iPhone.

Hint: I use a free program called Tagscan to modify the mp3 files before importing them to iTunes. As iTunes ignores file names and uses the tags for file identification, I use the Tag Processor tab in Tagscan to change the tags to be the same as the file names). I also use Tagscan to give all the files the album name using the name of the book (which becomes the name of the audiobook) and a cover picture (just for fun).

The problem I came across recently is that I can change the media kind for multiple files, but if I have an audiobook that comprises only one mp3 file, iTunes refuses the change the media kind. The trick is: I put another mp3 file in the same playlist, select both files and change the media kind to audiobook, then delete the second file.

I just had downloaded an audio book and did the drag the files from the download folder to iTunes music folder. That worked like a charm but audiobook files showed as music. I am on the latest ITunes version and I had no problem right clicking either the files in the folder or I right clicked the whole folder (had three folders that represented the three disks of the book with chapter files in each) clicking the Get Info tab. Then click the options tab. Then put curser at the Media Kind and then the drop down menu came up with the options and Audio Book was one of them. Clicked that and the file, whole folder, either way moved my files to the iTunes Audio Books partition. No sweat. Hope this helps. It worked for me.

Make sure that the file isn't "read only" in explorer, or the equivalent on osx. Was having the same issue.

Make sure you Import the CD first (top right hand corner if iTunes is default).

May have to change AIFF to MP3 (in preferences or will ask when importing depending on which iTunes version you're using).

Bingo. Thank you very much.