iOS 7 and Audiobook Chapters

MacinNW_Brent, yeah I agree it’d be worth it if you know you’re going to be listening to audiobooks often. In my case there’s a lot of good free podcasts I listen to too, including the news. Anyway, I just checked the Audible site and as of this date, for 24 books in a 12 month period costs $229.50 (which comes to $9.56 a book). If you want to go on the monthly plan and do 2 books per month, it’s $22.95 per month ($11.48 a book). So that’s definitely a quantity deal you’re getting there but again you’d have to know that you listen to that many audiobooks in that amount of time.

That $9.95 per year plan you’re talking about is only available to members who’ve accumulated a great amount of credits, which I assume you have. Also, I can confirm the Audible app does play audiobooks purchased from iTunes, it’s just that the chapters are missing.

Also, I have to make a correction. In my previous post I said there was an audiobook selling for $9.95 at iTunes but $23.09 at Audible. That Audible price was for the unabridged version (ie/ unshortened, twice the length of the abridged version). The abridged version was still more expensive but comparable to the iTunes price, which was $10.49 (vs iTunes $9.95). That iTunes price is also for the abridged version. But still, everything seems to be more expensive at Audible as a non-member compared to iTunes. For a more known title, 50 Shades of Grey: Book One of the Trilogy, it costs $26.95 at iTunes but the non-member price at Audible is $33.60. Again, if you subscribe to the Audible plan, that book becomes cheaper. And again, you’d have to decide if you listen enough so see if it’d be worth it for you.

Another thing you’d probably have to check out is the price range of the audiobooks you think you might be purchasing. If I bought that previous audiobook I mentioned at the non-member price of $10.49 and bought no other book in that month, then it wouldn’t be worth it for me to spend $14.95/month on an Audible subscription. Anyway, thanks for all the feedback here and I hope 3rd party app developers are paying attention (like duke)!

So here's something I just found tracking down a difficult bug...

If you purchase an audiobook from iTunes and download it on the iPhone, it presents itself as an .m4b audiobook including chapter information! However, the first time you sync, it replaces the audiofiles with the opaque versions with no chapter info. I'm going to capture the chapter information when this happens and use it with the opaque version later.

-Duke

I've got a problem similar to these.

Just updated to 7.0.3. Then downloaded an audiobook from a library. As usual, when the library app transfers the book through iTunes, it mis-sorts the "parts", which are images of the audio CDs, I think.

So I want to re-sort the "parts". Which you could do in the previous iOS by touching edit for the list. Now there is no edit, and I have tried tapping, dragging, double tapping, etc, etc. No joy.

Anyone have a clue here?

Please look at this thread and have a greater understanding of functionality. Notes for example i cant tap through any more. I have spent hundreds of pounds on audiobooks many with 20 or 30 chapters!! How can i find the page i need now you have removed this basic function. WAKE UP like nokia if you dont listen to your customers you will like fallen fruit go bad.

lkmckin,

What do you use to listen to your audiobooks with? I have never seen edit on the iPhone.

The size of the parts depends upon where you got the audiobook. I have audiobooks from Audible, that have 1 to 4 download parts, that are generally equivalent to 2 to 3 CDs. The recording sections from Audible are often 15 to 60 minutes, where as I have seen audiobooks from other sources with recording sections as short as 15 seconds.

normskiii,

90% or better of who read Apple Discussions are users. Use feedback if you want to talk to Apple. Just don't expect to get a response from Apple here or there.

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

The music app on the iPhone has an audiobook category. I download the books from the library using the library's Overdrive program. They then get transferred to the iPhone through iTunes. But the "parts" don't get stored on the phone in order, and I can't reorder them in the phone.

The "parts" that the books get divided into are all < 1:20 in length, so I think they correspond to the physical CDs that the audiobooks were burned from.

Anyway, I used to be able to reorder them, perhaps because they got stored as "music" instead of "audiobooks". But there appears no way to reorder "audiobooks" in the 7.0.3 iOS.

Just got off the phone with Apple Support. They know how many people are upset about this feature being removed from iOS7 and I was told that a fix should be ready within a month's time. Not sure if that is just a way to make me go away but that is the first time I've heard a time frame given for this fix. Prior it was just "we're working on it".

Have you tried downloading your library audiobooks directly into Overdrive? Overdrive has its own player and has been working well for me, in fact I'm relieved to have it since the mess iOS 7+ made of audiobook playback.

lkmckin

I have a library of about 700 audiobooks and I also borrow books with Overdrive. Like I said before, the size of the parts depends upon where you got the audiobook.

I was having problems with syncing any DRM-restricted audiobooks with iTunes 11.1 and 11.1.1. I was able to use a work around for mpp3 books from Overdrive, if I did not use Overdrive Media Console. I have not had a problem with downloaded books being out of order. I see it all tie time with books that are imported from CD.

I have never seen a way to re-order the book parts on the iPhone.

tasa, has a good point. Try using the Overdrive.app for iDevces for books that want to sync out of order. If it is just the parts and not the smaller segments, and there are usually less than 6 or 8. just select them manually.

J-Lew,

You're right, I have never heard any Apple employee give any timeline for bug fixes.

Tasa

That sounds like an excellent idea.

But the downloaded book was loaded into my "audiobooks" section of the music app, not the OverDrive app. The OverDrive app doesn't see it.

How do I get it into the OverDrive app on my iPhone?

Good timing for this question, as I've just been notified that an audiobook I've been waiting for is available for checkout. So, on my iPhone I'm

1) opening the Overdrive app,

2) tapping the icon on the upper left corner (lines, as in a list), which takes me to the Menu.

3) At the top of the menu is "My Libraries", if you've added your library to the list, tap on your library, which will take you directly to the Overdrive login page.

4) Sign in with your regular library login info,

5) tap the icon of the silhouette of a person, and choose "Holds". That should take you to a list of your ebooks and audiobooks on hold awaiting download.

6) Choose your title to download, and the item will be downloaded to the Overdrive app. All of this is done within the app, not Safari and not on your desktop computer.

7) You'll see a number in the upper left-hand corner, which is the number of sections the item has, and that will change as the download progresses.

8) Once the number is gone, and if you have no further items to download, sign out at of the Overdrive site at the top right of the page,

9) then tap the Menu icon at the upper left corner again to get back to the Menu.

10) You should see your Bookshelf right below the Libraries list, tap Bookshelf, and your ebook or audiobook should be there, ready to read/listen to.

Have you used Overdrive in the past to download ebooks from your library onto your iPhone or iPad? If you have, the process is the same for audiobooks.

Also, here's a good link to the Overdrive Help Page for "Getting started with iOS devices (iPhone/iPad/iPod touch)"

http://help.overdrive.com/article/0477/Getting-started-with-an-iOS-device-iPhone iPadiPod-touch

Any further questions, just post back here.

Good luck!

@tasa; I think there's a bit of confusion. Your instructions are very clear for downloading a book (audio or e) from a public library; however, as far as I understand Overdirve, there is no way to load audiobooks from other sources like one's computer and so forth. Many people have audiobooks (and eBooks) from a variety of sources other than public libraries and would like to play them on a single player. I don't think Overdrive can be used in this way.

Xristy, You are correct, only Library audiobooks can be downloaded to Overdrive, to my knowledge. lmkckin stated that he was trying to download Overdrive audiobooks from his library as well. For non-library, well, there's the rub, right. I was responding to his question about library books. Wish I could be more help about the others. We can all thank Apple for that mess!

The Overdrive.app on your iDevice will only play books from Overdrive. Audible.app will only play books from Audible. But I no longer need to use them as upgrading to iOS 7.0.3 and iTunes 11.1.2 has resolved my problem with syncing my iPhones.

The no Chapters in Music.app has not been resolved, but does not stop me from listening to the books.

Using Overdrive.app and Audible.app are just workarounds for me.