iOS 7 and Audiobook Chapters

If you look at the screen shot on the previous message to yours you'll see that previous versions of iPod.app and Music.app displayed chapter titles when available. Chapter artwork, when available, has been an on-again / off-again feature. While nice to have, it's not very relevant if there is no direct access / navigation to chapters

To be clear, Audible books may not have actual titles. That's up to the publisher not the distributor (Audible). Audible only shows chapter numbers.

Further, while you may not look back you're not getting access to any audioBooks except the ones distributed by Audible. So for example you can't make your own audioBooks from CDs or from recordings of lectures and so on.

Yes, Audible customer support confirms that they only have chapter numbers (hopefully they add that ability in the future). An example where chapter titles might be useful is in a textbook or reference book. They typically have many subject areas. If you refer back to the book on a regular basis, it'd be difficult with only chapter numbers. So it'd be nice to see a title and/or artwork as well.

I'm just curious, are you an author or a professor? I'm just wondering what purpose I'd have for creating an audiobook if I wasn't one. As for recordings of lectures, I did that as a student and I just used a sound recording app (which allowed indexing/bookmarking). Is there any advantage in creating an audiobook for that if you were just going to be using the recordings for your own purposes? Also, is there any type of audiobook material that you can get in iTunes that you can't get in Audible?

@InquisitiveOne: I certainly agree that chapter titling is a useful feature and chapter artwork can enhance the user experience.

I'm not a professor but I have prepared audioBooks for courses of lectures to be distributed to students. You'll find that sort of thing on Audible in the various "The Great Courses" offerings.

Also several years ago on an earlier thread lamenting the loss of chapter information in iPod/Music app on iPad, there was a user who said they were from a federal agency that had developed a training manual that included audioBooks prepared in-house and the loss of chapter information and navigation was particularly irksome in that application.

One of the benefits of the audioBook format (m4b or aa) is that large chunks of material are in a single file / segment and a reasonable player will "remember" the last location within the file; however, schemes based on mp3 / chapter don't work so well since players usually don't long remember the last track heard in an album.

Another benefit of the audioBook format is that bundling multiple chapters together in a single file ensures the play order whereas separate mp3 files can be ordered iin various ways depending on whether file naming or id3 tag naming is used and whether the information is consistent between these.

One of the irksome aspects of the removal of functionality from the iPod/Music app in iOS is that was originally the only way to playback audioBooks from a variety of sources other than the iTunes store (which as far as I know exclusively distributes Audible content).

Since the early days other audio book players for various formats and sources - out-of-copyright readings, public libraries, and so on - have appeared such as the BookMobile and AudioMark and the Overdrive apps.

The Audible app does not provide for any method of loading audioBooks other than via the Audible cloud and the ability to "play" audioBooks from the iTunes shared "MyLibrary" area expressly will not present chapter information to the user - instead a notice is presented saying that the chapter information from the shared library area is not available.

One of the irksome aspects of the removal of functionality from the iPod/Music app in iOS is that was originally the only way to playback audioBooks from a variety of sources other than the iTunes store (which as far as I know exclusively distributes Audible content).

Perhaps this is why Apple refuses to fix, or comment on, the chapter issue. I never realized that Audible was the only vendor of audiobooks in the iTunes store. If Apple has an agreement with Audible, one which is meant to discourage users using other sources for their books (internet downloads, public library, converting CDs to mp4, etc), then it would make sense for Apple to hand off the chapterizing to Audible’s app (and to the publishers who supply Audible). [i assume this is also hurting sales of Audiobook CD sets at Amazon]

I often get audio books on CD from my local library and rip them into the correct format using AudioBookBinder. While I could create a multi file m4b set, with a dozen or more chapter markers from each CD; I instead choose to convert all the CD sourced m4b files into one larger one, with the chapters representing each CD. I then listen to these on my 4th generation iPod Touch. I can’t use my iPhone or iPad, due to the problem this thread annotates; and my iPod Touch can’t use iOS 7, so I can easily access chapters.

I think the only solution for many of us is to check eBay or other sources for used iPod Touch 2, 3 or 4 models. The first iPod Touch lacked bluetooth, which for me is a non-starter; I hate wires. I doubt if the loss of sales will even be noticed by Apple, since most of us will still update our iPhones as needed. And I doubt Apple will ever “fix” this problem which to them is a deliberate act.

@William Robinson

You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment

This is what I've thought all along and suggested it in a previous post.

Audible App will download and store on the iPhone. You don't have to use the Audible Cloud or have an open WiFi or cell connection.

Audible App does display the books by chapters.

Apple's "Music" App won't display AudibleBook's chapters so time to move on from Apple App.

Audible app even has a sleep timer....bye bye Apple for Audiobooks.

@Eaglex: 1) The only way to "download and store" is from the Audible cloud; and 2) the otherwise most excellent and wonderful Audible app does not provide any way to play non-Audible content with chapter information. The in-app sleep timer is a plus for sure and as it turns out both BookMobile and AudioMark have sleep timers. AudioMark also displays chapter artwork and chapter titling for selections in the iTunes shared-library area which permits downloading and sideloading and so on of Audible as well as other *.m4b audioboooks.

Hmm, I download from Audible directly to my iPhone which is the only way I have found to preserve chapter information. If iTunes touches it the chapter info is lost as I have confirmed by opening files previously downloaded and stored on an external drive. If I play Audible content even using the Audible app from files in the iTunes library transferred to my computer through iTunes then the chapter info is gone.

I use the Audible download manager to download a copy of the audible book directly to my computer and back those files up regularly so I do have a local copy of everything I have bought from them. Since the only non Audible books I listen to are ones I've ripped from CDs I own they are treated as albums by iTunes and in essence I have chapter info since it lists each chapter as a "song" and the entire book is an album. I transfer them as a playlist so they play in order from one "song" to another.

@cdwise: We agree that downloading from "MyLibrary" in Audible (the Audible cloud) is the only way to load *.aa audiobooks into Audible with full functionality.

For me on Mac OS/X 10.9.2 with iTunes 11.1.5, I can add *.aa files downloaded from Audible and when I play them, there is a Chapters menu allowing for direct selection by chapter number (Audible doesn't appear to provide actual titling of chapters). Also works in Quicktime player.

When these same files are sync'd to the iPhone / iPad (iOS 7.1) the Music app does the usual which is to allow clicking n times to arrive at the n-th chapter in the file. The chapter marks are still present and AudioMark, for example, is able to provide chapter level navigation.

The Audible app alerts the user that when playing files located in the "shared library" area, the Audible app will not provide chapter navigation.

The chapter information is not lost. It is simply not made available.

Yes Audible has an App. But forget Audible-DRM stuff for a while.

There also DRM-free M4B around the world. Yes AudioMark and Co. exists, but Apple should fix its redesigned App, to the Level of 6.1.3 or better 4.2.1. Also reintegrate the Audiobook functionality to iPad, which war lost in 5.0!

@dieterfi: +1

THERE IS NO FIX COMING BECAUSE NOTHING IS BROKEN. APPLE DID THIS ON PURPOSE. THEY DO NOT WANT US TO BE ABLE TO CHOOSE FROM A LIST. THEY DO NOT WANT US USING THEIR MUSIC APP TO LISTEN TO AUDIOBOOKS. THEY WILL NOT RESPOND TO BUG REPORTS OR FEEDBACK. NO ONE AT APPLE CARES. PAY YOUR MONEY AND TAKE WHAT THEY GIVE YOU.

For Net nannies that wish to point out that all caps means I am shouting....

GOOD!!! BECAUSE I AM SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS IN ANGER AND FRUSTRATION!

Greetings, xristy. It is good to see you and others from our previous forum postings are still in the fight. I have not even looked for a solution to this problem until now. I noticed the phone issue the same day iOS 7 was released. I keep checking, but hold little hope for a solution. I look around every few months for solutions, but non-native apps, including Audible's, get kicked off by the Music.app when it connects to my car. Maybe there is yet a tiny spark of hope....

Probably not.

iOS 8 should be released to developers in 2 weeks. I will be sure to test this out and let you know what is Happening in 8. So far 4 had this, 5 did not, 6 had this, 7 did not. If this is any pattern 8 Should have this.