iTunes 7 - Selection of audiobooks

Thanks guys. It took a while for this to sink into my thick skull, but now I understand that the secret is in the file TYPE -- not the file EXTENSION.

After using a program like File Buddy or QuickChange to change both (changing the extension manually is not enough), I reimported the files into iTunes, and now they show up as audiobooks as expected. Yes!

This whole thread is a symptom of a much larger problem. That is that Apple needs to fix iTunes 7. iTunes and the iTunes Store is suffering from function creep. And I think it can be fixed with an easy solution. Please see this web page: http://web.mac.com/amberastar/iWeb/Fix%20iTunes%207/How%20To%20Fix%20iTunes%207. html

iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Keep in mind if you manually change the file type it must be "M4B" with four characters.

You have to change the atom accordingly. Use AtomicParsley.

I have used Doug's script in the past but it is failing me now for some reason, so I went the manual route, using a script.

[quote]#!/bin/bash
###########
# This script always works the same way: it works inside the current folder,
# so first you need to "cd /someplace" so that the script will work only there
# it only works on the files in that folder, not buried in other folders
# You may need to adjust the hardcoded location of the AP binary in AP_bin.
###########
# eliminate the #comment marks preceding each section to activate that portion
###########

#the hardcoded location of the AtomicParsley binary
AP_bin="/Users/$USER/Desktop/AtomicParsley/AtomicParsley"

#which files are allowable to be processed:
include=".mp4\|.m4a\|.m4b\|.m4p\|.m4v\|.3gp\|.3g2"

#this is the main loop, this is always uncommented
ls -1 | grep -i "$include" | while read a_file; do

############ 1
##this will print a tree of each file
echo "$a_file"
ap_output=`$AP_bin "$a_file" -T`
echo "$ap_output"

############ 2
##this will get a tree of each file & search for an atom called 'wide'
# ap_output=`$AP_bin "$a_file" -T | grep wide`
# if [ -n "$ap_output" ]; then
# echo "$a_file"
# echo "$ap_output"
# fi

############ 3
##this set a copyright notice of "©2006" at movie level in english for each file
# echo $a_file
# "$AP_bin" "$a_file" --ISO-copyright movie "©2006" lang=eng

############ 2
##This will set the stik value to 2 (audiobook)'
"$AP_bin" "$a_file" --stik value=2


#this ends the main loop, so this is also always uncommented
done[/quote]

Just use the terminal for this. Make sure the path to the Atomic Parsley lib. is correct, then copy the script (I named it audiobook.sh) into the directory you have the files and execute it.

It will write new files with the correct Atom set, delete the original files out of iTunes then add them again and they should show up in the Audiobooks section.

I suggest you copy the files to a new directory before you do the editing though.