Audio books showing in iTunes Music - unable to change "media kind"

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Level 1

15 points

Audio books showing in iTunes Music - unable to change "media kind"

In iTunes 12.2 most audiobooks have been moved to iBooks.

I have at least 2 audiobooks that are still sitting in the music app. They don't appear in the Audiobooks section in iTunes (on Mac) or in the iBooks app. Instead they show in the music app & in the music section of iTunes.

I've tried File > Get Info > Options. At this point it's not possible to select audiobook as media type. The only option showing is music, no other choices.

One of the books was purchased from iTunes, one from another source.

I'm assuming this is an error in 12.2, does anyone have a work around until it's fixed? Or a fix? One of the books I can play via the music app in the meantime (that's the one that shows in "music" in iTunes & in the music app. The other (iTunes purchased) is showing in "books" in iTunes but doesn't show in the iBooks app & shows just one chapter in the music app (which it shows duplicated - so 2x the one chapter).

Ideally I'd like to be able to change the media type in options, or elsewhere in the system so that iTunes files the items as audiobook.

I hope Apple pay closer attention to the audiobooks part of iTunes & music/iBooks in the next update.

iPod touch (5th generation), iOS 8.4

Posted on Jul 7, 2015 4:22 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

bs98909

Level 1

15 points

Dec 30, 2017 3:04 PM in response to delightnz

I have 12.7.2 iTunes on my OS X 10.13.2 iMac

My "fix" is to click on one of the files in iTunes and then open "info" and then **MANUALLY** set the Music file to audiobook and then click on the arrow at the bottom left and REPEAT for EACH and EVERY ever loving file!! YES I am frustrated!! TWO HOURS later I have all the audio book files that I ripped from my 11 CD book now set to audiobook.

What I also found was that in Music the title would be a folder under each artist. In Audiobooks Apple in it infinite wisdom has all files under one folder under the artist.

So yes say for Sue Grafton all of her books / chapters are NOW IN ONE FOLDER — 1,802 files in one folder and it is a royal pain to look at them - and hopefully none of them have the same name!!!

*** Apple — please use your product like you are proud of it and DO NOT ASSUME that I am streaming everything!! I have lots of money invested in my personal collection!!

Sorry for the rant folks.

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Answer 2

Jul 7, 2015 4:31 PM in response to delightnz

Hi, its very easy to do that.

1. open itunes

2. right click on the music or audiobook in this case

3. select on the pop-up list information

4. itunes will ask you to confirm to edit elements and you should click on edit elements button

5. on the window top click on options

6. and there is a pop-down menu on the side schould say: Type of media or something like that

7. then on the menu select audiobooks and hit the button OK

and its done🙂

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Answer 3

delightnz Author

Level 1

15 points

Jul 7, 2015 4:48 PM in response to delightnz

Yes, that's what I did - as per my original post. The problem is "media kind" gives "music" as the only option. "Audiobook" is not a choice (there are no choices).

Edit: (added image for clarity). Note in "media kind" the drop down menu shows only one choice: music.

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Answer 4

delightnz Author

Level 1

15 points

Jul 8, 2015 1:24 AM in response to delightnz

The files were stored as M4A & not M4B. Uncertain why the file extension changed (& why it wasn't possible to alter it within the "media kind" field) but hopefully changing it back resolves the problem.

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Answer 5

Jul 16, 2015 6:26 PM in response to delightnz

I have found that I can use AudioBookBinder, a free app in the Mac App Store, to select the MP3 files of a book (and graphic) and import them directly into the iTunes 12 AudioBook section. It has fewer steps then the way I use to be able to do it in iTunes.

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Answer 6

Limnos

Level 10

411,193 points

Jul 16, 2015 7:08 PM in response to delightnz

https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/3cik86/audiobook_in_itunes_now_liste d_as_music_cant/ -

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