Audiobook management: how to tag files as audiobook and keep them that way?

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Level 1

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Audiobook management: how to tag files as audiobook and keep them that way?

I have many audio books. Those were read from the CD and thus end up in the music section. ⌘ + I > Options > Audiobooks allows me to move those files into the audiobook section.

The issues is, that flag is not retained once those files are removed from iTunes and then re-added. The files I tagged as "Audiobook" earlier are now back to the music section.

I find this immensely frustrating and confusing. Is there any way to keep the files tagged correctly so that they are automatically added to the audiobooks section when re-added?

iTunes-OTHER, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Mar 24, 2016 1:46 PM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

411,223 points

Mar 24, 2016 2:16 PM in response to AutoZuLaut

The files have extension .m4b?

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Answer 2

AutoZuLaut Author

Level 1

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Mar 24, 2016 2:33 PM in response to Limnos

No. Standard audio files like mp3 or m4a depending on the choice of preference at the time reading the Audiobook CD. So that was a bad choice? Why use a different format?

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Answer 3

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,591 points

Mar 24, 2016 2:58 PM in response to AutoZuLaut

AFAIR iTunes stores the media kind value in its database but does not embed it in media files - so if you remove the items from your library that association is lost. Formats that are used specifically for audiobooks (e.g., Apple .m4b or Audible .aa) are automatically recognized when imported into iTunes. Question: why are you adding, removing, and re-adding media to your library?

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Answer 4

AutoZuLaut Author

Level 1

80 points

Mar 24, 2016 3:11 PM in response to hhgttg27

Because I am now moving the files away from the iTunes music folder (it's *really* annoying to have audiobooks in the music folder, since those will then end up in the shuffle mode when other mediacenter software is told that the music folder should be used to look for music). Thus moving the files to a separate audiobook folder is a good idea.

Then again, itunes as you correctly state, does not flag the files as audiobooks.

I am not sure but if a tag for this exists, I would consider the current behavior a bug. If not, then it's an expected limitation to the ID tagging for mp3 files and should be made into a feature request for that.

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Answer 5

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,591 points

Mar 24, 2016 3:48 PM in response to AutoZuLaut

If you've configured iTunes to organize your library then changing the media kind of any media files to Audiobook will move the files to the Audiobooks folder under iTunes Media, and will present them as audiobooks and not music in the UI. This is all under iTunes' control - there's no need to add / remove / re-add anything. Althougth I source most audiobooks from Audible I do have some that I've imported from CD - obviously these are initially categorized in iTunes as Music (and are stored as such) but simply changing the media kind moves the file/folder location to Audiobooks.

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Answer 6

AutoZuLaut Author

Level 1

80 points

Mar 24, 2016 3:55 PM in response to hhgttg27

"but simply changing the media kind moves the file/folder location to Audiobooks"

So in your case, where is that Audiobooks location, that you mention?

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Answer 7

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,591 points

Mar 24, 2016 4:01 PM in response to AutoZuLaut

I'm on Windows, so the respective locations are:

iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\artist_name\album_title for music and
iTunes\iTunes Media\Audiobooks\author_name for audiobooks.

iTunes' media organization scheme does have a slight oddity in that audiobooks don't have a separate "book" folder analogous to "album" for music, so all the files associated with an author end up in one folder.

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Answer 8

AutoZuLaut Author

Level 1

80 points

Mar 24, 2016 4:11 PM in response to hhgttg27

Interesting. So it seems iTunes manages this differently on OSX. For me for non m4b files those were just in the music section, despite them being tagged as audiobooks in the options tab.

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Answer 9

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,591 points

Mar 24, 2016 4:23 PM in response to AutoZuLaut

It's been a while since I had opportunity to check on a Mac but AFAIR the behavior should be the same. Do you have the "Keep files organized ..." option selected in Preferences > Advanced? Since IfW is effectively the Mac application overlaid on the Windows OS it would be unusual, to say the least, for a feature to be present in the Windows version and not in OSX.

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Answer 10

AutoZuLaut Author

Level 1

80 points

Mar 24, 2016 4:25 PM in response to hhgttg27

Yup, that's the one and it's active. So indeed odd.

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Answer 11

turingtest2

Level 10

272,761 points

Mar 24, 2016 4:37 PM in response to AutoZuLaut