I have lost numerous audiobooks after the newest update? How can I get them back?

I’m facing the same problems, with both missing audiobooks on the iPhone and the constant update of an already installed update within iTunes.

If this is the new normal, in terms of quality of finished product and services, call me scared.

PS. Maybe a side effect, for two days now something is draining the battery of my phone like there’s no tomorrow...

Yes, when I deleted an audio book I finished, all of my audio books were deleted. I was able to re-sync my phone with iMac again. When I finished and deleted the next book, again all of my audio books were deleted. Now when I try to sync the XR iPhone my iMac find me an error saying it is unable to read to contents of my iPhone.

Into Apple fixes this, I wouldn't delete any audio book from your library.

Similar problem experienced after updating my wife's iPhone to iOS 12.1.1. She's listens to audiobooks that she syncs from iTunes on her iMac. She's been following the same routine from early days with her iPods ... manually select audiobooks she wants to listen to, sync to her phone, listen to books, rinse, repeat. After updating to 12.1.1, on multiple instances she has finished listening to all tracks of an audio book and she goes back to her library [on her iPhone] to start a new book and all other books are gone. When she physically connects her iPhone to her iMac to re-sync with iTunes, all the missing audiobooks show as still selected in her iTunes:iPhone Sync Audiobooks list. look at "On My Device:Audiobook", all the expected books are shown as present on the device. But they're definitely not available from the iBooks.app on the iPhone. She tries to sync, and none of those books re-appear on her iPhone.

The only way we've been able to resync audiobooks is to disabled 'Sync Audiobooks' in iTunes, sync to clear audiobook selections entirely from the iPhone, re-enable 'Sync Audiobooks' and then sync again. All the selected audiobooks then show up back on her iPhone ... only to disappear again after she completes listening to an audiobook.

As noted above, she's never had this problem syncing and listening to audiobooks since first starting with iPods. This problem just started after upgrading her iPhone to 12.1.1. Her iPhone was previously running iOS 12.1.0.

[ reported as radar bug #46764078 ]

I have the same problem as Zootgirl, Devonhub, and others. Listened to one audiobook downloaded from iTunes and all my other audiobooks disappeared. Very frustrating!!! Hope the fix comes soon.

Similar problem here. All audiobooks (that were added via iTune from free sources like LibriVox, not purchased) dissappear from iPhone whenever compliting one of them. Found no solution.

Following this also...having the same problem and it just makes me want to hurl my iPhone into a wall!

Has anyone tried not deleting an audiobook when they've finished? If so, did that also delete your entire library?

Strange because I have no other book app other than iBook and I have the problem.

I'm afraid that won't fix your problem. Let's know how it goes...

Yes! This is what keeps happening to me!!

Try searching the search bar when you drag down. I put a ton of lectures on my iphone X and Books and Music tell me they down exist. If I search for them, then they show up in search results. Click them to play and got to "Reading Now". Add it to a collection and then it will show up in the Audiobooks help.

Not saying this is acceptable, but its the only way I've found to access material thats outside the apple stores - a problem that keeps getting worse.

I can verify this.

In my situation, I have audiobooks I've collected by various means - purchased, converted, downloaded,... I went into itunes and double checked that all the file formats are m4b and the file media type is "audiobook". The genre is "lecture" (...I may try changing that to "audiobook" in case that's the bug.) When I review the left nav under device, I can see that all the files I want are on the device and are under "audiobooks" - I'd check that.

So my files should be on the phone, but they are not to be found via Books (or Music) and the search returns nothing. HOWEVER, if you do a phone search (exact match) I can see my audiobook in those search results under "Books". I can then click on the result and viola, I have the book playing in Books. This book will eventually how up in "Reading Now" and when it does I can nab it by tagging it into a collection. Once in a collection, you can access the audiobook.

The only way to prevent this is to not delete anything. This was posted in September and it is not January and there is no solution. I have spent hours upon hours trying to figure this out because my books are from CD mostly. I have 200gb of icloud storage and 256GB on my phone, so storage is not a factor on either. I just switched to audible app and amazon (kindle unlimited) 5000 audiobooks titles for now. Lucky for me I have my old ipod but my earpods don't work with it without a bluetooth adaptor. I listen to books all day long at work, I would not like to have to go without. I like to keep twenty or so on my phone so I can switch between them. This bug is so annoying! If I find a fix I will update my post, but so far all you can do is not delete anything. Update: Found a fix (somewhat) for audiobooks using a different app called bookmobile. I tried it then paid for the pro version. Several ways to load audiobooks, my favorite is using file sharing in itunes because you can load the folder and it recognizes that it is one book. Not perfect but better than reloading 20-30 audiobooks each time I finish one.

I have pretty much the same problem as everyone here, except I am unable to sync some of my old audiobooks to my iPhone (about 70% sync fine). As a workaround for the audiobooks that don't sync, I downloaded Bookmobile (another audiobook app), and manually added these audiobooks through iTunes and the Bookmobile app. It works.

Why did I spend over 1k upgrading to the iPhone XS again? Ridiculous.

I agree, I contacted support but have not heard back and I am not holding my breath because they have released at least 2 updates since this started and none have fixed the issue. I have apple music, not sure if this is a factor but I have it turned off. I wish audible allowed loading like the bookmobile app. I do like the app, UI is a little sloppy but the app itself is nice. I love that I don't have to tag anything or change mp3 to audiobook. I have not heavily used it yet so I will see but I am happy to have a solution. It took me over an hour to load the a few books into ibooks, it took about 20 minutes from start to finish with double the books in the new app. It seems like a good fix, found another app similar if this one does not do the trick.

What about books I've downloaded and added to my Ipad (Not apple purchases but added to my Itunes library). They are missing too.