Audiobooks in 12

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Level 1

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Audiobooks in 12

Who has lots of audiobooks?

I just upgraded to v12 and I am having a strange issue with audiobooks. Knowing how Apple likes to move things around and hide options for our convenience, maybe it is an option I need to change to fix things.

This is what happens (2 problems):

Problem #1: I have about 100 audiobooks, most of them have multiple files by chapter, etc. I have them all named as title and as file name as such "01 Dracula, 02 Dracula" etc.

So when I pick a couple of audiobooks to sync, sometimes they show as one file in iBooks with each track inside (and in order, for example "Dracula" followed by 01, 02, etc.) but some books show each track as different files, and not in order, making it a real mess to play them in order. This hasn't happened before and I have not renamed or re-sorted anything. Very odd, I can't seem to figure out why one book is set differently to make this happen.

Problem #2 is even more confusing: Audiobooks is somehow linked to TV shows.

So if I choose to view audiobooks, and have only "recently added" as an option, I see all files. Sometimes I like to make playlists, if I create a playlist, only that playlist shows, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to show my other audiobooks to create a 2nd playlist. The only way around it is to delete the playlist, then I see all files. If I have my playlist showing and click on "recently added" it shows me TV shows. As soon as I switch to audiobooks, it only displays the playlist again.....what's up with that??

Thanks in advance for any help.

Posted on Oct 4, 2018 9:18 PM

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Answer 1

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Kevin Gilbert3

Level 1

14 points

Nov 13, 2018 6:45 AM in response to turingtest2

Actually, I found the issue, and I'm pretty sure it's a bug. If I go into the macOS System Preferences > General > Sidebar Icon Size and set it to anything other than "Medium", then I have the issue where the Audiobooks sidebar icons actually link to TV Shows. If I leave it set to "Medium", then the sidebar icons show and work correctly. I've shown it to Apple Support in a video and I'm waiting for them to confirm it's a bug, but I can't imagine what else could possibly be causing that.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Oct 5, 2018 10:24 AM in response to Elahrairah01

Ah, got it now. I think everything looked fine for me until I went looking.

If you hover over the All Playlists/Audiobooks Playlists line you should get an option to Show or Hide playlists. If you click on the All Playlists/Audiobooks Playlists line you can switch states. Choosing to show the playlists you get incorrectly bounced over to TV Shows, as does creating a new list, but the change should take effect when you go back to audiobooks.

Once you have it so playlists are listed you can make a smart playlist matching All audiobooks where Location is on this computer, for example, to show all of your audiobooks. Then you can drag these into other playlists as desired.

tt2

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Answer 3

Nov 12, 2018 10:43 AM in response to Elahrairah01

I have a very similar thing happening in iTunes on my Mac. When I select Audiobooks from the drop down, just under the transport controls, I can only see my audiobooks if I then move down to the Audiobook Playlists and select the "Recently Added" playlist. However, if I click on the "Recently Added" icon/text immediately under the "Library" heading, which is above the Playlists, I get taken to TV shows.

See my screen recording here: iTunes 12 Audiobook Recently Added Glitch.mov - Google Drive

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Answer 4

Elahrairah01 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 5, 2018 9:58 AM in response to turingtest2

I can make some screenshots this weekend, but it is just like I say

1) Choose Audiobooks from the top dropdown selection- No device connected

2)On the left side bar the only option is "Recently Added" I have them in list view and I see all audiobook files, looks good so far

3) For playlists, I select what I want and right click and choose "create new playlist" As soon as I click on that, the view changes to show that playlist only (on the right I only see the files I added to the playlist). On the left side bar, under "recently added" is the list of playlists, with this newly created one selected. I cannot see the other "non playlist" audiobooks. As soon as I click on "recently added", it shows all my TV shows and the upper left bar has moved to TV Shows (no longer audiobooks). When I choose the dropdown to show audiobooks, again I can only see that playlist... No matter what I can think of, the only way to see all my audiobooks again is to delete the playlist where "recently added" is the only item on the left bar. No way to create a 2nd playlist. I am sure there is a way, it is just odd.

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Nov 12, 2018 11:18 AM in response to Kevin Gilbert3

Try Edit > Preferences > General > Playlist Icon Size > Medium.

Sorry, I missed the Mac reference. I don't have a workaround for this on a Mac other than to make a fresh smart playlist to list your audiobooks.

tt2

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Answer 6

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Oct 4, 2018 10:05 PM in response to Elahrairah01

Problem 1: See Organizing audiobook chapters.

Problem 2: Can you post a screenshot of what you see?

tt2

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Answer 7

Elahrairah01 Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 8, 2018 10:13 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the info. This does work. However, my screen is still somewhat different than yours. When "audiobooks" is choosen in the top drop down, "TV shows" is not listed on the left under Recently added.. just the playlists.

Even though this work around works, this cannot be the way it is supposed to work (and it worked better in previous versions, which means they went out of their way to change it) and it is baffling. To make a playlist from other playlists just seems sloppy. And to merge it with TV shows is even weirder... TV shows with Movies I can see I guess. Audiobooks with Music I can see maybe as they are similar file types, but TV shows and audiobooks.....

Thanks though, I can at least make it work and it is good on my phone, which is what really counts, iTunes is only used every so often.

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Answer 8

Nov 25, 2018 3:54 PM in response to Kevin Gilbert3

Thanks!! I have the exact same problem, and I for now I am using a workaround by selecting "medium" on the System Preferences > General > Sidebar Icon Size. I hope this is fixed but for now i can work with the medium sized icons.

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Answer 9

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Oct 8, 2018 10:51 AM in response to Elahrairah01

You're welcome. 🙂

It's most definitely a bug. I've sent in a report to Apple.

tt2

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Answer 10

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Oct 31, 2018 3:02 PM in response to Elahrairah01

Try Edit > Preferences > General > Playlist Icon Size > Medium.

tt2

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Answer 11

dlm029

Level 1

9 points

Nov 20, 2018 12:37 PM in response to Kevin Gilbert3

Thank you Kevin. I had the same exact problem on 12.9. Enacted what you have written here and it fixed it.

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Answer 12

Nov 20, 2018 12:43 PM in response to dlm029

Glad it helped. It doesn’t really resolve the issue, but it’s a workaround for now. Hopefully, Apple will get it fixed in an upcoming release.

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Answer 13

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Nov 13, 2018 7:19 AM in response to Kevin Gilbert3

Ah, so that is a system preference on a Mac whereas on Windows it is part of the app, but essentially it is the same bug in both versions. Good sleuthing.

tt2

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Audiobooks in 12

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