Audiobooks discussion
Technical stuff
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iPod (and other Apple devices)
OK, I need some help. I have an ipod touch that when I updated the software to 5.0 it doesn't load audio books properly anymore (a few other goofy things happened too!). I see I can update it to 5.1.1 now but am nervous.When I transfer a WMA book (that I downloaded from our library through Overdrive) it goes to songs and playlist not to audiobook.
So, two questions:
1) should I update the software on my ipod and will that fix the problem or create new ones?
2) how can I transfer WMA to the ipod and have them go to the correct place? (I used to do this all the time with no problem prior to update)
Thanks!
I have an ipod touch and all of my WMA audiobooks go to my music folder when I use the Overdrive media console which bothers me. The only way I ever put them in the audiobooks folder was to download them directly into itunes instead of using the Overdrive console and move them that way but it takes FOREVER. It also takes a really long time in general for my WMA audiobooks to load from Overdrive onto my ipod -- they load in a matter of seconds onto my phone and my sansa clip but it takes much longer with my touch.
The Overdrive Media Console has an Advanced Features button that you can use to send your Overdrive book anywhere on your device. I use it to send books (MP3 and WMA both) to "audiobooks" on my Sansa Clip+.
Good to know John. I will try that next time! Thanks :)
Thanks John. I am going to try that now.I wish it worked the way it did before upgrading though.
Where is the Advanced Features button? I have looked everywhere and tried the help button to no avail.My overdrive console is on my pc - does that make a difference?
I found an advanced options in a help thing but not the button but also found this "Note: 'Advanced options' are not available for Apple devices".
Sorry, Shannon, but that explains why you couldn't find it!
Darn. Well, it definitely seems to be linked to that one update as I have not updated my phone and I could get it directly into my audiobook folder in the correct format. I just can't get it onto the ipod. Has anyone done the most recent update and can they transfer without trouble?
Shannon - That was part of iOS5 update so it will always transfer them to the Music section from now on (that's why I haven't done it in my iPod.)But you can transfer them to the audiobooks section yourself very easily. Just plug your iPod to iTunes and go to the Music section in your iPod. Once you're there, look for the books and select all the parts. Then right click on 'Get Info', go to the Options section and change the 'Media Kind' from 'Music' to 'Audiobook'. That will transfer all the files you selected to the audiobook section.
I just did it on my iPad which has iOS5 and it worked.
I don't know whether iPods work the same way, but with my Sansa, if I go into the Overdrive book on my computer after download (My Media --> WMA/MP3), and change the "genre" to "Audiobook" (from "fiction", "mystery", etc.), my Sansa Clip+ recognizes those books from the tag, even if they are physically located in a Music folder on the device. I mention this as Heidi reported that Overdrive transfers are significantly faster than iTunes ones.
What I explained above can be done to books transferred via the Overdrive console. And anyways, when audios are transferred to the iPod, iTunes needs to be on anyway...the transfer occurs as follows: Overdrive to iTunes (temporarily) to iPod.At least I'm assuming that Shannon is using the console and not the Overdrive app?
I thought there was an Overdrive app for direct iPod transfers?
Yes, there is. I don't use it though because I'm afraid the books will disappear after the due date, which doesn't happen if you transfer them via the console and you manage the iPod manually.
Long before iOS5, the Overdrive console for PC stopped playing well with iTunes. The Overdrive Console process was always buggy and slow, but I used to be able to get my WMA Overdrive books to load eventually. Sometime last year, the process for transferring WMA books to my iPhone stopped working at all, and an internet search showed that others were having the same problem and that Overdrive was "working on it". Have they fixed the problem? Sounds like they have if D.G. was able to get them to load on her iPad with iOS5. I can download MP3 formatted books directly to my iPhone, and I do that sometimes. But since getting WMA audiobooks required using the Overdrive Console on my PC, I gave up on that format entirely.
Actually, I've given up on library audiobooks almost entirely. The titles I want are rarely immediately available when I want them, and if I join the "hold" list, by the time my turn comes up in the queue, I'm either not in the mood for it, or I'm engrossed in some other listen that I don't feel like interrupting.
Also, when I used the Overdrive app on my phone, it almost always lost my place in whatever I was listening to, so if I forgot to bookmark where I left off, I'd be lost. That was annoying because I listen while doing other stuff, and frequently have to pause because someone needs to talk to me. With the Overdrive app that meant instead of just hitting the pause button on my headphones, I'd have to dig my phone out of my pocket or bag, open the app, and bookmark where I was before I could pause it, while the other person was standing there waiting for me to respond. Usually in order to not be rude to the person, I'd just pause without bookmarking, and deal with finding my place in the audiobook after the conversation was over. Annoying!
I've been so annoyed with both the Overdrive phone app and the console for PC that I have not bothered with library audiobooks in any format for several months. I wonder if those issues have been fixed? I'd love to be able to get WMA and MP3 formatted audiobooks for free again.
After the iOS5 update, there were problems with WMA files but Overdrive did an update and it seems those problems were solved. But I haven't experienced this personally because as I said, I didn't update the software on my iPod which is where I listen to most of my audiobooks. But I know it works with iOS5 because I was able to transfer an audiobook to my iPad without a problem.I don't have the Overdrive app but use the Overdrive console exclusively. Also, I manage my iPod manually so I can keep audiobooks from the library for as long as I want to. I just celebrated the first birthday of A Game of Thrones (it's been on my iPod for at least a year.)
I use the Overdrive console because I also use it for my phone and sansa but audiobooks don't disappear on my ipod touch when I transfer them this way until I delete them. When I do this itunes does NOT need to be open. As I said earlier sometimes I download audiobooks directly into itunes from the Overdrive website instead of the Overdrive console but this takes even longer than when I download them into the Overdrive console so I normally don't do it this way -- when I do it this way I am able to put them in my audiobooks folder . The only way my audiobooks disappear on my ipod is when I directly download them onto my ipod touch app -- but they have to be MP3 audiobooks in order to do it that way and almost all my audiobooks are WMA format.
Oh I've never been able to download from the Overdrive website. Everything that I download from the library gives me only the option to download via the console (when I'm on a PC.)
D.G. ~Captain Hussy~ wrote: "Oh I've never been able to download from the Overdrive website. Everything that I download from the library gives me only the option to download via the console (when I'm on a PC.)"That stinks :(
If it's that slow, I'm not sure I'm losing anything!
D.G. ~Captain Hussy~ wrote: "If it's that slow, I'm not sure I'm losing anything!"Very true :)
On my Mac, when I get things from the library via Overdrive, I have to open them in Overdrive initially to get them to download. It stores the files in a default folder ([user]/Documents/My Media/MP3 Audiobooks). I then close the Overdrive Console, go find the files and transfer them to iTunes. On the Mac this is a simple drag-and-drop operation.This makes new files in iTunes and I don't have to think about the Overdrive files anymore. Once they're in iTunes, I go into options, change the file type (not the genre) from Music to Audiobook and check off to remember my last place, so that the books are all in with my other audiobooks. These books never expire, so I take as long as I like to read them. I can transfer them to my iPhone or not whenever I want. I usually don't as I listen to most of my books via iTunes on my computer.
Once I've moved the files to iTunes, I can return the books at the Overdrive console. I usually just let them expire, because with ebooks if you return too many too quickly you can get your account suspended, so I figure they're watching audiobooks the same way.
Because they don't expire when I transfer them to iTunes, I don't worry about being on the waiting list. When my turn comes, I download the book, and then read it when I'm ready. When I'm done, I delete.
D.G. ~Captain Hussy~ wrote: "Shannon - That was part of iOS5 update so it will always transfer them to the Music section from now on (that's why I haven't done it in my iPod.)But you can transfer them to the audiobooks secti..."
Thanks Captain Hussy. I was off line for a day or two but will see if I can follow your instructions. If anyone ever hears of a fix to the iOS5 so that my auidobooks will download properly then I will update the ipod again but until then...
D.G. ~Captain Hussy~ wrote: "Shannon - That was part of iOS5 update so it will always transfer them to the Music section from now on (that's why I haven't done it in my iPod.)But you can transfer them to the audiobooks secti..."
Brilliant!!!!! I just copied your instructions and printed them out so I don't forget. Thank you!!!
Shannon wrote: "D.G. ~Captain Hussy~ wrote: "Shannon - That was part of iOS5 update so it will always transfer them to the Music section from now on (that's why I haven't done it in my iPod.)But you can transfer..."
Good to know - I will do that from now on too! Thanks :)
Uh oh:My most recent downloads are not working out.
I did the magic trick and they show up in books on itunes on the ipod they show up in playlist but not under audiobooks or songs.
Any other suggestions? I will get my son to try it out from playlist and see if it is working like an audiobook. Very weird.
Shannon - Did you change the files the are on iTunes or the ones that are on the iPod? The instructions I gave you are for changing the books directly on the iPod so they should work.
I did do it for the ones on the ipod. I will try it again later today and see if a day makes a difference. Very strange that older downloads worked and the recent ones didn't.
D.G. I just tried to follow your instructions to change Overdrive WMA files so that they show up as audiobooks rather than as a playlist, and I can't figure out how to do it. The problems is that the only place I see the files at all is as a playlist on my iPhone. They are not in iTunes as books or music or any other category that I can find. You mentioned making the changes "directly on the iPod" but I don't see any way to make direct changes (other than adding or deleting songs) to a playlist. I'm feeling a little stupid here. I'm usually good at troubleshooting technical stuff, but I cannot figure this out, and it's driving me crazy!
Christine - Don't worry. The first time somebody explained it to me, I had problems too. I guess I should have clarified how to view the files in the iPod from the beginning because that was the step I had problems too. :)Start by connecting your iPod to iTunes. Once your iPod is connected, check out the the menus in the left hand side of iTunes, : LIBRARY (where you'll see everything on the iTunes library), STORE and below one you'll see DEVICES.
Under DEVICES, you'll see your iPod. On the left hand side of the iPod icon, there's an arrow. Click it and it will bring out all the different categories you have in your iPod. Mine has Music, Movies, TV Shows, Books and some playlists. When I said that you should do the changes directly in the iPod, I meant not to look for the files under LIBRARY because this is really the stuff that's on iTunes but you should really look at the categories under DEVICES because that's the stuff on your iPod.
Then you can follow the instructions above.
Hope that helps! If you can't still figure it out, I'll post pics. :)
I was afraid that's what you would say, D.G.! You have been so helpful & patient. Unfortunately, that was one of several places I looked for the files, and they did not appear there either. I did some online search & discovered I wasn't the only one with that specific problem (audiobook appears as playlist on iPhone and nowhere else).Ah well, I'll try again another time. It was late when I was trying to figure it out last night and my brain might not have been firing on all cylinders.
Argh. Just wrote a post and lost it. The summary: I tried it again and this time I was able to figure out how to see the WMA files under Devices in iTunes. I was able to recategorize them as audiobooks. But doing that had no effect whatsoever on the way the files behaved on the phone itself.On my phone, they still show up as a music playlist, which means I can't save my place in the audiobook if I switch to listening to music for a while. When I tried changing certain settings, 90% of my content disappeared from my phone and I'm having to re-sync all my music, pictures, apps, everything back onto the phone and it's taking forever. Grrrrr!
So that's it - I officially give up on Overdrive WMA audiobooks until I hear that Overdrive has figured out how to make them sync seamlessly to iPhones.
Christine - When you said 'recategorize' them as audiobooks...did you change the genre or did you change the media kind in the Options? Because changing the genre doesn't do anything. When you are under 'Devices', those are the actual files on the iPhone so changing the media kind should have fixed the problem.Also, do you have your iPhone set to manually manage the music? If it is synching automatically, then maybe it just keeps synching the playlist with the audiobooks from iTunes every time you connect it.
I definitely had iTunes set to "manually manage". Overdrive gives you an error message if you forget, and the Overdrive files wouldn't have even transferred at all, so that's not it. I am also sure I changed the "media kind" to audiobook, not just the genre. Looked good on my laptop screen, but no change occurred on my phone. I tried re- syncing after making the change, and that just caused the audiobook to disappear completely, along with most of my music. I tried again with a different audiobook, with different settings changed, at least 3 times. Nothing worked. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.
I'm usually fairly tech savvy and good at troubleshooting, but this has me stymied. Sorry to hijack the thread, everyone!
Christine E. wrote: "I definitely had iTunes set to "manually manage". Overdrive gives you an error message if you forget, and the Overdrive files wouldn't have even transferred at all, so that's not it. I am also s..."
I changed the media kind as well on my ipod and as mentioned in earlier posts it only worked for books that I had on for a few months and not my recent uploads so I am not sure what is going on. I keep meaning to try it again but have been busy. (And I refuse to give up!)
Two ideas Christine. First, have you downloaded the new Overdrive Media Console, there has been a recent update.Second, most times even through a playlist - my ipod/iphone remembers my place in a playlist. Occasionally there is one book that nothing I can do to fix. For those books, I just remember where I was and go back to there when I trasnfer back. So my point is -- it may be just the book you are on.
Thanks Shannon and Regina. I downloaded the latest version of Overdrive Media Console a few days ago, so that's not it. I tried the process with two different audiobooks and got the same result both times: neither would remember where I was when I left off, even though I have them set up to do that. I often listen to audiobooks on a wireless Bluetooth headset while I'm doing housework or gardening. Sometimes my phone is on the other side of the room or even in another room. I have a busy household and am frequently interrupted and have to pause an audiobook to attend to something else. It's extremely inconvenient to have to write down where I left off each time I pause a book. Back when I listened to audiobooks on CD, I used to keep a piece of paper with me for writing down an audiobook's last position, and it irritated me back then too, so I listened to far fewer audiobooks then than I do now. I do not want to go back to that. I need to just take a break from trying to make Overdrive WMAs work for me, because it's stressing me out unnecessarily.
It's annoying because a huge percentage of the audiobooks carried by my library are on Overdrive WMA, and it really bugs me that I can't figure out how to make them work the way they apparently do for others. But for the time being, I'll just stick with listening to books on the Audible app, because it never forgets where I was, I can bookmark anything I want to refer to again, and books download correctly without much intervention from me.
Something else occurred to me, Christine.When you changed your books to audiobooks under Media Kind, please make sure that 'Remember playback position' is also selected. When I change the tracks in my iPod to audiobooks this is selected by default but maybe in your case it's not doing that?
Yep, tried that one fairly early on in my attempts to find a solution yesterday. I was so excited because I thought I'd finally found the fix, but it had no effect, even after unselecting and reselecting that option (I sometimes need to do that with iTunes settings). Sigh. I was up until 1:00 last night trying everything I could think of and looking at every setting I could find.
Christine E. wrote: "Argh. Just wrote a post and lost it. The summary: I tried it again and this time I was able to figure out how to see the WMA files under Devices in iTunes. I was able to recategorize them as audiob..."Christine:
Message 73 in this thread by Regan was very helpful to me in sorting out the issues with Overdrive on an iMac.
Glad to know I was helpful Johnsergeant. Not sure if it will help Christine, though, because if she's downloading WMA files, she probably doesn't have a Mac.
I just realized what I do when this happens to me - -I can't believe I forgot it! I use the audible app. Download the audible app and you can use it for your ipod audio books -- and put in bookmarks when you stop. :) Sorry that I forgot, this will sovle the problem. The audible app is free.
I haven't previously downloaded a book from Tantor, and I'm having some trouble getting the files into iTunes.
I downloaded the zip file and extracted it. I added the chapter files to a folder and attempted to add them to my iTunes library. I received this message multiple times (I'll assume once for each chapter): "The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. You do not have enough access privileges for this operation." I've never received this message before, and I have full administrative powers on this computer.
I then downloaded each chapter (unzipped), added them to a folder, and attempted again to add them to my iTunes library. I again got the error message.
Is there a step I'm missing?
I downloaded the zip file and extracted it. I added the chapter files to a folder and attempted to add them to my iTunes library. I received this message multiple times (I'll assume once for each chapter): "The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. You do not have enough access privileges for this operation." I've never received this message before, and I have full administrative powers on this computer.
I then downloaded each chapter (unzipped), added them to a folder, and attempted again to add them to my iTunes library. I again got the error message.
Is there a step I'm missing?
Not sure why you're having problems. This is what I did:1. Downloaded the zip file.
2. Extracted the file. This produced a folder called "1518_MemoirsHolmes" with a single folder inside it labeled something similar with all the chapters inside that.
4. Renamed the inside folder to the book title though I didn't really need to.
3. Dragged & dropped the renamed interior folder with all the chapters in it on to the iTunes icon in my dock.
Done. I didn't move any of the chapter files to a new folder.
I'm not sure, either. I rebooted everything and loaded the chapters into Windows Media Player. Then iTunes seemed to recognize the files.
I hope I am in the right place and I apologize if this question has been asked and answered, I don't mean to waste your time, but I am having a hard week audio book-wise! I use the free Audiobooks app to download Librivox recordings to my iPhone 4. I have been downloading Chapter 20 of 22 for days now! It actually hung up the first time around Chapter 14, but I deleted it and started over and made it from 14 through 19 before it stuck again. Space on phone should not be an issue. Now as I have been typing this message it seems to be stuck on "querying chapter information," which I've never seen before. Has anyone dealt with similar issues? On another front I see others have had an issue with the .wma files from Overdrive not going onto their iPhone? Same here. I tried my iPod, but no luck, though it may be more that I have forgotten how to use it. Maybe I should break out the Zune from cold storage....I tried to burn the book onto a cd and did not get anywhere - is there something that prevents it as it is a library book or did I just botch it up somehow? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
Maureen wrote: "I hope I am in the right place and I apologize if this question has been asked and answered, I don't mean to waste your time, but I am having a hard week audio book-wise! I use the free Audiobooks ..."I use that app on my iPod Touch and find it very finicky. I haven't had the problem you describe but sometimes I have to start the app 3, 4, 5 times before it will actually open. My solution (which isn't really a solution as much as an avoidance of the app) is to download the Librivox recording to my home computer and import it into iTunes - works most easily for those books with .mb4 format although the traditional mp3 files work fine too.
Maureen wrote: "I hope I am in the right place and I apologize if this question has been asked and answered, I don't mean to waste your time, but I am having a hard week audio book-wise! I use the free Audiobooks ..."Oh, and yes I have gone to that Chapter specifically and I have prioritized it.
Leslie wrote: "Maureen wrote: "I hope I am in the right place and I apologize if this question has been asked and answered, I don't mean to waste your time, but I am having a hard week audio book-wise! I use the ..."Hey now, that could work, thanks! :~)
Audiobooks
Books mentioned in this topic
Dark Places (other topics)A Game of Thrones (other topics)
The Shadow of the Wind (other topics)
A Game of Thrones (other topics)
Well, my library has them but then I live in NYC, with a big population of Spanish speakers.
But more and more ebooks are now available in Spanish. Amazon recently started advertising their selection in Spanish and I've gotten a few books there at a good price.