This Audiobook Manager lets you catalog and organize your audiobook collection. It is optimized for Audible users, but can import MP3/M4A/M4B audiobooks as well.
Please respect copyright owners by not distributing files created with OpenAudible.
Here is a quick-start guide to get you going.
Install the version for your platform. OpenAudible for Windows and Mac is a
digitally signed application.
You may be prompted that the application may not be safe to run; however, you
can safely run it if the certificate shows it as valid.
Choose one of the installers from the official download page. OpenAudible supports 64-bit x86_64/AMD64 and Apple Intel/Silicon architectures.
Note: Mac users may need to open the OpenAudible.dmg file by selecting it in Finder and Control-Clicking the application, then select Open (right-click "Open"). You may also need to update your GateKeeper settings to allow apps not from the App Store to run.
Note > Before jumping in, it is a good idea to set up your main Preferences to set the audio output format and other settings.
Getting your books from Audible is pretty simple. Books can be automatically downloaded and converted to a format that works with any audio player.
OpenAudible can read and import your library automatically. OpenAudible uses the Amazon/Audible web browser to connect and never saves your username or password. However, a credentials token is saved so that you can stay connected until you decide to
.Once logged in to your audible account in the browser, your books will be loaded and shown in the OpenAudible window. The OpenAudible Library status should change to Connected: Yes.
After a library scan, you'll be asked if you want to download and convert your books. If you click No, you can manually select books to download or convert.
When you purchase new audiobooks, you can select
which will add any newly added books.You can select
to get all of your books and update any metadata that may have changed, such as ratings or book descriptions.Books that were not automatically downloaded can be downloaded by selecting them selecting
.Downloading a book can take several minutes. To see the progress, click on the "Library Status:Downloads" panel item to see books currently downloading or waiting to be downloaded. Select a book and look at the "State" under the Book Info panel to see its download or conversion state.
Once a book is downloaded, it can be manually or automatically converted to the audio format of your choice.
Some books include a PDF companion file. If available, those will be downloaded when the audio is downloaded.
Convert your Audible AAX files to M4B or MP3 easily by selecting a book and selecting
or convert them all by .We recommend using M4B for most use cases, as converting to mp3 will always add some loss and may increase the file size. But if you have an audio player that doesn't support M4B files, you can choose to convert your audiobook files to MP3.
Note: To convert your books to MP3 instead of the
default M4B format, set the Audio Output Format to MP3 in the
Preferences, which can be accessed by clicking on the
icon in the upper right or by selecting
.
Audible files are kept in the AAX directory. Once converted, you may decide to delete the AAX files to save space.
You can set the conversion output format, choose a language, or choose a color theme.
Use
view and change the application preferences.Color Schemes Include:
You can also choose a language. We currently support: ar,de,es,fr,hi,ru
To set the Library Location, use Manage Libraries.
Some directories used by the application can be changed. The "Show" button will reveal the directory in the desktop file system.
Choose a location for your book library and output web pages.
Note: To change your Library Directory, go to the
menu.Advanced: To change the location of the OpenAudible preferences directory, quit the application, move the directory somewhere else, and set an environment variable named "OPENAUDIBLE_HOME" to point to the new location. When you re-launch, OpenAudible should display the new Preferences directory.
Your Audible books can be exported as either M4B (audiobook format) or MP3 (universal compressed audio format). M4A is also supported, but not recommended, since it is not a standard audiobook format.
For the fastest conversion and best audio quality, we recommend using M4B, as it keeps the original encoding from Audible, and is supported by all major audiobook players. Use MP3 if your audio player doesn't support M4B.
You can change the MP3 quality, which trades quality for file size. It is generally best to leave this alone unless you have a player with limited storage capacity. Again, for best quality, use M4B format.
Because audiobooks do not typically contain music (or high frequencies), a medium bitrate setting will produce excellent results. Only the lowest quality settings will be obviously lower quality. High quality settings will result in a much larger file with little or no noticeable quality difference.
Checking the VBR checkbox sets the encoder to use Variable Rate Encoding that typically provides better compression. VBR may be less compatible with some older mp3 players, as it is harder to determine how to skip around to different chapters exactly or find the exact end of a file. The VBR bitrates are estimates, based on measured output from sampling many audiobooks.
If you decide you want to change the format after you've already converted some books, you can open the converted books directory, throw the converted files into the trash (or move them), and use
and the books will be ready to convert again.Automation features should usually be enabled after becoming familiar with how the program works. It can save a little time when updating your library after purchasing new books.
OpenAudible includes a built-in web browser for accessing help, book info pages, diagnostics, and purchase links.
License upgrades purchased using the internal browser save you the step of having to copy and paste your license. But some users may prefer using their preferred web browser.
Advanced users can set up a custom command to browse files, specify a web browser, or launch an audiobook player. Click More... to see advanced options.
The language can be selected. We currently include: ar,de,es,fr,hi,ru
Users can choose between dark mode and light mode. The three available modes are:The
menu brings up a dialog where you can set or change your Library Directory, where your audiobook files (MP3, M4B, AAX, JPG) will be saved.If you have a larger disk drive than your OS drive, you may want to change the library location, as audiobooks can take up a lot of file space. You can also use a network share, if you don't mind a little less performance.
The top of the dialog has a Library: which lists your known OpenAudible libraries. The buttons below are active if they can be used to move, copy, activate or delete a library.
Select a library and the information will fill in with the Path, Info, and Size.
Before using any of these, read the confirmation dialogs carefully before continuing. Make sure none of the audiobook files are in use by another application.
All of these options include a dialog message showing what will be done with an option whether to proceed. Use care, and always back up your library manually before attempting a big change.
From left to right, top to bottom, the OpenAudible main window has a search bar, version/news indicator, Library Status Panel, Audiobook Info, Summary Panel, and Audiobook table that lists your books.
The search bar at the top right of the app allows you to filter books by text or pre-defined filters. Type CTRL-F (Command-F) to activate the search. Start typing and all books that match will be shown. Use Escape to clear the search results and display all books.
Pro tips:To the right, a line of text displays the current version, and if there are any upgrades or news available.
The Search Combo also has a list of predefined search filters that can be helpful finding groups of books matching a characteristic.
This shows your library statistics.
These statistics are updated periodically and reflect our best attempt at determining these values. For instance, Hours depends on being able to determine a book's duration.
Note: Click on any blue label to see books that match that filter. For instance, click 'Downloading' to see all books that are being downloaded or queued for downloading.
Information about a selected book is displayed here. This info is collected from web or meta tags and cannot (at this time) be edited.
The blue labels on the left side can be clicked on to filter books by title, author, narrator, genre, or publisher.
Clicking the blue text on the right side will open the browser to display the Audible page for the title, author, narrator, genre, or publisher.
The information for each data element is self-explanatory. The State field shows any errors or tasks that can be performed. The ID contains the Product_ID/ASIN.
State information can display the following:
The list of your books. Click on a book and the book's information will populate into the "Audiobook Info" panel.
An icon on the left side shows the book's status. The following status icons are available:
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Audiobook is available as an MP3 or M4B audiobook file |
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Audiobook is ready to download |
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Audiobook is missing and has no download link. May need to be deleted. This can happen if you import a book and delete the audio file. |
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Audiobook is ready to be converted from AAX to MP3 or M4B |
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Audiobook is being converted to MP3 or M4B. Click on the book to see the progress in the Audiobook Info Panel. |
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Audiobook is in the conversion queue and is scheduled to be converted. |
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Audiobook is being downloaded. Click on the book to see the progress in the Audiobook Info Panel. |
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Audiobook is in the download queue and is scheduled to be downloaded. |
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Audiobook is a directory containing one or more audiobook files. |
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Audiobook is a directory that is no longer found on disk. |
To sort by a column, click the column header once. To sort in the reverse direction, click it again. Click it a 3rd time to go back to default sorting.
Table columns can be rearranged by clicking the header and dragging to a new location.
Table columns can also be disabled, and some additional columns can be enabled by right-clicking and selecting the submenu called 'Table Settings'. To restore the Book Table to default, select 'Reset Table' from the 'Table Settings' submenu.
You can select one or more books in the Book Table and select
Edit > and paste it into any document (Google sheets, Excel, or text document).Only the items in the table will be copied.
To export a list of your books (not the audiobooks files), select
and set the "Save as Type:" to either json, csv, xlsx. OpenAudible also keeps an updated "books.json" that can be used in read-only mode by other applications.Your audible library can be exported as a web page, json, .csv, or .xlst (Excel/Numbers) file from the File menu, so you'll have a list of all your books.
This optional feature lets you export your books as a web page. if you want to access your books on your own personal web server. Please ensure that you password-protect this file to prevent the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted works.
This feature is likely to change in the future. It creates a rather large copy of all the converted books, doubling the amount of space needed to save your books.
To backup or export your entire OpenAudible library to another directory location, use the Copy Library button under the
menu.This can be used to save a backup copy to a cloud disk, external drive, or when you want to move your library to a new directory. See more at: Manage Libraries.
Importing is recommended when you can't download and import books directly from Audible using the Library Sync features.
Use the
menu, or drag and drop "whole book audio files" of type MP3, M4B, M4A, directories, ZIP, AA or AAX files onto the Library Status Panel of the OpenAudible application.Zip files are a special case, and somewhat experimental. The idea is you can download zip files from Librivox and drag them onto OpenAudible. If the zip file contains at least one audio file and an optional image file, the book will be automatically "joined". The audio files need to be alphabetically sorted to join correctly. If you experience problems, you may need to unzip the files and manually add them. This is an experimental feature.
Directories are similarly handled; we assume a directory needs to be "joined".
Note: Only import full books and not books split into multiple parts. To import a book that contains multiple audio files, please see Joining Files in the next section, or import from a zip file.
Import from URL is a feature that lets you download a book from a web URL and add it directly into your library. If you send a link to an HTML page, we will look for a zip file or audio file and import that. Please use with care, as this is an experimental feature. You don't want to accidentally add a bunch of audio files that aren't books to your library.
OpenAudible prefers 1 audio file per audiobook. It's how our software was designed. However, many people prefer an audiobook split by chapter.
It is also possible to download a book in a zip file that may contain multiple parts that can be combined to create a whole book in a single audio file. See Importing zip files above.
Some audiobooks contain multiple audio files. To import these into your library, or to simply have a single audio file for each book, you can use the Join Audio Files command, under the File Menu. To join audio files into a single mp3 file, choose "Join Audio Files" from the File menu. Select a directory that contains all the audio files. If an image file is present, it will be used as the cover art. Audio files in the directory will be sorted alphabetically and joined. Next, select a destination directory for the output file. It can be the OpenAudible's "temp" directory, or anywhere. After joining, you will be asked if you want to import (move) the file to your OpenAudible library.
Pro tip: You can drag and drop one or more book
directories onto OpenAudible to import books into your library as a single mp3
or m4b file.
Each directory should contain one audiobook, with one or more audio files and 1
optional JPG or PNG cover image file. All parts of the book must be in the
correct order alphabetically, so be careful if you have a book that is chapter
1, chapter 2... chapter 11, as those may sort chapter 11 after chapter 1.
We do not recommend splitting books in most cases. Instead, use a good audiobook program that can handle chapter metadata and keep track of where you are listening across all your devices. However, some players have limited storage or may not manage playback position well. In those rare cases, splitting may be useful.
To split a book by chapter:
If you selected one book, it will be shown in the file explorer after splitting. If you selected multiple books to split, a report will show the results of the split.
As of OpenAudible 3.9, split books will be added directly to your library and show with a green 'folder' icon.
Some books in your library might be lame. Maybe you'd rather not download them. For those books, just select them and
to add it to the list of books to be ignored.Each book can have a "read status" which can be set from the
.Options are:
You can also set a custom value by selecting the Get Info menu and editing the value in the Read Status field.
Chapter names are available for some books. When they are available, they will be added to the output file and available in audiobook players that recognize standard chapter metadata.
If you have converted files created before version 3.1, your output books may be missing chapter names. To add chapter names to these books, you'll need to perform a
, then manually delete the mp3/m4b files, select , then re-encode the files.Currently, file naming is handled by OpenAudible. You can rename the filename under the
.A future version should allow you to customize the filename format by author, series, genre, etc., but this commonly requested feature is still "in progress."
AAXC files that have been downloaded from Android or Kindle are not supported. (However, these can be downloaded using OpenAudible.)
To check if your book is downloadable, open a regular web browser, click on your library, and search for the name of the book. If there is a "Download" button, it should be available to download. Without a download button, there is usually an explanation of why it can't be downloaded.
If you have an AAX file that won't convert, delete or move the file and re-download it using OpenAudible.
OpenAudible is shareware and can be tried before buying. To use all the features, a low-cost license is required.
A license can be purchased from openaudible.org/purchase or from within the application . One license can be used on up to 5 personal audible accounts. Not for commercial use. Use only for archiving and backing up your audiobook purchases.
Activating the license is done through the openaudible.org/license.
menu. More details about the license and order lookup are available atIf you exceed the limit of five audible accounts on one license, your license will not allow you to work with books from additional Audible accounts.
A license entitles you to one year of free updates. After 1 year, an upgrade can be purchased through the application that will give you another year of software updates. But you can always use a version of the software that was created before the annual expiration date.
Here are some common problems and how to solve them.
Often opening the
and looking at the last few lines can show an error, and often the error has a description that might help you figure out what happened.Logging into Audible from OpenAudible can fail for a few reasons.
There are a few reasons why a download might fail.
It is always best to back up your files as soon as possible.
Conversion can fail if...
You may need to Action:Delete Book and do a
, download and convert.OpenAudible may stop working at any time, due to changes in Audible systems or API. If this happens, check for an update or open issues.
Submitting a bug report from the About menu will send diagnostic information to developers. For best results, restart OpenAudible, reproduce the problem, then fill in the bug report with as many details as possible and click send. A valid GitHub issue number is required— either create a new issue, or use the number of a similar issue. Add a comment to the issue on GitHub if you have more information.
Uninstalling uses common practices. If you used an installer, there will be an uninstaller.
Mac and AppImage users can toss the application into the trash.
Your settings files can be deleted, and are saved in the "Preferences Directory" displayed in the preferences. The default location on Windows is C:\Users\NAME\OpenAudible. On Mac it is /Users/NAME/Library/OpenAudible. On Linux ~/OpenAudible.
This software gratefully uses FFmpeg under the LGPL built using ffmpeg-build from acoustid.
Please do not share your books. Any personal metadata in the audible files are copied to the output files.
Use of this software for piracy or on file sharing sites is strictly prohibited. Violating these terms will result in us canceling your account and banning you.
This software is copyright the authors of the software.
OpenAudible loves, but is unaffiliated with audible.com