IOS 5 "media kind" audiobook issue

Upgraded to ios 5.0.1 from ios 4. Now setting "media kind" to audiobook for mp3s makes them non playable in the ipod. iPod skips out as if they are 0 seconds long.
This has never happened before and is very very annoying because I use my ipod mostly for books. Setting standard mp3s to audibook so it remembers the position and shows up in the audiobook section is the feature I use the most. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Stephane,
Looks like it is the case for a lot of people. I've been trying for nearly two days in my case... (that is via iTunes, iPhone/iPad and direct download links). I guess there's a lot of people trying to upgrade and would just recommend to try and try again. Or wait a couple of days when the servers are less overloaded
Charles
iPhone 4, iPad 2, iOS 5.0.1

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I am trying to change the order of one of my audiobooks (media kind: audiobook), but the ID tags are greyed out. I can't change tags for almost all my audiobooks. Music files OK. Files are all read/write. Repaired disc perms. OS 10.9.4. ITunes11.4

I am trying to change the order of one of my audiobooks (media kind: audiobook), but the ID tags are greyed out. I can't change tags for almost all my audiobooks. Music files OK. Files are all read/write. Repaired disc perms. OS 10.9.4. ITunes 11.4 I don't have iTunes Match.

Select all the songs and then Advanced -> Convert ID3 tags.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesWin/6.0/en/655win.html

Selecting media type Audiobook will not stick

iTunes 10.1.2.17 84 bit on Windows 7 Ultimate x64.
I( have a set of MP3 files which make up an audiobook. They are all in their own folder. In iTunes I import the folder, find the individual tracks under Music, highlight them all, right-click and on the Options tab set media kind Audiobook, part of a compilation Yes, remember position Yes, Skip when shuffling Yes, part of a gapless album Yes, and click OK.
When I click on Books in the left-hand pane I see the book cover. If I right-click on the book cover and pick Get Info, Options tab I see that the media kind is Music. If I change it to Audiobook and click OK and check the setting, it remains set as Music.
If I look at Books in list view the individual files are media kind Audiobook.
When I click on my Touch in the left-hand pane and select Books I am informed that there are no books. Of course it doesn't get synced to my Touch.
Running Itunes as administrator makes no difference.
How can I convince iTunes that my audiobook is an audiobook?

i'm having the same exact problem with iTunes 10.1.1.4 on Windows XP SP3.
i can change the media kind of the individual mp3s, but when i go into the Books section, and do a Get Info on the compilation, it just says "Music". the first time i set this to "Audiobook" and sync my iphone, the books will sync and show up in the Audiobooks section of my iPhone's iPod app, but the next time i sync, the audiobooks are gone. In order to have them sync again, I have to once again set the compilation to "Audiobook" by doing a Get Info on the compilation in the Books section of iTunes.
i am experiencing the exact same issue as JonFleming. i want to be able to have the media kind stay as "Audiobook". how do i do this? i tried looking at the log files for iTunes, but found nothing.

Media Kind "Podcast" not available

With iTunes 8 I could finally set my audiobooks to "Media Kind: Audiobook", so that they will show up in my "Audiobooks" folder and no longer in "Music".
But there are still other media items that are in wrong folders:
1) Audio Podcasts in the "Music" folder
2) Video Podcasts in the "Movies" folder
I am not able to select "Media Kind: Podcast" for this item because it is simply not an option.
Also the method of setting the "Genre" to Podcast does not help, as so often tried by others already.
Is there any solution to this problem?
Message was edited by: xenesthis

Thank you for your suggestion, Katrina.
I tried the program and found several hidden iTunes tags that cannot be accessed on iTunes itself. I tried to set the value of one of the older podcast episodes to the value that the new one had but it did not work. This whole issue is simply a pain in the butt, and you are right, I should not have to use a third party program in order to get the older episodes into the same podcast folder as the new ones.
iTunes needed 8 versions to finally make it possible to tag files as "Audiobook" in iTunes itself (although there is still one flaw: every time you import the files anew you have to tag them again as "Audiobook" because iTunes does not remember).
I hope it doesn't take another 8 versions for adding "Podcast" as a "Media Kind" option so that I can have finally all my podcast episodes in one place.
I will definitely send feedback to Apple about this issue.

What does setting Media Kind to Audiobook do?

Yes, I know it causes the file to show as a Book and not Music, but what does it really do to the file? The real question is: What constitutes an Audiobook to iTunes. If the file's file type and extension are M4B or it is from Audible with extension aa, iTunes says it's an Audiobook. But setting the Media Kind to Audiobook does something else. What does it do?
Thanks for any info on this.

"I've taken to deleting Podcasts app so that they return (properly organized!) to the old Music app."
This no longer works: iOS 7 removes this escape route.
You now must use Apple's specific Podcasts app for podcasts – which, of course, still hasn't fixed the original issue (of lumping everything together). If you try to use Apple's Music app like before, the Podcasts are hidden from view for iOS 7.
As DogDutyAscetic said above: it's best to just completely switch to Downcast (or other 3rd party) if you make your own podcasts. Apple has bigger fish to fry than the podcast community, and understandably so as the biggest company in the world. Rather than fix this issue over the last 12 months, they've instead shut off their working alternative. A pity, but the writing was on the wall.

Music Videos [Media Kind] is not playable on iOS 5.0.1 update

Well, my cousin and I just recently updated our iDevices (iPod Touch 4th Gen for me and iPhone 4 for him) to iOS 5.0.1 and we got this very annoying bug. The Media Kind: Music Video is not playing in our devices. We tried bringing this to nearest MAC Store and they advised us that it is a known issue to the new iOS 5.0 update. Well I already reported this to Apple but they havent replied to me yet as to confirm if this is a known issue with iOS 5 or bug iTunes media conversion. Hope to hear any feedbacks from them regarding this

If this was an iOS bug there'd be howls of pain all over the internet, which is not the case. Likely your iOS 5.0.1 installation went awry, so try the usual steps:
Power OFF/ON
Reset
Restore from Backup
Restore, then load last backup
Restore as a new device (i.e. don't load a backup)
One of those will surely correct the problem. If not, time to contact your carrier to see if something got tweaked with your account.

Saving Media Kind, Position & Shuffling in ID3 Metadata for MP3 Audiobooks?

Hello, I have a problem saving "media kind" - audioboks as file metadata independent of iTunes.
I recently purchased an iPhone however I am pretty apathetic to iTunes - I use it as my only media player at the moment because of the iPhone, however I want my collection to work with whatever software I use now as well as whatever platform I use 10 years from now, hence my dependence on 3rd party tools to save metadata. iTunes has it's own nice little database but I do not want to be at the whim of this database everytime I want to transfer files to another computer, or in the event of a catastrophic data failure. I have already witnessed this with album art, where I add art in iTunes but it does not save the art in the actual mp3 file.
So I sorted my music collection using MB Picard, Tag&Rename, MediaMonkey and Evillyrics. It's all looking nice, with full ID3 metadata including genre and cover art. Now it's time to organise my collection of DRM-free Audiobooks which are currently in MP3 format.
Initially I looked into converting all the MP3s into AAC files, then into M4B, and I tried this method manually in iTunes as well as using various software, including one called MarkAble, which saves the chapter info, and does some other nice stuff. While this is one way of organising audiobooks, it is a time intensive method. In iTunes 8, with the new ability to select "Audiobook" as media kind, I can keep my files as MP3s and save some time and effort.
My problem lies in the fact that this new media kind field is not actually saved in the ID3 metadata. When I add an audiobook to iTunes and set the media kind to audiobook, if I then remove the files from my iTunes library, then add them in again, iTunes has forgotten that they were tagged as Audiobooks, and they are back in my main library with my music, and media kind is set back to music, with remember position and skip when shuffling also unticked.
Unfortunately, 3rd party tools are of little help here. Tag&Rename does have a music/video field where you can select Audiobook, however after tagging that, iTunes does not see these files as audiobook, so I assume "media kind" must be a non-standard field for iTunes, like how Apple used TPE2 band/orchestra as "Album Artist". Mediamonkey users have the same issue with no "media kind" field available, as described here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=41731
So can anyone help me - is there a way I can save the media kind, skip when shuffling and remember position information independent of iTunes?

With iTunes 8.x you have the option to tell iTunes to treat any audio file as an audiobook. Simply select the tracks, *Get Info.*, then on the options tab set *Media kind* to Audiobook. You can also set options to *Remember playback position* and *Skip when shuffling*.
Assuming, however, that the books consist of more than one file you may have problems if you plan to listen to them on an iPod. The Audiobooks feature was originally designed for books that have been stitched up into a single file and hasn't been updated to reflect the changes that now make multi-track audiobooks easy to work with in iTunes. The main issue is that the iPod lists all audiobook files by track title/chapter name so unless you rename every track using a scheme such as *Book Title, Chapter XX* the tracks will play out of sequence. There are tools for creating iPod-friendly audiobooks for which Aldo on Audiobooks is probably the best reference. Personally I don't bother with the extra effort and just have an "Audiobooks" playlist folder containing sub-folders for each author and within these playlists for each audiobook. Although I still mark the files as Audiobooks to keep them out of my main music section when it comes to the iPod I ignore it's Audiobooks feature and use my own playlists for access.
Note that I've used leading digits in the playlist names to arrange these in chronological rather than alphabetical order.
As Chris notes Media Kind, Remember Playback Position & Skip When Shuffling are not recorded in the tag and so forgotten if files are removed & reimported. Apple could have implemented these via custom fields as with their Compilation flag but have chosen not to do so. If you give all your audiobooks the genre "Audiobook" then it is fairly simple to create a smart playlist with the rules *Genre is "Audiobook"* AND *Playlist is not Audiobooks*. Any files that turn up in this playlist can then have their attributes adjusted.
tt2

In iTunes I'm having problems changing the "Media Kind" with a number of playlists in the OPTIONS menu from "music" to "audiobook". After going through the steps, the next time I check the items have reverted back to "music". What step am I missing?

In iTunes I'm having problems changing the "Media Kind" in the OPTIONS menu from "Music" to "Audiobook". After going through the steps, the next time I check, the items have reverted back to "Music". What must I do to save it as an "Audiobook"?

After more digging in the Support section here and some Google work, I turned off iTunes Match and lo and behold! I can change the media kind to Audiobook! So, it looks like iTunes Match locked the files up somehow and for some reason.
I went into iTunes Store > iTunes Match > "No, Thanks" to disable it on the local PC.

BUG - iTunes 10.0 - Changing Media Kind to Audiobook

I think I've found a bug when converting a bunch of MP3s to an Audiobook when Sound Check is on. If you select multiple MP3s (10 or so) and change the Media Kind to Audiobook, a lot of times one of the files does not get changed to Audiobook. It seems like Sound Check starts to normalize the sound and it deselects one of the files. It doesn't happen every time, but it happens often enough to get annoying. Anyone else noticed this?

This for Mac only (sorry).
'Subler' offers a nice 'clean' way of adding the requisite tags to m4a files, also for iTunes U.
It's free at http://code.google.com/p/subler/
This works only for m4a files. I have not found a solution for mp3s.
Do not add your track to iTunes yet, instead, open it in Subler.
In Subler, make sure that the track has at least the Name, Artist and Album tags set (under 'Metadata', create them as necessary using the small '+'-menu down left).
- For a Podcast, under 'Other Settings' check 'Options: Podcast' and save.
- For iTunes U, under 'Other Settings' choose 'Media Kind' > 'iTunes U' and save.
Now add your file to iTunes.
And Apple: please fix!

Change Media Kind from music to audiobook for multiple files

I was able to change the files one at a time but...
I was unable to "Change/edit media kind" from music to audiobook when selecting more than 1 file.
This fixed it
I just updated Itunes to 11.2.2 and it now works just fine. Make sure you have the most recent version of Itunes.

After more digging in the Support section here and some Google work, I turned off iTunes Match and lo and behold! I can change the media kind to Audiobook! So, it looks like iTunes Match locked the files up somehow and for some reason.
I went into iTunes Store > iTunes Match > "No, Thanks" to disable it on the local PC.

Importing Audiobooks from CD - Media Kind Greyed Out

I am importing audiobooks from CD and all the relevant Options for audiobooks are greyed out.
"Media Kind" is greyed out
"Remember position" is greyed out
"Skip when shuffling" is greyed out
I can make the changes after I've imported them, but I really want to do it before I import as it simply makes it easier on me (which is to say, it saves me time, and time is precious).
Any idea why these would be greyed out for importing audio CDs?
At least I can still join tracks.
Hmmm ... I suppose I should see if it's also greyed out when I import a music CD, but I haven't bought a music CD is years and have already imported all the one I do own.

Any idea why these would be greyed out for importing audio CDs?
Because this info is not in the tags for the audio CD. They are part of the file after you import it.
This info is part of the *CD Info.cidb* file., which is where iTunes stores the CD info. The CD info is not stored in iTunes.
See this -> How iTunes remembers audio CDs
I suppose I should see if it's also greyed out when I import a music CD
Yes it is.

Cannot set Media Kind to Audiobook. Defaults back to Music

Can anybody offer input on why MP3s cannot have the "Media Kind" set to Audiobook in iOS5. The setting will default back to music automatically.
This was not the case with iOS4...

Right click on the video and select "Get Info" and click on the "Options" tab scroll down to "Media Kind" and select "TV Show" to "Music Video."
Best of luck!

Cannot change Media Kind when importing audiobooks and TV shows into iTunes for Mac

I just purchased a new MacBook Pro - my first Apple computer.
I have used PC's with iTunes for many years, and have a large collection of music (from CD's), audiobooks (from CD's), TV shows (from multiple sources), and movies (from DVD's) on external an hard drives. I have never had trouble moving these to/from my various iDevices: an iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad 2.
I plugged the external drive into my new MacBook Pro, and added the folders to my iTunes for Mac library. As always happened in the past, the video files were always characterized as "Movies", and audio files as "Music". However, in iTunes for Mac, i do not seem to have the ability to change the Media Kind .... I can see the field, but it is "greyed out" and i am not allowed to change it.
Can anyone help advise me on how I can change these Media Kinds? Thank you!

No one answered my question, but I solved it, and thought I'd explain how if others have the same problem .... I had the wrong kind of hard drive for a Mac. It was formatted NTFS, which the Mac could read but not write to .... therefore, iTunes wouldn't let me change anything. I needed a better external hard drive anyways, so I got a new one, formatted it to the Mac format, and then just dragged everything to the new hard drive. After that, iTunes worked perfect.

Cannot change media kind in itunes 12 - audiobook

Hi
Before the update i could add an audiobook to itunes from my laptop, windows 8.1. The audiobook got into musicfiles, then i marked all the files/songs, went to info and changed from music to audiobook. Viola and i could find my audiobook in that categori.
That is no longer possible! I can still go to info, but the only option in media kind is "music"
I have tried with severel audiobooks, but same result. I also tried when i wasn't logged on to Itunes, and then i could change media kind, but when i logged on, nothing changed.
Sorry for the spelling and grammatics errors. From Denmark.
Yours sincerely
Flemming

Hi
Before the update i could add an audiobook to itunes from my laptop, windows 8.1. The audiobook got into musicfiles, then i marked all the files/songs, went to info and changed from music to audiobook. Viola and i could find my audiobook in that categori.
That is no longer possible! I can still go to info, but the only option in media kind is "music"
I have tried with severel audiobooks, but same result. I also tried when i wasn't logged on to Itunes, and then i could change media kind, but when i logged on, nothing changed.
Sorry for the spelling and grammatics errors. From Denmark.
Yours sincerely
Flemming

I'm an expert - still can't fix this Audiobook issue

This problem is killing me. I am an expert mac problem solver and have spent days resolving issues, never to be stumped. This I have been at for a week with no success. Props to anyone who can figure it out.
On my mac I have an audiobook in .m4a format. There are over a hundred files that combine to form the book. They load into my main iTunes library just fine. They play just fine. The problem arises when I select them all, hit "get info" and change the "media kind" to Audiobook. I do this so that they appear in the "Audiobooks" playlist and not with my music, obviously. It works, except for a handful of files from the middle of the book. iTunes makes these files into a second Audiobook with the same title, same author... same everything. So then what I have is two different Audiobooks (same title, same author, same cover art) one of which is the beginning and end of the book and the other which is just the middle. As you probably are aware, iTunes does not allow the user to edit Audiobooks by adding files, so I cannot combine them by simply dragging the files from one book to the other.
I have checked and rechecked the fact that all the files have identical information, i.e author, album, composer, media kind, equalizer preset, genre... everything. I did this to see if iTunes would combine them on its own once this info was the same. It did not. All the files are named properly (chapter 1.1, chapter 1.2 ...chapter 10.1 etc.), so I know they would all show up in order once placed together.
When I go into my iTunes music folder on my hard drive, the beginning/end of the book is listed in the correct place (Music/iTunes Music/Author/Book Title), whereas the middle of the book is listed by the same title under "Compliations" (Music/iTunes Music/Compilations/Book Title). In other words, in order to find the middle section of the book in the iTunes music folder, you would scroll down all the artists alphabetically until you got to "Compilations," and inside there would be the book title file containing the files that make up the middle of the book.
I have tried deleting and re-importing. I have tried physically moving the files from "Compilations" to their proper author's file then quitting and restarting iTunes, but this does nothing to combine the two Audiobooks into one single book. When I click on the files from the middle of the book to play them, the iTunes music folder undoes the work I just did, putting the files back into "Compilations" one by one as they are played.
Now I realize I could just leave the files in my main music library, organized by name, and they would all play in order. However, this should not have to be the case. I want my Audiobook in one piece, in the Audiobooks playlist so when I get to the middle of the book I wont have to open a second Audiobook (same title), play it, and then go back. Why the iTunes creators made Audiobooks so much less malleable than the other media I have no idea, but it aggravates me. Being able to click and drag would be an obviously simple fix to this problem.
If you or anyone you know has an idea for me, please do not hesitate to post. Thanks.
Message was edited by: geegn1

thanks 0Ari0, your suggestion of labeling all the files as part of a compilation worked. After I did this i changed the media kind to audiobook, and voila, one single book appeared in the Audiobooks submenu. The individual files aren't listed under their proper artist in the iTunes music folder, but I don't really care about that. I'm ok with having the book listed in Compilations as long as it's all in one piece.
thank you

IOS 5 "media kind" audiobook issue

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