Bump! @Elan its been a few months since you confirmed this was coming. Any update on an ETA when it might arrive?
Canât wait for this! 
Iâm glad resume is coming, but if they donât also include variable speed playback, itâs still not worthwhile for me.
+1âŠ
+1 please please implement this! With the mobile app it would be all sorts of awesome.
+1 I would like to see this as well. I understand you can work around it with tv library, but native support is always betterer.
@Elijah_Baley said:
Multiple requests already exist:https://forums.plex.tv/topic/56331-plexreader-comics-books-pdfs-audiobooks-and-more/
https://forums.plex.tv/topic/112971-audiobooks/
https://forums.plex.tv/topic/57673-remember-position-for-audiobooks/
And there are many others that exist. It is better to like and post in existing threads rather than starting another.
See this thread as to the purpose of this forum:
https://forums.plex.tv/topic/46128-rules-for-this-forum-inc-how-to-vote/
Plex has not responded and that could, at least partly, be because the people wanting this feature have diluted their impact by not following directions.
I agree multiple request exist for YEARS now and I have not heard anything. Itâs a high demand featureâŠyet silence
+1 I too want a good audiobook library i have tried to make one buy using a music library and it is not good
+1âŠ
âŠ
Until the Audiobooks section is officially supported I have a working fix for getting Audio Books into Plex that will work on phones and roku as well! Obviously it is not as good as official support but this is probably the best you are going to get for now. It is fast too, only takes a few min to get your book into Plex.
Items Needed:
MKVToolNix
Dummy Video Track (custom 10 min blank video) tiny file @ 124 KB
BulkFileChanger (optional)
Audiobook maker like Markable or Chapter and Verse (optional)
I use Markable to convert the audio files into an m4b using the âspoken podcastââ settings in itunes import settings. But this is optional, separate mp3âs will work fine with these instructions.
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Bring your imported file(s) into MKVToolNix. If you are using multiple audio files you will need to add them with âAppend Filesâ option (right click in the files section)
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Add the dummy video track I created. This track is 10 min long but we will use the âStretch byâ field to make it fit the audio.
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You need to compute the stretch factor of the video to fit the audio. If you use my video track then use this formula ((Hours x 60 x 60)+(Minutes x 60)+Seconds)/(10 x 60). This will give you the scaling factor of the 10 min video file to the length of your audio book.
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Select the video track from the âTracks, chapters, tags and attachmentsâ box and paste the computed value into the âStretch byâ field on the right.
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âStart muxingâ your file which will quickly produce an mkv file without re-encoding anything.
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Edit the mkv file in BulkFileChanger or other program of your choice to set the creation date on the file to the proper year of the book. If you donât do this now then Plex will import it with todayâs date and cannot be changed without removing and re-adding the file later.
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Place the video and cover art in a folder the way Plex likes. I prefer to use the âHome Videosâ library type but you may choose to do it differently. Just make sure the library scanner is set to Personal Media
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Edit the imported file in Plex to add descriptions
nvmd, just saw that its apparently coming :)))))
@HephaestusMedia Itâs been in the works for quite some time now, and itâs only a resume feature for audio not specifically for Audio books. Lets hope that the obvious integration isnât overlooked. Since this is a low priority it could still be years out. Since there is typically no communication we really have no way of knowing how long that really is. Like the rest of you, I have been begging for this feature for years and years. The only good solution that ever existed for streaming audio books was bought out and and then apparently discontinued. I have tried using Subsonic but it had been a âsub-parâ experience.
@senigami said:
@HephaestusMedia Itâs been in the works for quite some time now, and itâs only a resume feature for audio not specifically for Audio books. Lets hope that the obvious integration isnât overlooked. Since this is a low priority it could still be years out. Since there is typically no communication we really have no way of knowing how long that really is. Like the rest of you, I have been begging for this feature for years and years. The only good solution that ever existed for streaming audio books was bought out and and then apparently discontinued. I have tried using Subsonic but it had been a âsub-parâ experience.
I use MediaMonkey for my audio book playback. It is based on a mini-computer that has no other purpose. I find MediaMonkey to be very good for all audio media but I only use it for books.
Having said that it is not perfect but what it lacks is not really important to me.
I would prefer that Plex could handle audio books as in the Plex environment it is easier to both control and play the media.
But what I use now works and even allows for remote control via a couple of different plug-ins and until Plex fully supports audiobooks I will keep using this slightly more complex solution. To me neither Orb or Subsonic look to be âbetterâ than MediaMonkey but rather just âdifferentâ and more commercial.
@Elijah_Baley please share your configuration with us. if you have found something that serves audiobooks decently Iâm sure we would all love to hear how to do it as well. I would love to give it a try. Even the best solution that I have found has been mediocre. Of course if it does not handle resume then itâs not worth trying.
@senigami said:
@Elijah_Baley please share your configuration with us. if you have found something that serves audiobooks decently Iâm sure we would all love to hear how to do it as well. I would love to give it a try. Even the best solution that I have found has been mediocre. Of course if it does not handle resume then itâs not worth trying.
As I said in my earlier post I simply use MediaMonkey on a small computer. It really has nothing to do with Plex and there is nothing special about the setup. I simply have the computer boot straight into MediaMonkey and the files reside on a hard disk directly connected to the computer. The audio output is fed throughout my home and MediaMonkey is controlled by a few wireless keyboards placed in various locations and also any tablet that happens to be in use. On the tablets I use a program called âRemoteMonkeyâ to control the MediaMonkey player. I find that âRemoteMonkeyâ is easier to use that the other remote control options available for MediaMonkey.
So, like I said, it is completely outside the Plex ecosystem and is nothing really special. Just like in Plex I do not care much about the âfluffâ all I need is a decent interface that allows an easy way to play my files.
I wish everything could be implemented together in one application but that is not currently possible so this is the best I have come up with.
+1âŠaudiobooks would be great! I drive a service route all through Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. I frequently use Audiobooks and podcasts to pass the time driving for hours.
+1 audiobooks and podcast would be great!
@senigami said:
Until the Audiobooks section is officially supported I have a working fix for getting Audio Books into Plex that will work on phones and roku as well! Obviously it is not as good as official support but this is probably the best you are going to get for now. It is fast too, only takes a few min to get your book into Plex.Items Needed:
MKVToolNix
Dummy Video Track (custom 10 min blank video) tiny file @ 124 KB
BulkFileChanger (optional)
Audiobook maker like Markable or Chapter and Verse (optional)âŠ
I just tried what you said, man, thatâs working great! 
I used the same trick, but I used Windows Movie Maker, but my video file was at least 5x as big as yours and took more than one hour to convert one book with Windows Movie Maker while it only took a few seconds with MKVToolNix 
Iâd like to +1 this as well. I have a large audiobook collection and I have it on plex as Music but the 2 biggest issues are 1. Lack of Sync and 2. The inability to remember where you were.
Okay I know this post is a prime candidate for tl;dr but it just had to be said (based mostly on comments from other threads) :)>-
I know that a resume feature is supposedly in the works and to all of us, who are not writing the code, it seems as simple as; asking the user if they would prefer to resume or play from the beginning if an âEnable Resumeâ box is ticked under the Library Settings for audio files. Perhaps there is a bit more to it than just adding a resume option. For better or for worse Plex authors do not push out half-assed features and it may take time to get it right due to some earlier programming decisions that are making a resume feature difficult now. As a programmer myself I understand the plight of something that should be simple but instead is terribly complicated due to how things were set up in the past when things were moving in a different direction.
However, it seems much more likely that this particular item is just too low on the priority list to get the needed development time. Like it or not the development wind is blowing in other directions like the new virtual reality video, as VR is considered to be highly profitable industry in the immediate future. It is painfully obvious that Plexâs major focus is on video before audio and will always take the driverâs seat when it comes to product feature development. Plus there is the recent focus on making Plex available on as many platforms as possible.
As much as we all wish for Plex to implement the resume feature, I wouldnât hold my breath for it any time soon. Especially for having audio book support; this would require media scraping for it to be done right. And we know that Plex will either release it right or not at all. Iâve actually built a media scraper web page for myself which parses the audio Meta data and does a lookup on goodreads as well as Audible to gather information, covers, play time, and more. I use it to help rename and organize my books so I know what kind of effort it takes to really do it correctly. I would love to give it to Plex to help speed things along but contact with admins is virtually impossible and I doubt they would take any code from some random developer that wasnât created in-house.
Some people have referred to suggestions like mine or @Elijah_Baley as the work of âWorkaround Evangelistsâ and that âwe shouldnât have toâ or it isnât a solution and it should âjust workâ. While we all agree we would wish for it to be a certain way; the truth is that it isnât here yet and may not be for quite some time, even years. Whining and complaining that we donât want to have to make temporary adjustments will not change the fact that we only have what we have for now. âWorkaround Evangelistsâ like me are trying to provide the simplest solution to provide a service for something that does not exist at present. I think calling it evangelism is a bit strong as in no way am I suggestion that I would rather have the workaround than a fix. However I would also prefer having a fix to nothing at all.
The work around method from my post may be slightly more involved than @Elijah_Baley 's simple renaming of the file but it also is the most compatible as it ensures working on all devices. If a simple rename works for you then go for it. If you have another method that you discover that is even easier than what is suggested I would LOVE to hear about it and possibly use it instead. To all of you who are begging and wishing that this feature was in now because you âabsolutely need it,â and yet are not willing to try one of these work-arounds, I can only say that you must not need it as much as you say you do because neither of these Band-Aid set-ups require more than a couple of minutes of your time and actually work quite well. I know that the phone screen must stay on for it to work but it is set to blank to simulate off as much as possible to not drain your battery or burn in the screen.
Eventually someday, hopefully soon, Plex will release a resume or Audio Book option and none of this will be necessary. But until then we do what we can and work together in communities like these to find a way of limping along for now. Hopefully these types of discussions will eventually catch the eye of one of the developers and help move things along. Until then letâs work together to find ways of making things work and perhaps help influence the programmers to pick up an idea or two.
