Does Plex-Echo handle Audiobooks well, and if so, what is the best way to set it up for such?

Plex Media Server
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OK, I can now get my music to play on my home speaker group using Plex. But while that is nice, my primary goal is to listen to my Audiobooks using Plex. So, I have a few specific questions:

  1. Is it possible to set up separate folders/directories for books and music so that when I play my music on shuffle, it does not start playing an audiobook? And if so, how would I do so? I tried creating a folder (library?) for each, but issuing a “play music” command treated audiobooks as being just more music. I need to resolve that.

  2. Imagine I have a folder/library in Plex called “Audiobooks” and a copy of RIngworld by Larry Niven sitting in there. What specific command would I issue to Alexa to have it tell Plex to play that book?

  3. Because said book is about 10 hours long, and I can’t listen to it in one sitting, Imagine I take a break after one hour. The next day, I wish to resume where I left off. Will Plex remember where I left off, and resume at that spot? And if so, what specific command would I issues to do so?

TY!

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re/ 1:
Yes, you can have many libraries with their own settings/configuration for similar media types (movies, tv-shows or music…) → e.g. 2 music-type libraries, 1 for regular music and 1 for audio books)

re/ 2:

re/ 3:
You can configure a music-type library to remember your progress (e.g. if you’re using it for audio books). The Alexa voice commands can handle a “resume” order – that being said I haven’t seen any examples if/how Plex will resume a certain audio book file if you tell it to play.

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Keep in mind that the resume feature is only useful if your audiobook is in a single file. If the book is in multiple files, Plex won’t remember which file it was in.

1 Like
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to be clear. There is no official audiobook support yet. You would be using a regular music library, probably with the “store track progress” setting enabled.

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To make things simple for testing, I have ONE album in the MUSIC library (Johnny Rivers LIVE at the Whisky a GO GO) with each song as its own file. I have TWO audiobooks (Seizing the Enigma, and The Great Escape) in their own folders in the AUDIOBOOKS library. Each track is its own file.

The AUDIOBOOK library is set to STORE TRACK PROGRESS

I told it to play Seizing the Enigma, and it started. I then told it to pause, which it did. I told it to resume, and it did.

So far, so good.

I reopened Plex and told it to “resume”. It picked up where it left off.

I stopped it, and re-opend Plex. I told it to “play some music” and was informed there were not enough tracks to create a music station yet. I then told it “play Johnny Rivers” and the liver version of “The Midnight Special Began” to play.

“Alexa skip” and it is now playing “Oh Lonesome Me”.

“Alexa stop” worked fine.

“Alexa, ask Plex resume Seizing the Enigma” --gave me an error message.

“Alexa, resume” and I am back in Johnny Rivers

Reopen Plex. “Resume Seizing the Enigma”. Alexa responds by asking me if I wish to listen to Johnny Rivers.

Reconnect to Plex…

Play “Seizing the Enigma”… and it starts the audiobook back at the beginning.

“Alexa, stop.”
“Alexa, connect to Plex”
“Resume” … and I am where I just left off.

So, I can start a specific audiobook, stop it, leave, come back later, and resume where I left off–PROVIDED I don’t play anything else.

If anyone has a suggestion or two for how I could resume a specific audiobook where I left off after playing other music, I would love to hear them to try.

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AFAIK, there isn’t a way to get Alexa to play tracks from the middle. The stop/resume you are doing work but as you see, are only for the currently playing item.

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Sort of what I figured :frowning:

Plex has that for movies and TV shows, but not yet for audiobooks. It would be nice if they added it.

Maybe some day. I know if it would let me switch between music and audiobooks, and remember where I left off, I’d go for the subscription.

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If you were playing back to a Plex client, then there is a possibility of having it work. Playing back on an Alexa device itself, there isn’t a way to provide a starting point. Amazon would need to add this feature to their devices.

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I am not saying you should, because spending time coding is a business decision on what features sell, and which ones do not, and how long it would take to get the feature coded. Having said that…

It is possible to fast forward through a track, skipping a desired amount of time. Is it possible to have Plex record a tag or some kind of data file in the server itself to remember which track was being listened to in an audiobooks folder, and how far in the listening was done? Then, Plex could simply tell Alexa "Play Track " and then “Skip forward 17:25”

Inelegant, but if Plex can get from Alexa how much of a track was listened to (or keep track itself) the “fast forward” ability would get you back to where you needed to be to listen.

As I said, I don’t know if implementing this would be a high priority, or economically feasible, but it could be a possible solution.

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It’s not a matter of programming. Plex has very little control when it comes to the actual Alexa devices. It’s basically, “here, play this file”. Keep in mind that when using Alexa and an Alexa device like an Echo, there isn’t a Plex app actually running. The Plex skill can issue some commands to the echo, but it’s very limited. Plex tells the device the file to play and everything else is handled by the device itself. Things like paus/resume/forward/rewind are all done by the device itself. Plex is already out of the picture once it has told the device what file to play.

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