…
It was actually updated in april 2019. And i have no issues with metadata tags as i manually edit them from Audible. the only issue i have is the bookmarks don’t sync from the app to the web UI.
Basically if you manage the metadata right, you should have no issues. But I’m OCD about that kind of thing.
It really hasn’t been updated in forever. The Google Play app maybe is bugfixed on occasion, but the UI/UX and the server software itself hasn’t had significant updates in several years.
You can’t change the Author metadata; you can’t change the author image(s); changing the album art after Booksonic has already populated it is a pain… If you look at the photos on the Google Play store, they show the Sherlock Holmes novels sorted chronologically because the release date is part of the folder name. That shouldn’t be a thing that is necessary.
Additionally, the UI just looks ugly. I enjoy having an app that has some measure of good aesthetic and looks somewhat professional. Booksonic looks like an app some lone college student programmed in their spare time.
EDIT: I did notice that the above link for the Booksonic Server says “depreciated” and links to another project called “Booksonic-Bridge”, but the above link is the from the server software download link posted on Booksonic.com, and Booksonic Bridge has had zero releases since its Github page was created in September 2017. In addition, the github page linked to from the booksonic website hasn’t been updated since 2016, outside of a single API bugfix in April.
I never said it was perfect, just that it is still a better option than dealing with plex. Just saying bro.
+1 more, yes please add audiobook functions
Out of curiosity how many votes until something gets recognised to go into the “implementation phase” @elan? 594 seems like a lot to me?
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I’m kind of saddened that they basically are ignoring this request. It was made years ago, and if memory serves Plex support even replied at some point like… 2 years ago? More? Saying that it was being implemented. As a lifetime Plex subscriber I’d appreciate some prioritization. As you said, so many people have requested this - not only here but on other posts as well. It’s a genuine failing that something as widely used as audio books isn’t supported by the best media server application around. 
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Same here. At this point the whole “community voting” approach is revealed to be nothing but a farce. Vote or don’t vote, devs will implement only what they deem important.
Whatever.
It’s really not just a quantity thing, there are other factors are well, like how hard the feature is to implement. We’ve chatted about this one internally because we find it interesting for sure (and not least because of the interest you guys are expressing in it)
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Obviously, we’d love a new library type optimized for audiobooks, which would also handle the metadata nicely. But as a starting point, I’d be happy even if Plex just added a setting to not end a track until it’s at 100% completion and the ability to remember which track I’m on in the album. You already can remember where I am in the track, but I don’t want to have to remember which track I’m on. If those 2 things were added to the music library type, I could use Plex for audiobooks. But because those things are missing, I am forced to look for other options. I imagine those 2 things would not be very hard or time consuming to add.
EDIT - Oh and playback speed options are also a must for me. I usually listen at 2-2.5x speed. I guess the lack of those 3 things is what forces me to look elsewhere.
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Why exactly is it difficult to implement?
Roll out the implementation in stages. You already have Resume at the track level. You already have Adjustable Playback Speed settings on mobile.
- So you should develop Resume at the Album level.
- You should develop the ability for (resumable) audio albums to show up in “Continue [Listening]”.
- You should allow a “Watched” (or rather “Listened”) Status to be set for audio.
- You should develop m4b support.
- You should add the ability to create bookmarks.
- You should add Musicbrainz (or something similar) as an agent.
You don’t need to do all of this at once. Just having Album level resume and listing the current book on the Home screen is good enough to be going on with. At least then we don’t have to remember which track we were on when albums are split into multiple files.
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@chyron8472 and @higbee4 make excellent points.
Audiobook support doesn’t have to even be branded or implemented as “audiobook support”. They could just be enhancements to the Audio/Music library type, rolled out feature by feature.
For me the “Resume at the Album level” and “Don’t make complete until 100% done” options would be the obvious starting points.
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Truth be told, it seems like the most difficult hurdle would probably be to implement having both chapter-marked books and traditional track-split albums in the same library at the same time. But while that’s a hurdle for optimal support, I don’t see why that should be a requirement for support.
Honestly, I really don’t think developing support for chapter marks should be treated like the first hurdle. As though, because that part is difficult, the other features aren’t worth implementing.
I mean, surely it should ultimately be implemented as an entirely new library type, right? That way it can have its own set of rules and parameters?
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Even then, creating a new library type would not be necessary to build from scratch. Given that much of the functionality already exists in the Music type, they could use Music as a baseline from which to build.
…Honestly, I just need album-level resume. Bookmarks would be nice but if I have album-level resume then I would chuck my current alternative solutions. I’m not saying that’s all I want, but I have been avoiding using Plex for audiobooks because it never remembers what chapter I’m on.
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At this point I would just be happy if the Audible books I ripped would consistently resume from the same location EVERY TIME. Over the course of 3 days I’ve had an audiobook restart from the beginning 4 times. (And yes I didn’t use the play button but the item down below in the audio book.). Its highly inconsistent making Plex completely useless for audiobooks. That and the 90% (Or 95%) marked as complete rule. Actually looking for alternatives to Plex simple because of this.
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I use an offline app on my phone called mp3 audio books and I transfer them using resillio.
Plex has dissapointed me lately. I had live tv dvr, wich works really poorly most of the time and not the to mention the library backup that never worked since day 1
Oh, my God. They listened to me.
https://forums.plex.tv/t/upgrading-plex-music-libraries/469659
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For me to ditch my audiobook app, I would need
A sleep timer
Do not mark as finished until 100% complete (or maybe 2mins until 100%)
Display unfinished books on deck or currently reading
And you could easily get the Summary/album review from the MP3 comments. And get the narrator from the composer field.
And I’m little bit OCD and this really annoys me, I use the book cover as opposed to the cd cover and it doesn’t display it correctly and cuts off half the cover.
Vs this, I use the bottom image and it crops out the top and bottom of the image. When I get home I can post a screenshot of how it looks in plex
If I decide to use book covers, I pillarbox the image in GIMP before importing it into Plex.
