Support for audiobooks

ABS has all of this already right now.

I’m aware of that. As I said earlier I don’t like it. It’s far too clunky

While AudioBookShelf is a good option, the beta for iOS apps is full. I’m not sure where the android beta is for a count. So how do you listen remotely without a computer?

The Android app is fully released on the play store for anyone to download. I have been using for some weeks and it seems solid.

I gave up on Plex for Audio books and am self host Autobookshelf. Its so much better in every conceivable way outside not being able to access it outside a home network or sharing it. Its a pain in the butt as I need to VPN in and sharing can’t do that. But eh. It works.

You can set up a Tailscale account, and securely access ABS from outside your network that way. That’s actually really easy. Basically any device logged into your Tailnet can access any other device logged into it. So if you have Tailscale installed on your server and on your phone, your phone can see your server no matter where you are.

If you plan on sharing access, it’s better to setup a reverse proxy (eg. Nginx Proxy Manager) and a domain–which admittedly isn’t the simplest thing in the world.

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Yeah I already have VPN access so remote access for me is easy. Its for others. But I didn’t really want to mess with a reverse proxy as getting a lets encrypt cert every 90 days is a pain in the butt. I could automate it, but that would require punching holes in my firewall. Lets Encrypt requires port 80 and 443 to be open for http validation. That is a hard nope.

Im tired of coming back hoping there was an update on this :frowning:

ill be pulling my votes back from this suggestion since its obvious plex is ignoring this suggestion and everyone who votes for it.

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That does not seem logical to me. Rather:
The author should go into the Composer tag. The Narrator should go into the Artist tag.

For consistency, compare this to classical music: which field would “Mozart” go into? And in which field the orchestra playing Mozart?

But perhaps having a dedicated “Author” and “Narrator” field might be even better.

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Personally I don’t really care who the narator is

That does not seem logical to me. Rather:
The author should go into the Composer tag. The Narrator should go into the Artist tag.

But that is not how audiobook publishers and retailers tag audiobooks. Publishers and digital retailers tag digital audiobooks with author in the artist tag. Also, physical retailers (and libraries) sort physical copies of audiobooks by author, not by narrator. So audiobooks and classical music are not equivalent.

What is logical is that author gets top billing on audiobooks, and that the artist tag (or album artist tag) is top billing.

If tagging audiobooks with author in the composer tag makes logical sense to you, it’s fine, but you shouldn’t expect to match audiobooks with online sources if you do it that way. Therefore, Plex should not do it that way.

Fair point. Tagging files differently from what seems to be a general convention in the market would be a tedious endeavor. I was not aware of this.

I viewed the artist tag to mean who is performing the audio, i. e. literally. Viewing it as top billing seems legitimate as well, albeit mislabelled.

Perhaps having an „author“ and „narrator“ field for audio books and giving users the choice how they would be shown together if they want a joint view with music and audio books makes more sense. At least that retains the flexibility to cater to both views.

There are some great narrators out there and I (for one) would like the ability to search and sort by narrator.

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It’s actually quite simple: Of course, audio books and radio plays belong to music (audio). However, with music there should be an additional subdivision for “music series”. (The same way films and TV series are separated.) This way, radio plays whose episodes are continued over many CDs could be neatly archived.

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None of that matters if Plex Amp does not correctly allow multiple tagged artists, composers, narrators, and authors. One of the underlying issues that I’ve noticed is that the Plex team has not managed to figure out how to incorporate a multi-faceted database schema that will allow this great undertaking. It’s exactly why the push for new LIBRARY TYPES were also forever requested. Both the Library Type (whether that be Music, Audiobooks, and or a specified genre of music such as Classical) would need the appropriate metadata fields allowed, which Plex seems to have trouble doing. It’s extremely frustrating to know other music streaming services/media managers have been able to figure this all out and it’s been a running gag and disappointment in the Plex ecosystem for the past decade.

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I have been able to use it for Audio books. I just make sure my Meta data is really good and plex seems to find the information needed.

Is there proper support for audiobooks? If not i second this request!

This would be a great addition. We really need a proper support for audiobooks.

I am using Audiobookshelf, but I would really like the audiobooks to be in Plex!

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I fully understand that while it is currently possible to host audiobooks in Plex, compromises must be made. My biggest complaint about the current state is the lack of support for bookmarks. Being able to sync progress is great and helpful but that is not the same as proper bookmarks. A second feature I would appreciate is the ability to label/credit the narrator/reader like the “artist” in the General tab for media management in Plex. A seperate media category for books would make this all easier to be sure. Artist becomes Author, Record Label becomes Publisher, etc.

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12 years on the “Request List”, in the top 2 most requested features, with 45k views and 1200 comments, and its yet to be developed.

As soon as a software product comes along that does films, video, and audiobooks, it will snatch all of the people from underneath Plex.

Just sayin’

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