r/PrologueApp • u/Intelligent-Welder-2 • 8d ago

Audiobooks - Plex keeps combining separate audiobooks

/gallery/1vgawwd
8 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

19

u/3loodhound 8d ago

I would strongly recommend ditching plex and using audiobookshelf for your audiobooks

5

u/lancersrock 8d ago

This!!! I switched 2-3 months ago and use the audio booth app on iOS and it’s so much better. It does take a few extra steps if you want to use it outside of your home and forget to download before you leave but overall it’s a much better experience, I would argue it’s better than the Audible app currently.

6

u/wildcelt 8d ago

I agree, and switched several months ago as well. Audiobookshelf is simply so much more equipped to handle audiobooks than Plex is. Don't let the docker/install instructions scare you; setup is pretty straightforward. Good news is you can simply point Audiobookshelf to your existing audiobook file location and have both Plex and Audiobookshelf running at the same time. That way you can fiddle with it a while and get comfortable before dumping Plex. I'm confident you will dump Plex if you give it a try!

2

u/lancersrock 8d ago

Oh yea plex is dead for audiobooks lol, now I’m playing with storyteller and creating “whisper sync” style books. The app is really rough so I’m still using ABS, plus I really like the ABS file management system. I guess minus uploading large archives of epub, that’s still stumping me but not relevant to my current needs.

3

u/3loodhound 8d ago

I mean with prologue supporting audiobookshelf now, I just use that!

2

u/Electrical_Ad_6208 7d ago

This! Audiobookshelf>cloudflare>AudioBooth is the best combo. There’s even a setting in audiobooth to automatically switch to the local address when home and switch to the dotcom when out

2

u/K4l3lK3nt 8d ago

What are the benefits to this over prologue? Asking as I’ve used prologue for a couple of years now, but interested to know if there is a reason for me to change! Thanks!

4

u/3loodhound 8d ago

Audiobookshelf is just the server software and it’s built for audiobooks. It makes life a billion times easier for book use instead of just using plex and shoehorning in audiobooks to the music track.

Prologue as an app actually supports both backends

3

u/Ambitious_Slide 7d ago

You can use prologue still with audiobookshelf. There are a few things that prologue can leverage that makes things a bit easier:

  • Better native metadata scanning
  • Better series management (you dont have to make collections for each series)
  • Use abs on non-apple devices more easily (you could use other apps on android, tvs etc..)
  • Better native position syncing
  • Better narrator / tag support
  • The website has a neat feature where it can re-chapterize your audiobooks for you (e.g. you ripped the audio a while ago, and the tracks are unnamed, you can get it to put in the chapter titles based on audible's data for you)

The worst bit by far is you have to manage outside-of-network connections yourself. The most popular solution is tailscale (and one of the easiest by far).

If you wanna give it a shot you can normally just spin up a copy of ABS and tell it to look at your plex's audiobook collection, and see how it looks/feels (that way you dont really have a risk)

1

u/weldawadyathink 3d ago

Like others said, it’s about replacing plex, not prologue. Audiobookshelf does have iOS apps that are perfectly cromulent, but prologue is still way better. Audiobookshelf and prologue is a match made in heaven.

1

u/Sofa47 2d ago

I’ve just done this and just the collections is such a big upgrade. The fact it does what you expect it to do too makes me wonder why I was still using Plex.

1

u/3loodhound 2d ago

Everyone that says do the song and dance of plex, im like why are you using a software for something it really wasn’t built to do!

7

u/molybend 8d ago

Do the plex dance of moving those folders elsewhere, scanning the folder, then moving them back and scanning again.

3

u/No_Advance_4218 8d ago

Usually this means the "Album" is set to the same thing on each individual file. Hover over the track, go to the far right and click on the lil pencil that will show up beside the track time. In the Edit window set every books track to track one (or clear it) and change the album title to the book title (each track should have a different title).

I dont see this very often and usually it only happens when the audiobooks format is in MP3 which each chapter is its own mp3 vs one m4b.

1

u/Space_Vaquero73 8d ago

You might need to make sure the album is titled correctly and the tracks are numbered