Audiobooks can run into strange problems in iTunes. Out of the blue they’ll skip chapters, repeat paragraphs, or stop dead in the middle of a sentence. These issues are caused by tagging and numbering inconsistencies. The good news is… they’re relatively easy to fix.
The Audiobook Tag
iTunes tags almost all imported files as Music. To correctly re-tag an Audiobook:
- Open iTunes
- In the gray sidebar on the left, click Music.
- In the Menu Bar, click View and make sure that “as Grid” is selected.
- Find your Audiobook. Click once to select it.
- Press Command I for information.
- The information box appears. Select the Options Tab.
- Under Media Kind, click the drop-down menu and select Audiobook.
- Under Remember Position, click the drop-down menu and select Yes.
- Ensure the options: Part Of A Compilation, Skip When Shuffling, and Gapless Album are set to No
- Click OK to save changes.
CD & Track Numbers
Audiobooks often come on several CDs and each CD may have multiple tracks. Problems occur when this data is not properly numbered by the CD manufacturer. Surprisingly, this happens quite a lot.
To fix this problem:
- Open iTunes.
- In the gray sidebar on the left, choose Books.
- In the Menu Bar, click View and make sure that “as Grid” is selected.
- Find your Audiobook.
- Double click the Audiobook to open it.
- Sort by Name. There will usually be some data in the Name field that lets you to sort properly.
- Click on the first track to select it. Press Command I.
- The information box appears. Select the Info Tab.
- In the Track Number field, enter 1, click the Next button, enter 2 and so on until you have numbered all the tracks.
You can enter the disc number if you wish, but it is not necessary. As long as there are track numbers and they are in the right order, your Audiobook will play correctly.
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