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Audiobookshelf works best when you have an organized directory structure like shown below. This is because information is taken from your folder names. This includes the author name, series name, book title, publish year, volume number, and subtitle. However, you can enable scanner settings to prefer using your audio file ID3 tags or an OPF file over using folder names.
Here is an example supported directory structure
Terry Goodkind
<-- Author
Sword of Truth
<-- Series
Vol 1 - 1994 - Wizards First Rule
<-- TitleAudio Track 1.mp3
Audio Track 2.mp3
Cover.jpg
Vol 2 - 1995 - Stone of Tears
<-- TitleAudiobook.m4b
Heart of Black Ice - Sister of Darkness
<-- TitleAudio File.m4a
Steven Levy
<-- Author
Hackers - Heroes of the Computer Revolution
<-- TitleAudio File.m4a
1945 - Animal Farm
<-- TitleAudiobook.mp3
Files must always be in a directory with the book title. Files in the root directory are ignored.
The title directory can be in the root directory, an author directory, or a series directory.
Supports "Last, First" author naming as well as multiple authors separated by "," or "&".
Valid author folder names:
Ichiro Kishimi
Kishimi, Ichiro
Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga
Kishimi, Ichiro, Koga, Fumitake
Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
Kishimi, Ichiro & Koga, Fumitake
In addition to the book title, the title folder can include the publish year, volume number, and the subtitle.
Here are a bunch of ways the same book could be named:
Wizards First Rule
1994 - Wizards First Rule
Wizards First Rule - A Really Good Subtitle
1994 - Book 1 - Wizards First Rule
Vol 1 - 1994 - Wizards First Rule
1994 - Wizards First Rule - Volume 1
Vol. 1 - 1994 - Wizards First Rule - A Really Good Subtitle
(1994) - Wizards First Rule - A Really Good Subtitle
- Parsing out subtitles into a separate field is optional and must be enabled in settings.
- Different parts of a name should be separated by " - ", with the exception of the volume number (spaces aren't needed).
- The publish year must be the first part of the name OR directly after a volume number, and separated by " - " on both sides.
Audiobookshelf uses the ID3 metadata tags in audio files to populate data.
Data parsed from the folder structure and filenames takes priority over ID3 tags unless you have enabled the scanner setting "Prefer Audio Metadata".
Metadata on audio files will be mapped as follows (second tag after "/" is a fallback):
| ID3 Tag | Audiobookshelf Data |
|---|---|
| artist / album-artist | Author |
| album / title | Title |
| subtitle | Subtitle |
| publisher | Publisher |
| year | Publish Year |
| composer | Narrator |
| description | Description |
| genre | Genres * |
| series | Series |
| series-part | Volume Number |
* Genre meta tag can include multiple genres separated by "/", "//", or ";". e.g. "Science Fiction/Fiction/Fantasy"
Embedded cover art will be extracted and used only if there are no images in the book folder.
If you have a file named desc.txt in the audiobook folder it will be used as the description.
If you have a file named reader.txt in the audiobook folder it will be used as the narrator.
If you have an OPF file with extension .opf in the audiobook folder it will be parsed.
Details extracted from OPF:
{{ key }}{{ index < 8 ? ', ' : '' }}