Getting Audible books into your Watch for offline listening, DRM-free

[sjinsjca]

OpenAudible.org offers a $12 Mac app that interfaces nicely with Amazon to download and manage your Audible library. It has the option to convert your Audible audiobooks into .mp3 or .m4a formats. Those can be easily stored in your Watch for offline play using the superb $2.99 iCatcher app. This is much more convenient than listening via a Kindle, and it avoids problems with the official Audible watch app. Here's an example.

1) Download and install OpenAudible on your Mac. (There are Windows and Linux versions too, but we'll be using AirDrop as part of our magic in this example, so...)

2) Use its built-in browser to log into your Amazon account. Your Audible purchases will be displayed. Pick an audiobook and download it. Let's pick a classic Theodore Sturgeon book, gloriously narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Harlan Ellison:

Your download progress will be displayed.

3) When downloaded, right-click on the file and select the convert option.

4) You'll find the converted file (.mp3 in this case) in your Mac user account's Library / OpenAudible / mp3 (in this case) folder

5) Rename the file if you wish-- in iCatcher on your phone and Watch, the filename will be displayed, so you won't want it to be gibberish.

6) Right-click on the file. In the Share menu, choose AirDrop. If necessary, unlock your iPhone, then proceed with the Airdrop process to convey the file to open with iCatcher on your iPhone.

7) iCatcher will open and ask you what "podcast" (folder) to put the file into. You can create a new folder called "Audiobooks" or something if you wish. Voila, the file is now in that folder on your iPhone.

8) Switch to that folder/podcast. There's the file! Swipe right on it and send it to your Watch. It will take a good long while but the transfers seem to go reliably. The Watch does not need to be on a charger (though that might speed things up) and you can be doing other things (including listening to other content) while the transfer proceeds. Even large transfers like audiobooks consume surprisingly little Watch battery! Just, be patient. This eight-hour audiobook took about 20 minutes to transfer with the Watch on a charger. For really large transfers it does seem to help their reliability to not let the iCatcher app sleep, meaning work in the background for more than ten minutes.

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When all is said and done, you'll have the audiobook in iCatcher on both your iPhone and your Watch. You can delete it from one or the other as desired.​

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[0128672]

sorry, just realized your thread is about getting audiobooks onto AW, not iPads/iPhones.

Free audiobooks of works in the public domain read by global volunteer teams in many languages are available at https://librivox.org/ and via its iPhone and iPad free app:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/librivox-audio-books/id596159212.

I was a Librivox volunteer reader for about a year. It was a great experience.

 

[sjinsjca]

sorry, just realized your thread is about getting audiobooks onto AW, not iPads/iPhones.

Free audiobooks of works in the public domain read by global volunteer teams in many languages are available at https://librivox.org/ and via its iPhone and iPad free app:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/librivox-audio-books/id596159212.

Thanks!

Unfortunately the Librivox app does not seem to have a companion Apple Watch app. It's really nice to be able to play audio content without having to lug around your iPhone!

But:

A quick look at Librivox.org's download website shows that their audiobooks are .mp3 files!

...So you can get them into your Watch for offline listening the same way I documented in the original post starting at step 5, using AirDrop from a Mac to iCatcher on your iPhone, which can then do the transfer to the Watch and let you enjoy offline playback directly from the Watch.

I downloaded Librivox's app from the link you provided but unfortunately it does not seem able to share its downloaded audiobook files with other apps. That's too bad, as such an option might have allowed iCatcher to receive its content via a share-sheet item. And the Librivox app's download folder on the iPhone seems to be hidden, which is also too bad as you could probably share downloaded audiobooks with iCatcher from the Files app otherwise.

So, downloading audiobooks from Librivox.org's website on a Mac, then AirDropping them to iCatcher, seems to be the easiest way to get Librivox content onto your Watch for offline play.

 

[0128672]

@sjinsjca I don't even have an AW these days, but thanks for checking out how to make Librivox audibooks work. I hope someone enjoys all the work you've put into this.

 

[sjinsjca]

@sjinsjca I don't even have an AW these days, but thanks for checking out how to make Librivox audibooks work. I hope someone enjoys all the work you've put into this.

This is fun for me, but thank you. I loved my original-issue Series 0 Watch for nearly five years, but when I finally upgraded to Series 5 it suddenly snapped into focus what a marvelous platform it is for so many purposes. For a podcast and audio-content addict like me, the thing is beyond brilliant now that it offers a powerful processor and lots of storage. So I'm always on the hunt for new sources of content, and I thank you for bringing Librivox onto my radar!

In researching Librivox, it seems the app you linked to is one of several that audiobook aficionados have created. Per https://librivox.org/2011/11/09/iphone-apps-for-librivox/, "LibriVox itself doesn’t produce any apps for the iphone, but we have an open catalog platform and all our books are free, so many others have built iPhone and Android apps for LibriVox." So it may be possible that one of the other apps has an accessible file system on the iPhone for which a share-sheet entry for iCatcher might be available. Or maybe there's one with a Watch app offering offline play on its own? ...I'll play around in spare hours and will come back here if there are any revelations.

 

[sjinsjca]

...Per https://librivox.org/2011/11/09/iphone-apps-for-librivox/, "LibriVox itself doesn’t produce any apps for the iphone, but we have an open catalog platform and all our books are free, so many others have built iPhone and Android apps for LibriVox."

Update:

I've played around a little. Following are quick impressions of the two free apps mentioned at the Librivox.org site. It's possible there are functionalities I didn't find (which would say something about their discoverability). There might be other apps worth looking at too.

tl;dr: So far I've found no better way to get DRM-free audiobooks onto the Apple Watch for offline play than in my original post: download .mp3/.m4a with a Mac, AirDrop to iCatcher on iPhone, then tell iCatcher to store on Watch. Edit: See next post for an even easier way.

• Audiobooks appby Cross Forward Consulting LLC.
  • Seems to download audiobook file to iPhone when you start playing. (At least, I can take the phone offline, resume playing and forward to near the end of the file.)
  • Has Watch app, but it just remote-controls playback of content on the phone and doesn't store audiobooks on the Watch itself for offline play without the phone nearby.
  • Share sheet does not seem to support conveying the downloaded file to iCatcher.
  • Download folder not accessible in Files app on iPhone.
• Audiobooks – 2,947 classics for freeby Spreadsong Inc.
  • Seems to download audiobook file to iPhone.
  • No Watch app.
  • No share sheet.
  • Download folder not accessible in Files app on iPhone

 

[sjinsjca]

Here's a really easy way to get off-copyright audiobooks from Librivox.org into your Watch that does not require a Mac or any other app but iCatcher.

Remember how, from a few posts ago, Librivox.org has download buttons on its website? Well, you can download those directly to your iPhone using Safari, and from there import them directly into a folder ("podcast") in iCatcher. Here's how.

1) In Safari on your iPhone, navigate to Librivox.org and select an audiobook to download. In my example below, I'll select "Ode to Duty," an audiobook with multiple chapters organized as individual files.

2) Download the whole thing as a .zip:

3) The little blue, downward-pointing arrow in the upper right corner will indicate your download progress. When the download is complete, tap this and it will take you to the Downloads folder in Files.app.

4) Once complete, in Files.app, tap on the .zip. Your iPhone will create a folder containing the individual files:

5) Switch to iCatcher. Enter the folder (podcast) you want to import the audiobook into. In my case, I have previously created a folder called "Audiobooks". In this, click the grey iCatcher logo circled below. Up will pop an import sheet. Choose Files App.

6) Navigate into the audiobook folder you downloaded and unzipped. Tap Select All, then Open:

7) Your new audiobook will be imported. The process is really fast! It's ready to listen on your iPhone.

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8) You can now swipe-right on each of the audiobook files and transfer them to your Watch for offline play.

Hot tip: if, prior to Step 5, you click on the podcast Settings (gear) icon just above the Edit button (not to be confused with the iCatcher app settings button at the lower right), you can set the New Episodes behavior for this podcast/folder to "Download & Send to Watch"... then, when you subsequently import new files into this folder, they will automatically be conveyed to the Watch for offline play! (The Watch must be connected to the iPhone by Bluetooth at the time of import for this to happen.)

 

[0128672]

This is really great all this work you're putting into doing this. In fact, I was inspired enough to go get an Apple Watch today (well, after all, they're on sale too).

By the way, "off-copyright" is actually referred to as public domain. Each country has laws that control the time period after non-renewal of a copyright or death of the author for the creative work to be considered in the public domain.

Librivox.org is Project Gutenberg's main partner for new audio ebooks. Both organizations welcome volunteers.

 

[se1961]

I just tried using iCatcher again, after giving up on the whole process for awhile, and although I DID manage to get the book onto my watch, I was disappointed to see that the very long book had completely wrong chapter markers, so that if I want to read the physical book AND listen at the same time, I can't. This is a problem with openaudible, not iCatcher-- when I play the downloaded file in iBooks on my Mac, or on a different podcast app, the chapter marks are wrong. From what I read, it seems audible keeps chapter markers in a different part of their app, so they don't get transferred with mp3 or m4b files. Last night I decided to bite the bullet and try audible again, and after 15 hours (!!!) the sync completed, but the book didn't show up on my watch. This seems really unreasonably frustrating 😖