How to organise audiobook folders so every player gets them right

Give every book its own folder, inside a folder for its series (if it has one), inside a folder for its author. Start the book folder with its number in the series. That layout works in AudioSilo, Audiobookshelf and most other audiobook players:

Audiobooks/
├── Terry Pratchett/
│   └── Discworld/
│       ├── 01 - The Colour of Magic/
│       │   └── The Colour of Magic.m4b
│       └── 02 - The Light Fantastic/
│           ├── Part 01.mp3
│           ├── Part 02.mp3
│           └── cover.jpg
└── Andy Weir/
    └── Project Hail Mary/
        └── Project Hail Mary.m4b

One folder, one book

A folder that directly holds audio files is one book. Every audio file in it is a part, played in name order. One M4B or fifty MP3s, it’s the same.

• Never put two books’ files in one folder. They’d be read as one long book.
• Number multi-file parts in order. AudioSilo 2.4.0 and later plays Part 2.mp3 before Part 10.mp3. Some other players don’t, so leading zeros (01, 02 … 10) are still safest if more than one player reads the library. Why audiobook files play out of order shows how to rename a whole folder.

A loose audio file in the library’s top folder is a book of its own. A flat folder of M4Bs works, but you lose the author and series that folder names give.

Authors, series and numbers

When tags don’t say otherwise:

Folder	Read as
Author/Series/03 - Title/	Book 3 of Series by Author
Author/Title/	A standalone by Author
02.5 - Gods of Risk (server 2.5.0+)	Book 2.5

A leading number with a separator (03 - Title, Book 3 - Title, Vol 3 - Title) is the place in the series. A number that’s part of the title, like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or 1984, is left alone. For an omnibus, set a range like 1-3 in the admin console.

Covers

Drop a cover.jpg (or cover.png, folder.jpg, folder.png) into the book’s folder. Otherwise AudioSilo uses another image there, then the art embedded in the audio. Most M4Bs carry their own.

For one M4B against a folder of MP3s, see M4B vs MP3. Both play as one book.

Tags

By default, meaningful tags win over folder names:

What	Where it usually lives
Title	The album tag (or title, when that holds the fuller “Series: Book” name; from 2.6.0, an album that is only the series name gives way to the title tag or the name on disk)
Author	album artist or artist
Narrator	a narrator tag, or composer (from 2.5.0 an .m4b’s narrator tag wins over composer)
Series	a series tag, where the file has one; from 2.6.0, also a folder or file name like Author; Series; Book 04; Title

Junk tags like “Track 01” are ignored. If your folders are good and your tags a mess, set the library to take details from folder names first (Edit library in the admin console).

You don’t need to retag files: corrections in the admin console live in its database. If you want to, Mp3tag (Windows and macOS) or the command-line tone handle MP3 and M4B.

The awkward cases

Case	What to do
A book split into CD1, CD2 subfolders	Set its folder to Always one book (Folder detection, in the library’s menu). Discs join in order. Health points these out.
A folder of unrelated short stories	Set it to Separate books so each file is its own book.
.aax or .aaxc files	Locked to your Audible account, so not indexed. Convert to M4B: How to back up your Audible library.

Both folder overrides survive rescans.

Coming from Audiobookshelf? AudioSilo 2.3.1 and later reads the metadata.json its Store metadata with item setting leaves in each folder, and never writes to it. See Moving from Audiobookshelf.

An ebook beside the audio: from server 2.5.0, a DRM-free .epub in a book’s folder (exactly one), or beside a single-file book with the same name, adds Read the ebook. See Read the ebook.

Reorganise freely

Progress, bookmarks and notes are attached to the book, not a database row. Retagging changes nothing. Move or rename a book and the server recognises each file by its fingerprint, so progress and bookmarks follow it.

Good to know

• Network shares: mount the share on the server and point the library at the mounted path. If it drops, AudioSilo won’t treat the missing books as deleted; they come back with the share.
• Upgrading from before 2.4.0: older servers sorted 10 before 2. A book whose files now sort differently is re-read at its next scan, and a listener partway through may find their place moved. A phone download keeps its old order until the book is next started online with app 2.4.0.

A checklist

• Each book in its own folder, inside Author/Series/ or Author/.
• Series book folders start with a whole number: 01 - Title.
• Multi-file parts numbered in order.
• A cover.jpg where the files don’t carry art.
• No .aax files.
• Fix stragglers in the console: Fix covers and series.

The full reference is Organizing your library in the docs.