Tidying a big library: genres, tags, bulk edits and duplicates

Server 2.4.0 adds three tools for big libraries to the admin console: genres and tags, quicker bulk selection, and duplicates across libraries. The player picks up genres and tags too.

Genres and tags

Every book now has Genres and Tags, shown as chips on its console page.

• Genres come from the audio files’ genre tag and from an Audiobookshelf metadata.json. A genre that only says something like “Audiobook” or “Spoken Word” is left out.
• Tags are yours. They come from a metadata.json or your own edits: “Owned”, “Read with the kids”, “Book club”, whatever suits you.

To edit them, click the chips, type a label and press Enter or a comma. Pasting “Fantasy, Epic” adds both. Capitals don’t matter: “Sci-Fi” and “sci-fi” are one tag.

Books indexed before your server could read genres get them on the next scan, without a full re-index. The console’s Books filters gain Genre and Tag groups.

A book’s details also gain Subtitle, Publisher, Language and Abridged, each marked with where the value came from.

In the player

• A book’s page shows its genres and tags as chips. Tap one to open the Library filtered to it.
• The Library’s Books gain Genre and Tag filters, each showing how many books it would list.
• Search finds books by genre and tag.

That’s in the web player bundled with your server (/web) and app 2.4.0. Until app 2.4.0 reaches your device, use the web player. The Server 2.4 release post has the rest of what’s new.

Changing many books at once

The console’s Books list could already bulk-edit a selection. Building a big selection is quicker now:

• Select, in the toolbar, starts picking without ticking a first book. Done ends it.
• Shift-click a tile or row to select every book between it and the last one you clicked.
• Select all N books takes every book shown. It reads Select the N books shown while more are still loading.
• Select all N matching books fetches the rest when a filter matches more than are loaded, up to the 1,000 books one bulk action takes.

With books selected:

• Edit fields sets the author, narrator or series on all of them.
• Add tags, Remove tags, Add genres and Remove genres change each book’s own list rather than replacing it.
• Add to share puts the selection in a share.

So filtering to an author, selecting all matching books and adding a “Book club” tag takes a few clicks.

Duplicates across libraries

Health > Likely duplicates groups copies of the same book and marks the one worth keeping. It prefers, in order:

1. The better format.
2. A single file over several.
3. The higher bitrate.
4. The copy more people listen to.

It used to compare books within one library only. With more than one books library, Include other libraries also groups copies in different libraries, and names each copy’s library.

Those copies are often on purpose, such as a book kept in a kids’ library as well. So they don’t count towards the Health issue totals. Switch it on when you want to clear space.

AudioSilo never deletes a copy for you. Remove the files you don’t want from the library folder and rescan. Listening progress on the deleted copy is kept.

More

• Admin guide: Books, including changing many books at once, and Health with Duplicates.
• For listeners: Browsing your library.
• One book at a time: Fix covers and series. Fewer fixes needed: How to organise audiobook folders.