Where your audiobooks live
The library folder
Every book lives in one folder, the library folder:
- the audiobooks you add (copied in);
- the books you make from documents, and their voices;
- a copy of each document a book was made from, kept for reading along.
At first the library folder is the app's own Audiobooks folder.
Why books are copied
When you add an audiobook, Anansi Studio copies it into the library folder rather than playing it from where it was. That way:
- a book keeps playing even if the original is moved, renamed or deleted, or the app is reinstalled;
- a book can be backed up and synced whole.
Your originals are never moved or changed. A file that's already inside the library folder (put there over USB or with the Files app, for example) is used where it is, without a second copy.
Choosing another folder
Desktop: you can keep your library in a folder of your own choosing, such as a larger disk. Open Settings → Library folder and choose Choose folder… (or Change…):
- If the folder is new, the app offers to Move your audiobooks into this folder? Choose Move them. Books you added from elsewhere are copied; your own files stay where they are.
- If the folder already holds your books, for example because you moved the library folder yourself, the app finds them there and simply re-links them.
To move everything back, choose Keep them in the app.
If the library folder can't be found, for instance because a drive isn't connected or you moved the folder, the card says This folder cannot be found. Reconnect the drive, or choose the folder where it is now, and every book follows. On macOS, the app follows a moved folder by itself.
Phone and tablet: the library is always kept in the app's own folder.
How a book is recognised
Anansi Studio recognises an audiobook by what's in the file (its size and the start and end of its contents), not by its name or location. So when you supply a book again, from anywhere and under any name, it lands on the same book in your library, with your place, your edits and your cover.
Missing books
If a book's file can no longer be found, the book stays in your library, marked with a warning icon and File unavailable - add it again to restore. Nothing is lost: your place, edits and cover are kept. Trying to play it says the book isn't on this device any more.
To bring it back, either:
- choose Find the file… from the book's menu, and pick its file (or, for a book of several files, the folder that holds them). The picker opens where the book was, or in the library folder. The book keeps its row even if the file has been renamed; or
- add the same audiobook again in any of the usual ways. See Adding audiobooks.
If you no longer want the book, Remove it.
With sync on and Bring books from the other devices switched on, a book whose files are missing here gets them back from your other devices.
Documents behind made books
When you make a book from a document, a copy of the document is kept with the book in the library folder, so you can read along with it however you move or delete the original.
If that copy is ever missing, for example after restoring a backup made without its files, a PDF book's read-along says Can't read along. Choose Re-link document and pick the PDF to put it back. Word and Markdown books read along with their own copy of the text and don't need the document.