Sharing audiobooks

Share audiobook… turns a book into a single .m4b file and hands it to your device's share options: AirDrop on iPhone, iPad and Mac, Quick Share on Android, Mail, Messages, Files and the rest.

The file plays in any audiobook player, with its chapters and its timed lyrics. Opened in Anansi Studio on another device, it arrives as the complete book, ready to read along with.

Which books can be shared this way

Share audiobook… appears in a book's menu for:

  • a finished book made from a document (with an on-device voice);
  • a folder imported as one audiobook, which is how you combine its files into one;
  • a book you received as a shared audiobook.

It isn't offered for a book still being made, a missing book or a book read aloud by the system voice.

An ordinary audiobook that is already one file doesn't need combining. Use Share file (phone and tablet) or Show in Finder / Show in File Explorer / Show in file manager (computer) from its menu to get at the file itself.

On a wide window, the player's About this book pane also has Download as M4B for a book of several files. It does the same as Share audiobook….

Sharing a book

  1. Choose Share audiobook… from the book's menu.
  2. If the book is read in more than one voice, choose Which voice? the file should carry, then Continue. A file carries one voice. Voices still being made can't be chosen.
  3. The Share audiobook dialog explains what you will get. Choose whether to Include the document for reading along (see below).
  4. Choose Share. Making the audiobook… shows the progress while the file is put together.
  5. Choose where to send it in your device's share options.

Linux: Linux has no share options for files, so a Save audiobook dialog asks where to save the .m4b instead. Send it on from there however you like.

Including the document

For a book made from a document, the dialog offers Include the document for reading along, with its size. With it, the person receiving the book can read along with the original PDF pages. Documents up to 50 MB can go with the book.

Without the document, or if it's too large, the book's text still goes with it. A Word or Markdown book reads along just as before, and a PDF book reads along with its text instead of its pages.

What's in the file

  • the audio, as one .m4b file;
  • the chapters. Other players show subchapters as one flat list (the dialog warns you when this applies), but Anansi Studio keeps the full tree;
  • the cover;
  • the timed lyrics, with any lyrics offset you set already applied. A folder book with no lyrics of its own gets the lyrics its files carry, one after another;
  • for a book made from a document: the text it was read from, the timing of every sentence and, if you chose, the document itself. Other players ignore these; Anansi Studio uses them to restore reading along.

Receiving a shared audiobook

Open the .m4b file with Anansi Studio, from AirDrop, Files, a download, an email attachment or Open with….

The book joins your library complete: chapters, cover, lyrics and, for a book made from a document, reading along. It glows softly until you first open it. Otherwise it's like any other book you added, and removing it works the same way.

A received book can be shared on again with Share audiobook…; it's passed on just as it arrived.

Other ways to move books between devices

  • Sync copies your books between your own devices on the same Wi-Fi network automatically.
  • Backup and restore can bring a whole library to a new device.
Voices
Backup and restore