So I buckled down and wrote this little application to do it automatically. It's pretty self-explanatory. Just download both files into the same folder (any folder will do) and run M4AtoM4B.exe.
By downloading and/or running this application, you agree not to use it for evil purposes, and you won't allow anybody else to get their grubby paws on it except by having them go through this website first. While I see no reason why it should hurt your computer in any way, I can make no guarantees as to the safety of your files, folders, programs, hardware, life, liberty, or property if you use this program. Good luck.
So, without further ado, the files:
- Interop.iTunesLib.dll (necessary library for interfacing with iTunes)
- M4AtoM4B.exe (the file to run)
Another handy feature, by the way, is that the "Clean" button will search and remove dead tracks from your iTunes Library. So if you've moved stuff around manually and now you have a bunch of dead links, you can use this tool to automatically clean house.
If you have suggestions for improvement, stick a comment to this blog entry. I'll get to it when I can.
The program was written in C# using Visual Studio .NET 2003. If you're on an older computer, you might need to head over to the Windows Update site and get the .NET runtime.
Update: Many people have asked about the possibility of merging their audio book files into one file. Dagon Design has an article about Turning MP3 Audiobooks into iPod Audiobooks which gives a good overview of the whole process, including a link to an MP3 Merger tool that can be used to merge your MP3 files into a single file. Thanks to an anonymous commenter for this tip-off.
38 comments:
I just wanted to leave my sincere appreciation and gratitude. I was getting so frustrated with trying to get books on my ipod that I had all most given up. Thanx to James I now have hours of excellent entertainment ahead of me. The only suggestion I would make is if there is a way to merge all files in to one (either before or after the are converted in to *.M4B) Thanx again. SSL
There doesn't seem to be an easy way to merge the sound tracks together into one file once they're in M4A format. But if you're ripping these files from a CD, you can merge them all before converting them into M4A to begin with. Just put the CD into the tray, wait for iTunes to detect it, select all of the tracks, then click on Advanced->Join CD Tracks. Then convert them, and you're good to go.
Now, if you'd like me to make a utility that will take multiple albums and merges them into one album, I'm pretty sure I can do that. Just let me know.
I'd love it if you could make a utility to merge m4a files. For things like 7 disc audiobooks there's no simple way to get a single m4a for all 7+ hours.
Trying to merge wav files before converting into m4a you run into the 2Gb wav file size limitation. I can go wav --> mp3 --> join --> m4a --> m4b, but I'd much prefer to take the mp3 step out of the procedure.
on win xp:
ren *.m4a *.m4b
the downside of this method is there's no ddls to townload
I'll look into the idea of appending multiple m4a files. If it's easy, I'll do it. If it's not, I've got too many things going on right now to worry about it.
To clarify the other anonymous person's statement, it is possible to rename multiple m4a files to m4b, within Windows XP, by opening the command line, navigating to the folder that has all of these files, and using the command "ren *.m4a *.m4b". However, this requires familiarity with a command prompt, and it also requires the user to manually tell iTunes where to find each file that they renamed. In contrast, my tool automatically adds the files to the iTunes library and can automatically delete all of the dead links in your library. Plus, it's sexier. :-)
Just used you M4a-m4b utility. Thank you. It is most useful. I agree that a single step merge m4a and rename m4b would be great.
Just bought a new 3g nano here in the UK and was really frustrated by the way audiobooks from CD were getting dumped in the music section. Several google hits later I got to your site and your application worked perfectly.
For some reason renaming as M4b in windows vista didn't change the file type - anyway I'm happy now!
Thanks
Tim
Thank you so much for your script. Itunes kept changing it back to m4a when I changed it myself. Thanks!!!!!
Thank you for your time in putting this together... It's an awesome tool!! You're the man!!!
Roger said..........
Thanks a lot for the software it work a treat, I would like to wish you and your family a wealthy and healthy new year
Cheers
Thank you very much. I love this tool!!!
I would love to see a M4A merge utility. I don't like having 10-12 files per audiobook and would love to be able to reduce that to 3.
You rock!!! that's all I can say... I have been struggling for months when shuffling songs...now audiobooks are separated...
aleluya!!
Thank you! It even works with my very picky Vista X64 setup.
Much Aloha
I have worked long and hard to get my music files from m4a to m4b so they are now recognized as an audio book, however, when I sync i Tunes to my i Pod the chapters of the book are out of order. They go from chapter 1 to chapter 10. What did I do wrong?
Try naming your files "Chapter 01", "Chapter 02", etc. The leading zero should force less-intelligent OS's to recognize that 10 doesn't come before 2.
I am new (and albeit late) to the IPOD sensation....but let me say "I Love you' for making this step much simpler for me. I had plenty of audiobooks in mp3 format....converting them to m4a then renaming each one...almost made me throw my IPOD out the window...."and they said' it'd be easier and i'd love it"! HA!..but now i do...as much as you.
Thank you, that's very useful!!
Thank you. Are you able to do another program for rename M4B file to M4A?
Hey James.
Thank you for this very nice tool, it helped me a lot. Especially because my PC runs Windows Vista, and I didnt find any other possibility to convert my .m4a files to .m4b files.
Again, thanks a lot
Can you tell me how this is different from selecting the album and going to 'Get Info' -> Options -> and choosing audiobook in the drop down list next to 'Media Kind'? It moves it out of the Music library and puts it in the Audiobooks library but it doesn't change the file type. Is it important to change the file type? Also, rather than merging the tracks into one file, is there a way to merge several albums (discs) of one audiobook into one album?
Stephanie,
I should probably preface this by pointing out that I wrote this application over three years ago, that I don't use iTunes myself, and I don't have an iPod.
That said, I think the difference is that iPods don't allow you to set bookmarks in m4a files, which makes it really annoying to listen to an audiobook because you have to find where you left off each time.
Can somebody tell me whether this has changed since I created this application? If iTunes now provides an easier interface to do the same thing, I might as well mention it here.
For all those who have asked for merge functionality, I should mention that I've looked into it, and couldn't find a very easy way to do it, and now I'm too busy to spend much time with it. Sorry about that.
trxcan, that might be simple enough for me to work on of I get a bit of spare time. We shall see.
Just what I was looking for, and the clean button brilliant. I hated having to delete those manually.
to merge mp3 files before converting to m4b you can use mp3 merger which i got from dagondesign.com
Your script worked perfectly! Thank so much! One suggestion would be to create a way to see what files were removed with the clean function so that you know what you're missing and need to add back to the library!
I have a buch of M4B files which have been converted and want to merge into just a few files without having to convert it back. Does anyone know how this can be done?
You are a wonderful person. I just thought you should know. This program is PERFECT.
Awesome - totally totally awesome.
Thanks very very much!
OMG!!! You're just brilliant!! To my dismay, I've been doing this conversion manually, if you can believe it. But I just got to converting my extensive library of audiobooks from mp3 to m4a (only available format) and you saved my life!!!
Literally - instead of spending infinite hours on typing "b" and pressing enter it took me... less than a second! Sniff... THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
This was massively useful and I really appreciate it. Seriously thank you!
This application of yours sounds very good, and I would have used it if I was using iTunes on Windows. Since I'm not... could you please elaborate on the mac-script you mentioned?
@Anonymous: I don't know much about this because I don't have a mac, but MacRumors.com has a tutorial at http://guides.macrumors.com/Create_your_own_Audiobooks that describes how to get the scripts and how to use them.
Thank you .... Thank You... THANK YOU!!!! Huge help.
thank you for your creation that makes life a little easier, very much appreciated.. Randy
I found so many interesting stuff in your blog especially its discussion. Really its great article. Keep it up. onlineconvertfree
Thanks for sharing the helpful article. It's will be best for m4a to mp3 converter.
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