Audiobooks discussion

My birthday was yesterday so I finally got the Sansa Clip I've been wanting for my audiobooks. I'm still trying to figure out all the ins and outs. I've downloaded the users manual which answered some of my questions but I have a couple others that it didn't really address.

I managed to get a book from my Audible Manager transferred to it. Though it wouldn't let me do it from Windows Media Player. Not sure what I was doing wrong there.

And I was wondering what the Audiobook Chapter Mode Option is actually for. Will that take me from track to track? And how do I go back a little bit if I need to re-listen to something because my mind went somewhere else.

I know I'm going to have more questions later - but these are the first ones I've encountered.

Any help would be appreciated...thank you!

Not sure what you mean about chapter mode? I put all my audiobooks into the audiobooks folder and it lists all the parts/sections of the audiobook separately. To rewind I press down and hold the rewind button for a litle bit (left button in the middle). Not sure if that helps! I find the sansa really easy to use and you really won't screw much up by playing with it a little bit so you can get used to it.

The Chapter Mode was under settings/audiobooks. There is a Chapter Mode: On or Off.

And since I only loaded one book directly from Audible Manager I'm not sure if it was put in a folder. Do I need to set up folders on the Sansa or are they already there?

When I look at the folders on my computer I can't even find all my audible books - the only place I could find them was in Media Player. And it wouldn't let me drag and drop.

Update - I figured out how to drag and drop from Windows Media Player. But I'm still curious about the Chapter Mode function if anyone can help out.

Hi Jan
I have the Sansa Clip Zip. When the Chapter is set to on in the settings, you can go to the next chapter in the book by clicking on the right arrow. Hope this helps!

I love the Clip+ for books, but there's one point worth mentioning: non-Audible books MUST either be tagged as an audiobook before transferring, or be specifically sent to a folder called "audiobooks" for the bookmarking function to work. Otherwise, the device treats the files as actual music, so if for some reason you exit such a book, the Clip will not recall where you left off. It will still resume where you left off if you stay with the same book straight through.

Thanks, Norma. That's what I thought but wanted to confirm.

And John, that is good to know. So as long as it's listed in the audiobook section and not the music section on the Sansa I'm okay?

Yes, unfortunately there's no way to send it anywhere but music using Windows Media Player, though I'd think if you did that, and then transferred (dragged) the book from Music to Audiobook on the Clip right away, that would be fine.

That what I did - I moved it to the audiobook folder. And checked on the Sansa and it's showing up as an audiobook. Haven't started listening to it yet so I will see if it remembers where I'm at.

My Audible audiobooks have been transferred to the Audiobooks folder on my Clip, but I can't bookmark any spot when I want to stop listening. When I go back, the audiobook starts at the very beginning and I have to fuddle my way through the chapters to find where I left off.

That really should not happen with Audible books, as they "self" bookmark and are tagged as audiobooks. All I can think of is that perhaps you don't have your transfer protocol set to Auto Detect?

John - in the hope of not sounding stupid I'm going to ask my question. Where would we go to change the transfer protocol? Would that be a setting in Audible Manager? I've looked around and could not find anything that looked like that.

It's actually a setting on the Clip itself under Settings --> System Settings --> USB Mode

I'll have to check that clip setting out. When I plugged my Clip back up to my laptop and checked the folders I found the .aa files were not placed in the Audiobooks folder after all, but what I assume is a folder Audible Manager created called Audible.

Audible books go in an Audible folder, which should be fine; the Clip sees those as audiobooks. Are you transferring your Audible via Audible manager or Windows Media Player?

Audible Manager.

It's really, really odd that your device won't remember where you left off. Have you tried more than one book?

Yeah, I tried three different ones I'm listening to for review and all of them would start at the beginning each time I went to listen to them.

I just transferred all of them from the Audible folder to the Audiobooks folder though, and that appears to have done the trick as I now have a "Resume Playback" option.

Go figure.

YES! The Resume Playback option is what you want!

Works for me. I guess I'll have to see if my Audible Manager can transfer any future files to that folder instead of creating its own.

That's really odd as I get a Resume Playback option in the Audible folder. As a matter of fact, as a test, I just transferred a (Format 4) book to my clip+, opened it, exited to open another (non-Audible) book, came back, and the Clip asked about the Resume option as it should.

If you open Windows Media Player, do your Audible books show "audio book" as the genre? Sounds like your clip isn't recognizing the Audible books by tag. The only other advice I can give you is to delete and re-install your Audible Manager on your computer, in case it's wonky.

I agree with John. When I put Audible books directly onto my Sansa my clip normally recognizes them and does the playback feature with no issues. If anything you can look at your folders on your computer and move them into the audiobook folder and see if that helps?

I opened up Windows Media Player to see and they are all labeled in the genre column as "audio book".

I've sent off a query to Audible to see if they might offer any idea as to what the deal might be, as Audible Manager doesn't shows the audiobooks in the mobile device library (since I moved them from the "Audible" folder to the "Audiobooks" folder).

Ah, nothing like a little technology to make me feel like a caveman. :)

As Gef has started a new thread in the Ask Audible section, I would prefer all discussion of his specific problem be carried on there, rather than having two "competing" ones - thanks!

Jan wrote: And I was wondering what the Audiobook Chapter Mode Option is actually for. Will that take me from track to track? And how do I go back a little bit if I need to re-listen to something because my mind went somewhere else.

I didn't see anyone specifically answering this part (or I may have inadvertently overlooked it). From my experience, the Chapter Mode does not work for every audio book. What it does is display on your screen what chapter you are on. For example, if there are 30 chapters and you are on the 12th chapter, your display will show 12/30. I really like this functionality because sometimes I want to reference back to an ebook or print version of the book so I know which chapter to go to. I don't think it works with all audio books, though. I do have a Sansa Fuze so perhaps the newer Sansa models will display for all audio books.

Sorry John - when I saw Gef's question I had sent him over here thinking his answer might be here since I had started the thread the day before.

I have found something irritating about the speed option on the Sansa and was hoping there is a fix. When I tried to up the speed my choices were Normal, Fast & Slow. When I chose Fast it sounded like I was listening to chipmunks. Is there a way to adjust the speed options?

I don't think so; I think that's what "fast" is all about. I learned this the hard way in trying to listen to a podcast that was somehow "coded" for a fast playback ... a real "What the ..." moment!
I do use the 1.25x speed on my phone for books that seem like they're dragging, but not enough to outright quit.