Converting "Audible" audiobooks to MP3

[Jlsturgeon]

I would urge anyone to go back to the solution AlanHK linked in post #22. As he said, follow the discussion in that link (you will have to register for the board to even see it), go all the way to the end, and then work back to find the most recent version of the FOSS tool inAudible. As of this writing, it's on 1.71 and it appears the author continues to update it regularly. Windows-only I do believe, so sorry about that. But I can confirm it's working on Win 10, 64-bit, with the most current updates. Since I found the info in post #22 here to be correct, I thought I would let you know. It seems much easier than aax2mp3 since you don't have to install Audible software.

[schwarz91]

I would urge anyone to go back to the solution AlanHK linked in post #22. As he said, follow the discussion in that link (you will have to register for the board to even see it), go all the way to the end, and then work back to find the most recent version of the FOSS tool inAudible. As of this writing, it's on 1.71 and it appears the author continues to update it regularly. Windows-only I do believe, so sorry about that. But I can confirm it's working on Win 10, 64-bit, with the most current updates. Since I found the info in post #22 here to be correct, I thought I would let you know. It seems much easier than aax2mp3 since you don't have to install Audible software.

Thanks!

I used the method me mentioned in the end of his post

«There is another method someone has hacked up recently, also much faster than realtime, that apparently works for all formats.
http://theaudiobookbay.com/forum/audiobook-software-apps-and-resources/audible-ripping/
-- post 14 and following, "InAudible". Latest version at end of the thread.
Haven't needed to try that myself, but others say it works.

Very, VERY fast. On my test machine (2.2ghz i7), a 23 hour book can be decrypted, split and re-encoded in 5 minutes.

It uses iTunes to burn the audio to a virtual CD, then rips that to MP3 or M4A/B.»

If it uses iTunes, then it all happens in the background, as no windows poped up. The thread link is broken, but this works.

http://audiobookbay.cc/forum/audiobook-software-apps-and-resources/audible-ripping-ina...n-updates/325/

[Jlsturgeon]

If it ever did use itunes it doesn't now. I don't even have itunes installed. As far as I can tell, it is a stand-alone app. And my mistake, there IS a Mac version.

[AlanHK]

I would urge anyone to go back to the solution AlanHK linked in post #22. As he said, follow the discussion in that link (you will have to register for the board to even see it), go all the way to the end, and then work back to find the most recent version of the FOSS tool inAudible. As of this writing, it's on 1.71 and it appears the author continues to update it regularly. Windows-only I do believe, so sorry about that. But I can confirm it's working on Win 10, 64-bit, with the most current updates. Since I found the info in post #22 here to be correct, I thought I would let you know. It seems much easier than aax2mp3 since you don't have to install Audible software.

Yes, "InAudible" has been very actively developed and gets faster and more efficient.
It can now actually extract the original AAC audio, not just reencode via ripping a virtual CD.

Go to the end of this thread and find the last version:
http://audiobookbay.cc/forum/audiobook-software-apps-and-resources/audible-ripping-ina...ussion-updates.
There is also a Mac version (MinAudible):

Currently latest is December 09, 2015
Windows 1.71 - http://bit.ly/inAudible171 / Mac 0.09 - http://bit.ly/MinAudible009

This is by far the best solution.

Now logging off from the thread again before the trolls descend.
Maybe I'll check back in another couple of years.

[drstew12]

What MP3 bit rate do you use when converting aax to MP3? It appears aax is 64kbps with a sample rate of about 22kHz.

[NelsonDin]

My apologies. I haven't been active on any forums for quite some time. Quick background: I've been converting Audible files to MP3 since I first purchased an Audible subscription in 2001. My reason at the time was I had a player that Audible did not support. Best solutions discovered in the past were dbPoweramp and Noteburner. For technical and political reasons, neither are viable today. The "record the sound card" never made sense as too many of the audiobooks I enjoyed were in the 10 to 60 hour range.

Since I own more books than I can ever listen to, it's not critical that I convert these days... BUT - Audible Manger fails as soon as the user exceeds a couple of hundred titles. Audible knows this fact and advises iTunes - which was never designed for audiobooks. There is a trick with Audible's app for Android, but the interface is poorly designed. Besides, have you ever tried to store a significant number of audiobooks on a mobile device? Available memory becomes an issue even with inexpensive cards.

I was very pleased when a friend told me about "inAudible". Nearly perfect solution. My congratulations to the incognito coder. IMHO, nothing else is worth downloading. That said, "InAudible" has a serious shortcoming. When fed a file, it will abort if the code detects the Audible user ID is different from that which it previously detected. I don't see the point. Clearly, the first time inAudible is invoked, it examines the aax file to determine the Audible user ID. The process requires less than a few seconds. So why store it? Redetecting each time means there is no abort due to the Audible user ID being different.

This is an issue worthy of a resolution. Why? Because users occasionally share aax files. Obviously the embedded Audible user IDs are unique. That's the very spot where InAudible aborts. My suggestion: an option to instruct InAudible to "re-detect" the Audible user ID.

BTW: Audible has no control over the Audiobook publishers. Accordingly, Audible is not able to remove DRM. Even authors like Neil Gaiman acknowledge DRM is insulting and useless... but don't count on DRM free audiobooks in the immediate future.

So... if by chance someone knows someone who knows someone, perhaps the astute coder of "InAudible" might consider providing an enhancement to 're detect' the Audible user ID with each audiobook submitted for processing. It would seem at some point, the InAudible coder frequented AudioBookBay and/or myanonamouse. The latter appears to be 'down' and the former is incorrectly identifying my IP. If this request can be shared by someone here, it'll be much appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

[Torquemurder]

I was very pleased when a friend told me about "inAudible". Nearly perfect solution. My congratulations to the incognito coder. IMHO, nothing else is worth downloading. That said, "InAudible" has a serious shortcoming. When fed a file, it will abort if the code detects the Audible user ID is different from that which it previously detected. I don't see the point. Clearly, the first time inAudible is invoked, it examines the aax file to determine the Audible user ID. The process requires less than a few seconds. So why store it? Redetecting each time means there is no abort due to the Audible user ID being different.

1. Download the latest version - http://bit.ly/inAudible187
2. Go to Tools->Advanced Settings and set AAX Mode to "inAudible-NG".

[schwarz91]

InAudible has worked perfectly fine – up until now. Now I get these "Crash in main decryption loop" error when I convert. Anyone else who's also got that?

[Torquemurder]

Beats me. Try the latest - http://bit.ly/inAudible194

[Tompom]

Hi,

I'm new here because this seems to be the one and only place so far (beside Myanon) to ask this question: is there a new version of inAudible available and can you provide a download link? Is there a way to give some feedback to the developers? (in my case the removal of the Audible Clips does not work perfectly for german audiobooks, for english it's fine).

Hope this will be heared and thanks a lot for freeing my bought stuff finally, Tom

[dealio]

Glad I found inAudible as it is a smooth process for converting audiobooks, and VERY fast. My thanks to the author!!

Only one issue I'm having, and I wonder if anyone has experience and can help.

After loading the audio file into inAudible, I then search for silence to update the chapter markers (they're usually not right upon first opening the file), then I edit the titles for chapter markers, which is a bit tedious and takes some time. It's nothing I expect the software to fix though. Then I apply the changes and the editor dialog disappears. I notice the number of chapters has changed appropriately. Before beginning the conversion, I check the option to create a CUE file as my intention is not to split the file into parts, but to use it as one large file, using the CUE file as an index for my LMS (Logitech "Squeezebox" software). The issue is that after I go through all that trouble to manually enter chapter names, the resulting CUE file has only generic info in it, like Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc, and none of the customized names that I entered. I suspect its some option I'm not checking somehow, but haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?

TIA
David

PS: I'm working on Windows 7 x86 (32-bit) dual-processor machine, but have seen no problems with running the software.

[Torquemurder]

Glad I found inAudible as it is a smooth process for converting audiobooks, and VERY fast. My thanks to the author!!

Only one issue I'm having, and I wonder if anyone has experience and can help.

After loading the audio file into inAudible, I then search for silence to update the chapter markers (they're usually not right upon first opening the file), then I edit the titles for chapter markers, which is a bit tedious and takes some time. It's nothing I expect the software to fix though. Then I apply the changes and the editor dialog disappears. I notice the number of chapters has changed appropriately. Before beginning the conversion, I check the option to create a CUE file as my intention is not to split the file into parts, but to use it as one large file, using the CUE file as an index for my LMS (Logitech "Squeezebox" software). The issue is that after I go through all that trouble to manually enter chapter names, the resulting CUE file has only generic info in it, like Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc, and none of the customized names that I entered. I suspect its some option I'm not checking somehow, but haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?

This is a bug. Until it is fixed, you can work around it by saving the cue file from inside the chapter editor.

[dealio]

Thanks for such a quick reply Torquemurder.

My workaround was to highlight the entire list of chapters, press CTRL+C to copy it and paste it into a spreadsheet where I can manipulate it into close CUE format. Then paste the result into TextPad and use Search and Replace to finally arrive at a working CUE file. I saw no way to save the CUE file from the Chapter Editor. Maybe I'm overlooking something. If so, please enlighten me, as I really would like to avoid so much work to get a CUE file.

Thanks,
David

[dealio]

Never mind my earlier response. I just found the way to save Cue files under the File menu!! Duh.

Thanks,
David

[bankbabe]

I have been using inAudible for a few weeks and it's been working great but this week I am trying to convert and Inaudible seems to get stuck at Decrypting AAC from AAX


[26/06/2017 10:20:20 PM] - Detected M4B encoding.

[26/06/2017 10:20:21 PM] - Source is 63 kbits @ 22050Hz, 2 channels
[26/06/2017 10:20:23 PM] - AAX mode
[26/06/2017 10:20:23 PM] - Extracting chapter markers...
[26/06/2017 10:20:24 PM] - Input file is 14:04:43 in 32 chapters
[26/06/2017 10:20:24 PM] - Decrypting AAC from AAX...


Any suggestions??

[joanofark06]

Ok, it's 2018 and I know this post is old, but I have the best way to turn AAX into MP3. Now, I didn't want to give the link I got this answer at, because it was a long page, on how to do everything (but I will give the link anyway, after my screenshots). I took 2 screenshots of what was on this page, only because, I couldn't scroll down while I made the screen shot, so I had to divide into 2. Don't think because it's 2, that it's LONG, because it's very short! AND it's so easy! I looked everywhere for the answer, myself, and my search ended with this. If your beginner on a computer, this more than likely won't help you. You need to have some knowledge of 7-Zip, or zip files.

https://files.videohelp.com/u/199537/Pt%201%20of%20AAX%20to%20MP3.png

https://files.videohelp.com/u/199537/Pt%202%20of%20AAX%20to%20MP3.png

Here is the link for where I took those screenshots:

https://wphelp365.com/blog/convert-audible-aax-file-mp3-quick-easy-way/

Scroll down that page till you see this:

Audible Manager
Update (January 16, 2017) ....and read on.

[joanofark06]

Find the book somewhere else, (at another website), and that perhaps, could be in mp3. That's what I do. Check here on this site, for your book. May not be there, but this is just one example. All these audible books are free, and as I did say, they are MP3, that is true of MOST of them. Some are M4a, or M4b, which I have the program to convert them, and anyone can search for one, if they wish. There's plenty of those, that are free, and very easy to use.

http://audiobookbay.nl/

[tony7914]

Anyone know what the latest version of inaudible is? I have 1.97
Thanks!

[cinefou100]

Hello,

I cannot convert AAX files with Inaudible 1.97 anymore

Each time, the key cannot be found.

Have you got an idea to use inaudible NG keys with inaudible to decrypt aax now ?

Thanks