Telling iTunes Audiobooks are not Music

I’ve just converted an Audio Book to AAC - I’m ashamed to say it’s The Da Vinci Code, but, well… Anyway, I was a bit peeved that it doesn’t show up as an Audiobook when you use the search feature of iTunes. And none of the tips I came across seemed to fix it:

  • Rename the file so it’s *.m4b instead of *.m4a
  • Use the Make Bookmarkable script from Doug’s AppleScripts
  • Set the Type Code to “M4B “

Then I read this, at macintouch (iPod: File Management):

If I remember correctly, an iTunes audio book is little more than a renamed AAC file. The steps necessary for making your own are pretty simple:

  1. Convert the file to AAC format (if it isn’t already)
  2. Make sure it’s not in the iTunes library. (Otherwise iTunes may not recognize the change.)
  3. Set the file type to “M4B “ if you’re on a Mac (only necessary if you’re using a Mac)
  4. Rename the file to have an “.m4b” extension
  5. Add it back to the iTunes library

Look at #2. That does the trick. Now, I just need to see if the Join Together and Chapterize script will ever finish…