Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The Ambling BookPlayer is now available in the Apple App Store. Now you can listen on the Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices.

How do I delete an audiobook?

To delete an audiobook go to the Audiobook Library screen where you can see the list of all the audiobooks. Hold down your finger for 3 seconds on the name of the book that you want to delete. This is called an Android “long click” and is similar to doing a right click with your computer mouse. A pop-up menu will appear. Select “Delete Book” from the pop-up menu. A confirmation dialog will appear. Set the check boxes correctly for whether you want to delete the book description and bookmarks from the Ambling BookPlayer application database and/or delete the audio files from your SD card, and then press the “Confirm” button.

You can also use the Android "long click" in a number of other locations in the player. When viewing the list of chapters in an audiobook that you have loaded from an SD card, the "long click" menu will give you options to split the chapter into multiple chapters or combine it with subsequent chapters. This allows you to tell the player the correct chapter locations when the audio files in your audiobook do not have one chapter per audio file.

When viewing the list of audio files in an audiobook that you have loaded from an SD card the "long click" menu will allow you to delete an audio file that was added by mistake.

Why aren't the audio files downloading for the audiobook I selected?

There is a preference setting which controls whether audio files will be downloaded over the phone data network or only over a Wi-Fi network. By default this preference setting is set to only download audio files over a Wi-Fi network. This is to prevent using excessive bandwidth for those users that are charged for their phone data network bandwidth usage. Users that want to download audio files over the phone data network need to select "Preferences" from the menu and then change the "Wi-Fi Download Only" setting to allow downloading audio files over the phone data network. If you want to only download the audio files over a Wi-Fi network then you will need to make sure your phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network so that the audio files can be downloaded.

Can I load my personal audiobooks into the Ambling BookPlayer?

The Ambling BookPlayer Personal edition and the Ambling BookPlayer Pro edition will allow you to load audio files from your SD card for listening.  This includes organizing and playing multiple audio files on your SD card as a single book.  It also supports adding the chapter titles and other information for your personal audiobooks so they will have all the same functionality as the books you load from our web site.  The Ambling BookPlayer Lite edition does not support loading audio files from your SD card.

Will there be additional audiobooks available for download?

The new amblingbooks.com web site is now online. Anyone can login to the site and add additional audiobooks which will then be available for download.  These audiobooks can be ones that are free online audiobooks such as the LibriVox audiobooks, or if you are the author or publisher you can load your audiobooks for sale on the amblingbooks.com web site.

Why are some LibriVox audiobooks better quality than others?

LibriVox is an internet project to make available free audiobook versions of non-copyrighted books. The books are all recorded by volunteer readers who donate their time freely to the project.  Some narrators are much better than others, and some have better recording equipment and quieter recording environments than others. Some books use a different narrator for each chapter.  The quality of the books varies widely with some being very good and others not as good.  The new amblingbooks.com site supports a wide variety of audiobooks both free and for sale. User ratings and reviews help you to find the best audio books.

The playback quality of the audiobook you choose to listen to will be dependent on both the narrator's talent and the recording quality of the audiobook you select.

Can the Ambling BookPlayer play books I purchased at Audible.com?

Audible uses a proprietary .aa file format that uses digital rights management (DRM) to restrict the usage of the audiobooks. This prevents the Audible audiobooks from being played in players that do not support their DRM system.  The Ambling BookPlayer cannot play these restricted audiobooks from Audible.  It can play audio files in the following formats: .mp3, .ogg, .mp4, .wav, .wma*, .3gp, and .m4a.
 *Note that the .wma format may not be supported on some Android devices.

Can the Ambling BookPlayer play my m4b audiobooks?

Currently the Android platform does not support playing the m4b format.

Many people have asked for this support and Google currently has an enhancement request tracking how many people would like the Android platform to support playing the m4b audio format. If you would like the Android to support this format, you can add your vote to increase the priority of this enhancement request by clicking on the star at http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3923