I have a very large audiobook library on my iMac and it is organized by author. If I upgrade from Mohave to Catalina, will I lose the ability to organize it by author? I understand that Catalina organizes all books (including audiobooks) only by book title.
No one at Apple seems to have an answer to this, as no one I have spoken with “reads” audiobooks, or does so only on an iPhone.
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Jeffrey
In the Books app you can select any category, such as Audiobook and then click on the button for List view. In list view you can sort by any column, including Author. So you can see a list of books by author. If that is all you need to do, then you are set.
If you have a large collection of audiobooks, then you may find it better to organize them yourself as files in the Finder. You can then put them in subfolders however you like. Then just use the Books app as a reader if you want to listen to a book on your Mac, or a way to transfer them to your iOS devices.
See https://macmost.com/how-to-manage-an-audiobook-collection-in-macos-catalina.html for some ideas.
Thank you Gary!
A followup question: if I employ either of your suggestions (to sort as a "list" or "organize them as files in the Finder"), will I be able to view then with their book covers as they appear in the list or the Finder files? Or, will they appear just as typewritten words on the screen?
What I would like to see is how they appear on my audiobook page when I open iTunes.
Jeffrey: I just tried dragging an audiobook out of the Books app into the Finder and all I saw was a generic audio icon. But that may be different for you. Try it now in Mojave to see what you get. The idea I'm suggesting is something you can use right now, you don't have to wait until you upgrade to Catalina to see how it would work.