Audiobookshelf folder structure: one folder per book, series, and why books merge

Give every book its own folder. That’s the main rule in Audiobookshelf (a book that is a single file may also sit at the top of the library). Author/Series/Title is the usual layout, and the audio files go inside the title folder.

Everything in a book’s folder belongs to that book: all its audio files, the cover, any ebook. Put several books in one folder and they show up as one book.

How should I organize my audiobook folders?

audiobooks/                      <- the folder you pick for the library
  Terry Pratchett/               <- author
    Discworld/                   <- series
      1 - The Colour of Magic/   <- one book
        01.mp3
        02.mp3
        cover.jpg
      2 - The Light Fantastic/
        The Light Fantastic.m4b
    Good Omens/                  <- a book with no series
      Good Omens.m4b
  Single Book.m4b                <- a one-file book can sit at the top

How Audiobookshelf reads the folder names:

• The folder holding the audio files is the title.
• The folder above it is the series, if there are at least two folders above the book.
• The one above that is the author. With only Author/Title, there’s no series.
• Deeper paths are fine. Only the last three folders are read.

A single audio file can sit at the top of the library, and it becomes a book of its own. Anywhere else, a book needs its own folder.

Do I have to use Author/Series/Title?

No. The folder layout is only one of the places Audiobookshelf reads details from. Tags (the title, author and so on saved inside each audio file) come next, then metadata files next to the audio, like metadata.json, .opf or desc.txt. By default each of those wins over the folder names. If your files are well tagged, the folder names matter less. The one-folder-per-book rule still applies.

You can change the order in the library’s settings, under Metadata order of precedence. To get details from online sources like Audible, use Match. Audiobookshelf never fetches them during a scan.

Why are my audiobooks merged into one book?

Usually an audio file is sitting in a folder that also has book folders inside it. Audiobookshelf treats the folder with the audio file as the book, and pulls everything below it into that same book.

Terry Pratchett/
  Mort.mp3                       <- problem: an audio file in the author folder
  Discworld/
    1 - The Colour of Magic/
      01.mp3

Here the whole Terry Pratchett folder becomes one book, and every book under it is merged in. The official folder guide warns about the same layout, with an audio file in the author folder.

To fix it:

1. Move the stray file into a folder of its own, for example Terry Pratchett/Mort/Mort.mp3.
2. In the web app, delete the merged book from Audiobookshelf. In the delete dialog, untick Delete from file system so only the library entry goes and your files stay on disk.
3. Scan the library. Each book comes back as its own item.

Listening progress on the merged book doesn’t carry over to the separate books. Audiobookshelf also follows files by their identity on disk, so fixing the folders alone often leaves the books merged until you remove the item.

The official FAQ also warns that tools moving files around while Audiobookshelf watches the folder can cause wrong merges. Before a big reorganization, edit the library, open its Settings tab and turn off Automatically watch library for changes. Move the files, turn it back on, then scan.

How should I name audiobook folders?

Audiobookshelf splits a title folder on -: a dash with a space on each side. Underscores and dashes without spaces aren’t read as separators.

Folder name	What Audiobookshelf reads
1 - The Colour of Magic	Book 1 of the series
Book 2 - The Light Fantastic	Book 2 (also Vol 2, Vol. 2, Volume 2)
0.5 - The Prequel	Book 0.5
1. The Colour of Magic	Book 1 (a number, a dot, then a space)
1983 - The Colour of Magic	Published 1983
The Colour of Magic {Nigel Planer}	Narrator Nigel Planer, in curly braces
Wizards First Rule [B002V0QK4C]	Audible ASIN (the 10-character Audible product code), in square brackets, to help matching
Title - A Subtitle	Subtitle, only with Parse subtitles turned on in the server settings

Series numbers are only read when the book sits inside a series folder. 101 Dalmatians stays a title, because a number followed by a plain space isn’t a series number.

Author folders can hold more than one name: Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, or Gaiman, Neil for last name first.

Series showing in the wrong order is usually a missing or odd series number. Check the book’s details in the web app, or fix the metadata.

A book in many MP3 files: will it play as one book?

Yes, as long as all the files are in the book’s folder. Audiobookshelf makes them one book with one track per file, and plays the tracks in order.

The order comes from two places:

• The track number in each file’s tags.
• The first number in each file name, after the title, author and series are taken out.

Audiobookshelf uses whichever of the two gives more distinct numbers, and the tags win a tie. Number your files the same way throughout (01, 02 … 10), and check that the track tags agree with the file names.

Books split into discs can keep a folder per disc. Subfolders named Disc 1, CD 2 or Disk 3 inside the book folder stay part of the same book, ordered by disc and then by track. Keep the disc numbers consecutive, and check that any disc tags in the files match the folders.

If the order is still wrong, open the book in the web app and use Manage Tracks to drag the tracks into order.

Should I merge MP3s into one M4B file?

You don’t have to. A folder of MP3s plays as one book in Audiobookshelf and in apps that play from it. Merging is worth it when you want one file per book, for instance to move it around or to use it in another player.

Audiobookshelf has a tool for it:

1. Open the book, click the pencil icon to edit it, then open the Tools tab (admins only).
2. Under Make M4B Audiobook File, click Open Manager.
3. Click Start M4B Encode. It can take up to 30 minutes.

The new M4B goes into the book’s folder. Your original MP3 files are moved out of the book folder into Audiobookshelf’s metadata folder, under /metadata/cache/items/. The tool itself tells you to purge that cache now and then, so copy the originals somewhere else if you want to keep them.

How do I move or rename audiobooks without losing progress?

Progress belongs to the book’s entry in Audiobookshelf, not to the files. When a scan finds a book at a new path, it tries to match it to the old entry by the folder’s identity on disk. If that works, the book keeps its progress. If not, it adds the book again as new, with no progress, and marks the old one missing.

What you do	Usually keeps progress?
Rename the book folder in place	Yes
Move the folder to another folder on the same drive	Yes
Make a new folder and move the files into it	No
Copy the folder, then delete the old one	No
Move the folder to another drive or network share	No

Making new folders and moving the files into them is what many library tools do when they “organize” a library. Renaming in place is the safe move. This gap is open as #5379, with proposed fixes in review as of October 2026.

If a book already came back as new, don’t remove the missing entry yet. Audiobookshelf listening progress lost covers how to get the progress back.

Why are books still missing after a scan?

If a book in the right folder still doesn’t show up, the scan may have stopped partway. See Audiobookshelf won’t add new books. If books show up with the wrong title or author, see wrong metadata on new books.