How to name audiobook files so Audiobookshelf, Plex and Emby sort them right

Audiobooks arrive from ripped CDs, store downloads, and tools like Libation or OpenAudible, and the names are all over the place. A server can only match what it can read, so a clean name plus good tags is what makes the cover, the series and the author page come out right.

These are the rules that cause most of the mess.

1. Parts need a number that sorts as text

Some players and file managers compare filenames character by character. With that kind of sort, Part 10 lands before Part 2. A zero-padded number (01, 02, 10) sorts correctly everywhere.

So put the part number first, as a track field, instead of leaving it as text at the end:

Crown of Midnight Part 1.mp3
Crown of Midnight Part 2.mp3

01 - Sarah J. Maas - Crown of Midnight (2013).mp3
02 - Sarah J. Maas - Crown of Midnight (2013).mp3

The order is stated exactly once, and no guess about sort order can contradict it.

2. Watch the double space

A double space before "Part 2" can make that file sort before "Part 1", because a space compares lower than a letter. It is invisible in a file list and it breaks the order of a whole book. Collapse repeated spaces before you trust any sort.

3. Author and title in the right order

Plenty of downloads are named Title - Author. Flipping them blindly is risky, because a title can look like a person's name and an author can look like a title. Only flip when the file's tags or a lookup show which side is the author. If nothing proves it, leave the name alone and fix it by hand. A wrong rename is worse than no rename.

4. Pick one template and keep it

A template that works for most libraries:

{track} - {author} - {title} ({year})

If your template has no track field, a multi-part book gives every part the same name, so each part needs a - Part N suffix instead. Pick one style per library. Mixed styles are what make a collection sort strangely.

5. Keep covers and extras with the book

A cover.jpg, a .cue, an .nfo or a PDF should follow the book it belongs to. They should not be looked up as if they were books themselves. Remember that cover.jpg is folder-scoped, so it only works when the book has a folder of its own.

6. Folders: Author, Series, Title

Audiobookshelf reads the folder structure as Author, then Series (optional), then Title, then the files. It parses the folder name too. A year goes first or right after the series number, a series sequence is picked up when it follows Vol or Book, and a narrator goes in curly braces:

Sarah J. Maas/Throne of Glass/Vol 2 - 2013 - Crown of Midnight {Elizabeth Evans}/

Plex and Emby are less picky, but they all benefit from one book per folder and consistent names inside it.

7. NAS and SMB shares

Audiobook collections often live on a NAS. Renaming over SMB behaves differently from a local disk, so preview first and keep the share mounted until the batch finishes. The details are in what breaks when you rename files over SMB and NAS shares.

Doing it with Media Renamer Pro

• Pick the Audiobooks media type. The app reads the file's tags and looks up Google Books and Open Library to fill author, title and year.
• Part N and Disc N become a track number, zero-padded, so order is stated once.
• Title - Author is flipped only when the tags prove it.
• You set the template in Settings, then Audiobooks.
• Every rename shows in a preview first. Rows are editable, and the last saved rename session can be undone.
• Files on a NAS or SMB share work, and it runs on Mac, iPad and iPhone.

Related: how to set up your folders and filenames so renaming just works and why batch renaming eats files, and the two-phase fix.