[Enhancement]: More Flexibility in Editing Chapters #3023

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opened 2026-02-20 03:04:30 -05:00 by deekerman · 2 comments

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 03:04:30 -05:00

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Originally created by @JustTooKrul on GitHub (Jun 13, 2025).

Type of Enhancement

Web Interface/Frontend

Describe the Feature/Enhancement

I had to add chapters to my Audiobooks recently and the versioning / editions of my audiobooks didn't match the entries that had chapters. I was able to go into the eBook, however, and pull the chapter names from the ToC, but there was no place to mass-edit the chapter names in AudioBookShelf. There are two potential features that could have helped massively here:

Adding a place to upload a text file (even a JSON) with the chapter names (and it could even have timestamps in it if one wanted to re-map timecodes). This would be most helpful if there was also a way to export chapter names, as some people won't have the eBooks to populate the text file and manually editing chapters that don't match would be far easier with a way to export what you do find, but honestly the ability to use a text file would give the most flexibility. You could also, like the "Cover" tab for an Audiobook, search by title and provider--this would help situations where, for example, the current edition under Audible doesn't have chapter names while other providers or editions do. Currently, the only way to do this is to find multiple ASN's and try them individually.
The ability to manually select which chapters are imported / not imported when the editions are different--mapping another editions to my chapters without adjusting the time codes helps as an option, but it often requires me to create additional chapters so that sections like "intro" and "Part [x]" don't push all the other chapters off the end and force you to manually enter chapter names. Having either (a) a simple checkbox selection next to each selection to "ignore this chapter" or (b) a pre-populated / pre-checked checkbox for the chapters you would like to import for each chapter would be a great help.

Of the two, #1 would probably be the better option since #2 only helps if you can find chapters to begin with.

Why would this be helpful?

Audiobook chapter meta-data is both difficult to edit and tedious to deal with as the editions of the Audiobooks vary from version to version. Further, the interface for editing chapters is very helpful, but manually intervening to edit 50+, 60+, or even 70-80+ chapter titles is a big UI issue. Some very minor enhancements would make what is currently a 15-20 minute exercise per book a few seconds.

Future Implementation (Screenshot)

Audiobookshelf Server Version

2.24

Current Implementation (Screenshot)

The "Edit Chapters" screen--can be seen in the background of both "mock ups"

Originally created by @JustTooKrul on GitHub (Jun 13, 2025). ### Type of Enhancement Web Interface/Frontend ### Describe the Feature/Enhancement I had to add chapters to my Audiobooks recently and the versioning / editions of my audiobooks didn't match the entries that had chapters. I was able to go into the eBook, however, and pull the chapter names from the ToC, but there was no place to mass-edit the chapter names in AudioBookShelf. There are two potential features that could have helped massively here: 1. Adding a place to upload a text file (even a JSON) with the chapter names (and it could even have timestamps in it if one wanted to re-map timecodes). This would be most helpful if there was also a way to export chapter names, as some people won't have the eBooks to populate the text file and manually editing chapters that don't match would be far easier with a way to export what you do find, but honestly the ability to use a text file would give the most flexibility. You could also, like the "Cover" tab for an Audiobook, search by title and provider--this would help situations where, for example, the current edition under Audible doesn't have chapter names while other providers or editions do. Currently, the only way to do this is to find multiple ASN's and try them individually. 2. The ability to manually select which chapters are imported / not imported when the editions are different--mapping another editions to my chapters without adjusting the time codes helps as an option, but it often requires me to create additional chapters so that sections like "intro" and "Part [x]" don't push all the other chapters off the end and force you to manually enter chapter names. Having either (a) a simple checkbox selection next to each selection to "ignore this chapter" or (b) a pre-populated / pre-checked checkbox for the chapters you *would* like to import for each chapter would be a great help. Of the two, #1 would probably be the better option since #2 only helps if you can find chapters to begin with. ### Why would this be helpful? Audiobook chapter meta-data is both difficult to edit and tedious to deal with as the editions of the Audiobooks vary from version to version. Further, the interface for editing chapters is very helpful, but manually intervening to edit 50+, 60+, or even 70-80+ chapter titles is a big UI issue. Some very minor enhancements would make what is currently a 15-20 minute exercise per book a few seconds. ### Future Implementation (Screenshot) ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/58431c11-335b-4d77-9fcf-f8f6a3833fee) ![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f5a5e3bc-33a4-405c-99e9-41e0520eaee0) ### Audiobookshelf Server Version 2.24 ### Current Implementation (Screenshot) The "Edit Chapters" screen--can be seen in the background of both "mock ups"

deekerman added the

enhancement

chapter editor

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2026-02-20 03:04:30 -05:00

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 03:04:30 -05:00

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@nichwall commented on GitHub (Jun 13, 2025):

There is a discussion around this here https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf/discussions/3011

There is also an initial PR open for updating the chapter editor if you want to check that out. We are currently investigating migration to a new framework, so not sure what the timetable is to get it merged.

@nichwall commented on GitHub (Jun 13, 2025): There is a discussion around this here https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf/discussions/3011 There is also an initial PR open for updating the chapter editor if you want to check that out. We are currently investigating migration to a new framework, so not sure what the timetable is to get it merged.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 03:04:31 -05:00

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@JustTooKrul commented on GitHub (Jun 13, 2025):

Ah, good to see... I will add some thought to that thread. The PR you mentioned is a good start, but the issue I have is with bulk importing of chapter titles... That makes things easier, and some of the UI changes are quite good, but you're sort of "losing the battle" when you're editing chapters one by one vs. importing something authoritative.

@JustTooKrul commented on GitHub (Jun 13, 2025): Ah, good to see... I will add some thought to that thread. The PR you mentioned is a good start, but the issue I have is with bulk importing of chapter titles... That makes things easier, and some of the UI changes are quite good, but you're sort of "losing the battle" when you're editing chapters one by one vs. importing something authoritative.