mp3fs VS Plex-Audiobook-Guide

> But then I've got some scripts that maintain a copy of that collection, except converted to MP3 at a variable bitrate

Yes. I have / had been doing this for years, and just want to sing high praises of mp3fs[1], assuming some kind of Linux or macOS machine. It solves this problem in a way that I think more people should know about!

[1] https://khenriks.github.io/mp3fs/

I vote mp3fs.

One thing I tried (that unfortunately didn't work) was to combine a file syncing app (NextCloud/Syncthing/Resilio) with mp3fs. If it worked, I would have been able to simply drop a new FLAC onto my server and have a transcoded mp3 automagically propagate to my phone when it connects to wifi. Unfortunately I ran into a lot of issues with mp3fs crashing.

You could probably use mp3fs (homepage, github) as a model for what you're trying to do.

Here is a resource that you will find useful for audiobooks. I love your old-time radio idea, I look forward to hearing what people suggest for that because I am totally stealing your idea lol.

I'd probably just bite the bullet and update the tags on everything. I've always just adhered to /u/seanap and followed their guide: https://github.com/seanap/Plex-Audiobook-Guide

Prologue for iOS is a Plex audiobook player that is better than any audiobook player has a right to be.

Here's a good guide on how to set up Plex for proper metadata with audiobooks: https://github.com/seanap/Plex-Audiobook-Guide

Depending exactly what you're trying to do mp3tag is a great tool for just managing metadata directly. The Plex Audiobook Guide has some handy tools for mp3tag that allow you to download info directly from audible.

This is the way: https://github.com/seanap/Plex-Audiobook-Guide

There's a whole guide to getting it properly set up here.

Just to throw this out there though for anyone who might be interested in self-hosting their secret project audiobooks and others, to look at Audiobook Shelf. /r/audiobookshelf (what i'm doing) or set up plex to handle audiobooks (as best as it can) and use one of the players listed on that site, probably Chronicle on Android or Prologue for iOS.