How to convert an M4B file into MP3 split by chapters, using free software
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- This is a tip on how to convert an M4B file into several MP3 files, these will be split by the chapter markers in the M4B file.
To do this I am using two freeware programs:
foobar2000 www.foobar2000....
and the LAME audio codec (so foobar2000 can convert to MP3)
www.rarewares.o...
Both do not require installation.
Some M4B files may be protected by copyright, unfortunately I do not have any of these files, so I am unable to test if these will convert using this method.
- -
Please leave me comments with any feedback or questions you may have, I'll do my best to help.
If you found this video useful please click the thumbs up like icon, or if you would like to see more of this sort of thing please click the Subscribe button, thank you.
Great Tutorial. No fluff, straight to the point - love it!
Thank you :-D
Awesome, very helpful! One thing I'll add - my M4B loaded with all track as 01. If yours does that, you can do this: Make sure all tracks are selected, right click, Properties, Tools, Auto Track Number. It will give them track numbers from top to bottom (and include leading 0s too!)
Thank you 😄 Glad I could help ☺ And thanks for the tip, I'll have to try that next time.
Thanks! That's great!
you rule for writing this comment!
This is one of the very best tutorials I have ever watched about anything. I wish all tutorials could be as good as this one.
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Aron, you're a genius! I was at my wits end trying to convert this M4b into chapters.
This video is concise, methodical and exactly what was needed. Thank you so much!
Thank you Marc :-) Glad I could help ;-)
As everyone already said, great tutorial without pointless explanation. Thank you very much!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
This video was a life saver! Clear, concise and very informative. You walked us through the process step by step and it worked perfectly. Thanks!! Keep up the good work.
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Absolutely agree! No nonsense tutorial using tools most of us already have. Splendid!
Glad I could help :-)
Works great, and the same way as the instructions 4 years later in 2023. Thanks a lot , great instructions!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
And 2024. Thanks!
This is great. I would be embarrassed to explain how I've been doing this in the past, involving a lot of manual calculator work to figure out split times. Thanks!
Glad I could help :-)
Holy. Crap. Do you know how much this helps me??? I've been downloading mp3 versions and manually adding chapters to books. Like... HOLY CRAP. This is going to save me SO MUCH TIME! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
EDIT: So, I feel really dumb, but I just used this for the first time, and I am near tears. WOW. That was SO EASY and SO FAST.
Glad I could help :-D
Thanks for helping navigating my .m4b format, it really helped me. Couldn't find better vid than this.
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
I had downloaded the program and tried to convert M4b to Mp3, by chapters, but couldn't figure it out. Thanks to your instruction (especially the obscure "..."), I now "see the light". Thanks.
Glad I could help :-)
That's brilliant. Did exactly what I needed it to do. Cheers Aron.
Thanks :-D Glad I could help :-)
Super clear, no fluff. Brilliant video mate, thank you!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Brilliant, been looking for ages for a simple way. worked a treat
Glad I could help :-)
Very nice! Was done in 10 minutes with the whole conversion! Thank you!
Glad I could help ;-)
Thanks...this looks great. For my m4b file the track number was all the same, but there is an index number (open column in view, like you did with Bitrate) and you can use code %list_index% to add that number to output file name.
Ah, thanks for the info ;-) I haven't come across any with Index numbers so far, but that's good to know :-)
Thanks a lot.
Excellent video. There were a couple times I had to pause and go back a second or two to make sure I was following right but I definitely prefer that to tutorials that go on and on needlessly. I hope next time I need to learn how to do something, that you've got a video on it haha.
Thanks for your nice comment :-) Glad I could help ;-)
Incredible useful and exactly as you described it worked. Thank you for your time, you have done good for the community
Glad I could help :-)
Thank you very much indeed !! That's exactly how a "how to" should be. Your time is much appreciated ! 🙏
Thank you :-) Glad I could help ;-)
This is GREAT! Works exactly as described! Saved me lots of time. Thank you!
Thanks :-D Glad I could help :-)
Thankyou sooooooo much, i was given a load of audio books on a USB and all of them were m4b files which my car didnt recognise after tryign several websites whicha ll wanted me to pay to convert them to mp3 i found your video.
Glad I could help :-)
incredibly helpful! Thanks! Also appreciated the clean format, really great!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Took me ages to figure this out, wish I'd found your vid earlier. Thanks :)
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This worked great! I already had foobar2000, I just needed LAME as well.
Glad I could help :-)
Yay! Thank you. I was using VLC to convert to MP3, and then was going to use mp3split to split according to my .cue file ... all way too complicated, especially since my audiobook was only 30 bitrate haha. This is way faster and easier
Glad I could help :-)
Straight to the point, clear and concise, love it!
Thanks :-D Glad I could help :-)
You just saved my life! Thanks, foobar is amazing and practical.
Glad I could help ;-) It's a great program :-)
Excellent tutorial! I have a bunch of M4B audiobooks that are hours long and I've always wanted to separate them into individual chapters. I was using an audio splitter but I found that highly unsatisfactory. This is what I've wanted to do. Thanks!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Great Tutorial. Quick and clear instructions. Saved me a bunch of time. Thanks!!!
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Simple.. step by step. Much appreciated. Thank you.
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I must leave my comment, your converting method is awesome. Thanks for your contribution
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Thank you good ser! Help me out quite a bit. Much love
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Thank you very much. You explained very well, easy to follow and works flawlessly.
Thank you for your comment :-D Glad I could help :-)
Thank you! Very helpful even if it is a 4 year old video. Everything worked as it should.
Glad I could help :-)
outstanding. right to the point, a perfect runthrough. thanks!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Thank you so much for this amazing, clear and straight to the point tutorial
Thank you for your nice comment :-D Glad I could help :-)
Dood this helped me tons! Very good instruction without the fluff. THANK YOU!!
Thank you :-) Glad I could help :-D
Finally something helpful... thank you good sir!
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This is exactly what I need. Thank you very much!
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A REALLY well explained and easy to follow process. Cheers
Thanks :-) Glad I could help :-D
great tutorial. i just listen to the M4b files audio using foodbar as an audio player
Thank you ;-) Glad I could help :-) Foobar is great, there are loads of plugins for other formats too.
Just what I needed! Thank you so much!
Glad I could help :-)
YOU ARE THE MVP!!! Thank you very much for your tutorial!
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Well done sir!
(Now I feel a right twat for finding this video, NOT watching it first, and spending an hour manually creating cue sheets from the m4b metadata to split with!)
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finally a good tutorial that helps
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first time ever that ive been able to follow along and something work like it shows... KUDOS
Thank you Shane :-) Glad I could help ;-)
Anyone know how to do this on a Mac? There is no "convert" command in Foobar, and also I wouldn't know how to move Lame into the Foobar directory because there isn't one (at least I cannot find one), only the Foobar app gets installed.
If you really wanted you could use VirtualBox and install Windows into a virtual machine.
excellent video perfect explanation, exactly what I needed, thank you
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Thank you! This was incredibly helpful and easy to understand.
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Thanks 👍😊
Btw I really like your voice. 😂 hope that's not weird 🙊
Ha ha, thanks :-D Glad I could help :-)
top 10 most useful videos on the internet
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worked perfectly - thank you so much!
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Now that was helpful. Thx a lot.
Glad I Could help :-)
Really helpful guide. One problem I had was that all track numbers were an identical "01". You can get round this by using %List_index% instead of %track% in the Name formatting section.
Glad I could help :-) Thanks for the tip; I'll check it out :-D
Best tutorial out there
Thank you :-) Glad I could help ;-)
This video is Godsend! Thank you very much!
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Worked a treat. Thanks...
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Big thumbs up. Thanks!
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
worked perfectly thanks for the tutorial
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Thanks man it really helped, Thanks a lot.
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Great work. Thanks a bunch. Easy, to the point and no hassle. Keep up the good work :-)
Thank you :-D Glad I could help :-)
Thanks for this! Helped me a lot💕
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Thanks.this was great.now I can enjoy audio books.
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Wow! Worked great! Thanks much!
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Thanks man that was very helpful
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this is great, thank you!
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you are a life saver!!
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Thanks man. Big help.
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You're awesome, thanks!
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Perfect, just what I wanted
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Thank you very much. Thumbs up and subscribed.
Thank you :-D Glad I could help ;-)
Thank you, just what i needed.
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Great tutorial!
Thanks :-D Glad I could help :-)
You're awesome, thanks a lot
Thank you :-) Glad I could help ;-)
Great video dude
Thanks :-D
How do you do the opposite? Make multi mp3's into m4b with chapters?
Thank you very much
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Much appreciated.
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the best i can find thank you.
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Thank you 👍
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Class, thanks!
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Unable to open source file: Unsupported format or corrupted file (cannot find audio track to decode)
Conversion failed: Unsupported format or corrupted file (cannot find audio track to decode)
I take it this is due to it being (protected)?
Hi, yes unfortunately it sounds like it. Depending on where it came from you may be able to choose a different source format; some stores allow burning of CDs and in those cases the format has no protection; so could then convert from the CD format.
great job bud
Thanks :-D Glad I could help :-)
you are a legend
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Thank you SOOOO much!
Glad I could help :-D
I already have my audiobooks as mp3 files, I just need them split into chapters. I tried dragging and dropping them into the Foobar app but it did not automatically split them into chapters :/ Any suggestions?
Hi there are a few tools that will split your file into separate MP3 files such as mp3splt.sourceforge.net/mp3splt_page/home.php this will split without effecting the quality.
Thanks for the video, it was helpful. One question: I have an m4b file that has more than 255 chapters but foobar2000 doesn’t seem to be able to do more than that (the first 254 chapters are fine and the rest of the m4b is lumped in the last mp3 file). Any ideas?
Hi, I have since discovered another method, although I haven't fully tested it. This tool www.freac.org/en/downloads-mainmenu-33 should be able to convert the file by simply dragging it into the window and changing the output (use the zip version). I may create a video on how to use this some time.
I don't have any m4b files that contain that many chapters so I'm not sure if your file will work but hopefully it does :-)
@@AronAlliston That worked like a charm! Thanks so much!
@@Lairor Good to know :-) Glad I could help ;-)
Thanks a lot!!
Glad I could help :-)
Thanks man
Glad I could help ;-)
Apparently this does not work with M4B from iTunes. They have their own codec, and foobar doesn't recognize it.
Hi, it could be that the files are DRM protected. I don't have any iTunes files to test but I suspect that's the case.
Thank you Aron
Glad I could help :-)
My audiobook is in AAX and it doesn't work:( how do I get the other format? And I don't have the lame as folder but as a zip with WinRar
Hi, I think AAX is for an Audible Audio Book format, these are often copyright protected files. Unfortunately these will probably contain DRM that prevents the files from bring converted.
good video but for some reason when i imported my m4b file it did not split up in to chapters like it did for you. it is still showing as one big file with 5 hour play time
Hi, in this case it's likely the m4b file may not contain any embedded chapters, or the file could be DRM protected.
Thanks man!
:-D Glad I could help ;-)
After I selected convert a “Converter Status Report” popped up saying “260 out of 260 tracks converted with major problems. Conversion failed. Unsupported format or corrupted file.” Any ideas on what to do?
Hi, I wonder if your source files may be copyright protected?
Is there a way to split without quality loss? There is a Mp3DirectCut which allows to split mp3 files but it can't open m4b
Hi, Mp3DirectCut also supports AAC but I haven't tried it with m4b, there may be a way to convert m4b to AAC without re-encoding (this would probably remove the chapter information) but you may then be able to split the AAC.
@@AronAlliston I've failed to open AAC in Mp3DirectCut, but I've found another one pretty nice app - LosslessCut. It's free, open-source, basically it's GUI around ffmpeg, and it allows not only lossless splitting/merging of audio and video files, but also extracting audio tracks from video files, adding new tracks, exporting timestamps (chapters) to various formats and other stuff.
@@Gett37 Thanks :-) I have also used LosslessCut it is very good. Did it manage to split the m4b files for you?
@@AronAlliston Yes, but it turned out I don't need multiple m4b files, so with Losslescut I've extracted timestamps from .m4b and used it to split similar .mp3 file with MP3DirectCut, because mp3dc writes id3v tags to result files, and lossslesscut doesn't.
@@Gett37 Ah, very nice, a good solution in the end :-)
can u tell me how to split an mp3 file into chapters the step before this video ?
Hi, as far as I know MP3 files don't contain chapters (as markers within a file), but you can split the file at specific points and there is software that can look for quiet parts and set a split point that way; I've been meaning to create a video about this. Hopefully I'll put it up some time soon :-)
I just want to point out that Malwarebytes blocks the rarewares LAME page citing it has a trojan.
That's worrying, I suspect it is a false positive, but best to be safe. The LAME codec file should be fine, but like anything from the internet scan with antivirus etc. to be sure :-) I have had no issues with the file myself ;-)
how do you do this on a Mac version? There is no "Convert" option when you right click...
Hi, unfortunately I don't have a Mac that can run the latest version so I don't really know. Hopefully someone else may see you comment and offer some advice :-)
I am experiencing the same problem and can't find any other way to convert m4b to mp3 (with chapters), did you find a solution to his?
DeaDBeeF in Linux works similarly to foobar. I see there is a Mac version. Perhaps that would work?
deadbeef.sourceforge.io/
@@chuggerguy Tried...keeps crashing