How to Convert Audible .AA File Format to .MP3 Format.
Saturday, November 8th, 2008I recently purchased Joe Vitale’s Attractor Factor (2nd Edition) from Audible.co.uk with the intention of using it on my Sony Walkman which plays MP3 files.
To download the audio I had to install Audible’s Download Manager and Media Manager which I found a bit strange as I thought MP3 audio files were MP3 audio files and could simply be downloaded and used as one desired.
After downloading the file I found that this was not the case. The download was one huge 92MB file with a .AA extension. Having worked in software development for over 25 years I was quite surprised to come across a file extension that I had not seen before. And before you ask, I did not get excited about it, just surprised.
Anyway, the next was to get the audio onto my Walkman, so I loaded the AudibleManager program and there it was; 1 huge 92MB 6 Hour 42 minute audio file. Where were the chapters?… was my first thought. I clicked around a bit but could not find the chapters and then thought I’m going off track - I need to get the audio chapters on my Walkman first.
You can add mobile devices to the AudibleManager so I clicked on the “Add New Device” Link and found that the program wanted to connect to Audible’s site to download a list of supported devices. So I clicked OK and a long list of devices came up. I thought great, the Walkman is most definitely going to be in there somewhere and I found only one relevant entry called “Sony Handhelds” which I thought was appropriate as my Walkman is a handheld.
I installed the Sony device entry and the device name appeared as “Sony CLIE Handheld”. Not knowing what CLIE was I simply assumed that it was some generic abbreviation for Sony handhelds.
I attached my Walkman to the USB port on my computer, clicked on the Sony CLIE Handheld device entry and waited for the available space pie graph in AudibleManager to show the available space. This did not happen. I tried clicking around AudibleManager a bit more but simply could not get it to “see” my Walkman.
So I thought I’d call Audible in the morning to see what I was doing wrong.
THE MORNING:
Sharply at 10:10am, shortly after Audible open their phone lines, I called the company and told them about my problem. As soon as they heard the word Sony Walkman, the support person’s voice got quite stern and said that THAT was the problem. Audible did not support Sony Walkman’s. Thinking this was quite odd as Sony Walkman’s are very popular but trying not to be judgemental about what they supported, I told them that I specifically bought the audio to play on my Walkman and hence could I have a refund as the file was no use to me. That’s when the stern energy got stronger, and they said as I had downloaded it they could not give me a refund and said that I could write a CD.
I wasn’t very happy about this as I only realised that the Walkman was not supported after I downloaded the file but according to Audible, that was that. I had to keep the file. They did five me a bit of advice - to contact Sony and ask them to let Audible support Walkman’s. Who’s business is Audible? Theirs or mine?
If I did not already know that I could convert a CD to MP3 format files then I would have really lost it with Audible as just before writing this article, I had a look at their site again and still can’t find anywhere on it that says they don’t support Sony Walkmans.
So if you’re having similar issues here’s the formula to convert Audible .AA files to MP3 files for free.
1) Make sure you have downloaded the .AA file onto your computer using the Audible Download Manager (I had v 6.6.0.0) and you have to install, if not already installed, the AudibleManager (I had v 5.5.0.0 ).
2) Install iTunes if you don’t have it installed already. ( I had v 8.0.1.11 )
3) Load iTunes, Go to the File Menu and click on “Add File to Libary” on the menu, then locate and open the .AA file.
4) Go to the “Recently Added” Menu item in the iTunes Playlists menu, and you should see your .AA file and perhaps with a cover thumbnail image. Click on it.
5) At the bottom right of the iTunes window you should see a Burn button. Click on it and you will see a pop-up “Burn Settings” box.
6) In the box, make sure you have “Audio CD” selected and then set any preferences you want for your Audio CD and then click the “Burn” button.
7) iTunes may say that you will be writing multiple CDs or words to that effect, simply agree and carry on.
8) Insert the blank CDs when iTunes requests them on the top message bar.
9) Once you all the CDs have been written, download FreeRIP from http://www.freerip.com which is a Free CD ripping/conversion program, install and open it.
10) Now, As I had already set the encoding options on it which work great for me, I have simply put a snapshot of the settings below so that you can see what mine are compared to the default.
In FreeRIP go to the File menu, then Settings, then Options and click on the Encoding Tab and you should the default settings and mine are below.
NOTE: You may also want to go to the Output Tab and set where the MP3 files will be saved on your computer.
Once you have made the settings click OK.
11) Now simply insert each of your CD’s and you will see the list of tracks appear in FreeRIP. Make sure they are all ticked and then go the RIP menu and click on “Rip Selected Tracks to MP3″ and wait for the files to be converted and saved.
12) Repeat step 11 for each CD.
That’s it. If you have any feedback then leave a comment below.
Have fun.
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I have 32 Comments to the above Post:
Comment By ellwood at 1:54am on Nov 29, 2008 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thank you so much! This indeed works. I tried using Goldwave and Tunebite but I could not convert .aa files to mp3. It occurred to me that I could rip any other CD - but didn’t try it until I read this.
Sure enough - this sequence works beautifully.
1. Load the .aa file(s) into Itunes
2. Burn them to CD
3. Rip them back to MP3’s or any other format with just about anything. I used EAC which is also free.
Unfortunately it costs you quite a few CDs just to get mp3’s. I canceled my audible.com membership and will buy further audiobooks from Amazon for less money and less trouble.
Comment By Miguel at 4:40pm on Dec 15, 2008 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
I just subscribed to the audible service and now I’m going to cancel the service, The reason why, I just ran into the same problem you did with my Walkman player. Thank you so much for the info you saved me lots of time
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 8:59am on Dec 16, 2008 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thank you ellwood and Miguel for your good words.
In the digital age that we are living in and with the current use of mp3 file formats and sony walkmans, I really do find it very strange that such popular formats are not supported by Audible.
Comment By Ed at 4:02pm on Dec 28, 2008 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thanks for your solution, but it seems a bit too complicated and complex for me to do. I too called audible.com and must have gotten the same curt operator who told me it was all SONY’s fault. Come on, why does audible.com, now owned by Amazon not want to come to terms wih SONY to sell their books. Both companies are childish and hurting their supporters. It’s time for them to allow SONY MP3s to download the books.
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 5:14pm on Dec 28, 2008 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Hi Ed,
I understand that the article is quite long and even though there are 12 steps - they are very precise steps which you will find that you can do some within seconds.
Once you have downloaded and installed the Audible, iTunes and FreeRip Software, it should only take about 5 minutes to start creating the CD’s and then only about 5 minutes maximum to start creating the MP3 files.
Give it a go when you have a spare half hour.
Comment By Sheila at 12:12am on Jan 3, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Same exact thing happened to me. I only bought the Sony Walkman for 2 purposes - 1) to listen to audio books, and 2) to listen to the radio. If the audiobooks aren’t going to work I don’t know what to do. Should I return it? Or is there some other way I can download audiobooks onto this device? Also, Audible.com told me that when you turn the Sony off, it resumes at the beginning of the book; is this accurate? The associate told me that’s why the Sony isn’t a compatible device with them. I just don’t know who to believe!! Please help me if you can. Thank you.
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 2:20pm on Jan 3, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Hi Sheila,
There’s nothing wrong with your Walkman - it has been created to listen to music, audio books and in your case the radio.
It has been created to support one or more popular music formats such as MP3 but companies like Audible for some reason do not want to distribute their audio in MP3 format.
So, don’t return your Walkman, as you probably won’t find a better name than Sony, but make sure that when you buy audio books they are in CD format or MP3 format.
I’m not sure whether your Walkman supports the CD format, but with the FreeRIP software I mentioned above you can convert CD’s to MP3 format.
And yes, it may be true that when you switch off the Walkman, it may start at the beginning of the track. This is not really an issue apart from when audio books are created with only one file. So if you had an an audio book which was 3 hours long and in one file, if the Walkman started at the beginning when turning it back on then you would have to have remembered and forward to where you left off. This is nothing to do with your Walkman, it’s simply how and whether audio books or music are split into chapters which makes them easier to digest/listen to and forward or rewind to. Again this is to do with who created the audio book and nothing to do with your Walkman.
It’s a bit like having a CD with only one hour long track that you cannot skip to parts of. If that’s how it’s been created then yes you may have to start again when you switch on your device. With such an issue, you may want to download a music editing program such as Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Comment By Sheila at 12:53am on Jan 4, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thank you so much for your simple and honest explanation. As a result, I will not return my Walkman and will be able to listen to audiobooks as planned. I appreciate your honesty and your time in clarifying this.
Sheila
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 11:12am on Jan 4, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Not a problem Sheile - Thank you for using the site.
Best Wishes to You and Yours.
Comment By jl at 9:36pm on Jan 18, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Terrible - not only do I refuse to infest my PC with that worm of a program program iTunes, but who wants to burn 6 or 7 CDs, then rip 6 or 7 CDs, only to listen to an audio file that you already downloaded. Audible is garbage!
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 8:19am on Jan 19, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Hi jl,
Yes the thought of burning and perhaps wasting a few CD’s was not idweal especially as I simply wanted the MP3 file, but it was the lowest cost and only solution that I could find to do convert Audible files to MP3.
Comment By Gwen Smart at 7:45am on Jan 20, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
I can’t believe my luck! My experience was identical, with two exceptions. The book I had paid for and downloaded was Dawn French’s ‘Dear Fatty’ but I had not contacted Sony. I can’t remember now what I put into the Search Engine, but was astonished to find your Blog at about number two. I’m no technological whizz by any stretch of imagination and found your instructions simple to follow. I just had to remember to give each disc a different Album name. Thanks very much indeed.
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 1:26pm on Jan 20, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thank you Gwen for finding my method of conerting audible files useful.
I don’t remember why or if I had to rename each disc a different album name. If you can post feedback about your experience then I’m sure other people would find it useful.
Comment By mota at 8:44pm on Feb 10, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
You don’t need to burn that CDs. You can use Nero Essentials with audible and make nrg images instead burning CDs. Than you mount those images in Daemon Tools or similar program and then rip them as is described in step 11.
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 8:58am on Feb 11, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thank you mota. Your idea will do away with having to waste CDs (unless you actually want to play them on your CD player).
As far as I know Nero Essentials has now been included into Nero 9 which is not a free product, but it’s a great on.
So, for a free solution, you could use somehting like Alcohol Free edition or MagiDisc, or some other virtual CD/DVD software. Try searching download.com for “CD emulation”.
Comment By Fred Bueno at 9:31pm on Feb 15, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
There’s a lot easier and FREE way to do it now. This is NOT an AD as I don’t have any connection to the software provider, OK?! Download “iturns’ (free version) http://www.dvdnextcopyiturns.com/ , install the software, start it and then follow the usual procedure of burning CDs via itunes (arghh!) but now, select iturns as the burner. itunes will ‘record’ the CDs to iturns that will, in fact, automatically convert the recording to 192 kbps MP3 files!
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 1:44pm on Feb 16, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Hi Fred,
Thanks for the information.
For all readers - I think Fred may have given a way to create MP3 files without having to create CDs first, however you may still need to import your audbile audio giles into iTunes first.
Comment By Jason Bell at 12:28am on Feb 25, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
That sounds like an almost acceptable alternative. I read all of the above comments with a sinking heart, thinking that I’d made a big mistake buying the Walkman. I have 25 Audible audiobooks and did not relish the hundreds of CDs it would have taken, not to mention the hideous amount of time. I’ll start the conversion task tomorrow - Thank you Fred and thank you Bharat for this Blog.
Comment By Helen at 4:16pm on Mar 4, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thank you. I can finally listen to my audible books!
Comment By Paul at 9:57pm on Mar 4, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
OK I thought I was smart, but I can’t find the burn button on any of my itunes windows. The audible books are already in my library, so when I open audiobooks in my library the only think in the bottom right corner is the genius button.
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 9:47am on Mar 5, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Hi Paul,
On the left menu you should have 3 main menu items - LIBRARY, STORE and PLAYLISTS.
It’s is under playlists that your Audible audio should appear and as far as I am aware, it is only here that the Burn button appears at the bottom right.
Comment By Paul at 6:48pm on Mar 5, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thanks Bharat - you are of course correct!! I’ve now found it and am excited to try to convert
Comment By Phil at 11:35pm on Mar 6, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thanks Bharat,
Burning with iTunes even works for downloads that aren’t flagged with the ‘CD Burnable’ icon on the Audible site. These failed with a license error when I tried to burn them with Windows Media Player, so it’s good to have a solution.
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 1:34pm on Mar 7, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
That’s cool Phil - so it sounds as if all Audible files can be burned to CD, and then if required re-coded to MP3 format.
Comment By Ian Malins at 2:37pm on Mar 11, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Thanks for all the above info about using iturns seems to work well. However, is there any limit on the size of the book file. I have an audio book 8 hours in length and the system described above seems to stop after files of 3 hours have been converted to MP3. Any suggestions welcomed
Comment By Bharat Karavadra at 4:21pm on Mar 11, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
Hi Ian,
I’m sorry but I’m not quite sure where you say the process stops.
Which program are you using to do what (where it stops)?
Comment By Ian Malins at 10:57am on Mar 13, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
As per the advice above I have used iturns http://www.dvdnextcopyiturns.com/ to burn an audio book which has been downloaded from audible.co.uk. to itunes. The book is 8hours long but only the first 3 hours is converted to MP3. Also if you try to burn it again it says it is a one time only process and cannot be repeated. Any idea why the who 8 hours in not converted is there some sort of limit on the size of the original file?
Comment By Brian at 1:27pm on Mar 18, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
I am deployed in Afghanistan and the internet is spotty at times and I ended up sending Audible the same trouble ticket four times because my browser would time out and I did not know if it went through or not. I received three responses that boiled down to; one Audible is waiting on Sony to update their firmware so “Sony Walkman” model brand can be added to Audible’s list of supported devices or two they would be happy to e-mail me a list of supported devices that I could buy. Yea let me just run down to the local store and buy a new device that supports there file format. No wait I can’t do that hence why I explained in the second – forth trouble ticket why they might be receiving multiple queries from me. Thanks for nothing Audible. Thank you Bharat Karavadra for the work around.
Comment By VJ at 6:20am on Mar 19, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
This is sooo irritating. UI urge customers to buy amazon AUDIO CD Books and not audible. com .aa junk. Right now I am needing 3 of 4 books most are 4.5 hour and one is 8hr 50min.
after I get through copying these I am going to have to break them down on chapters and sub chapters (Ug this is soo flipp’n retarded to get what I need) I’m glad they didn’t fornicate the 4th book I needed as I had to get it from Amazon.com direct as a real audio cd set (Yay I actually have chapters and index on this one) grumble brumble audible ##$!@@#@# grumble. I should sell my efforts and give the MP3s away… (PS the author actually gives permission to copy and share it at the end of one of the books ROFLOL , Audible ripoff.. )
Comment By RJ at 3:00am on Mar 21, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
I’m an audible member for some years. I’m no expert. I use Tunebite to convert my books for a friend. Download from pirate bay, although i did purchase mine before finding pirate bay. One snag, it removes encription at real time only, if you stated itunes as default on joining audible, if u set default as media player then it converts twice as fast. I download books direct from my friens computer onto my ipod no prob but Tune bite will not recognise file when I try to unlock them. Hope this helps.
Comment By ck at 6:19pm on Apr 7, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
hi ian..
I tried it too but in my case..I couldn’t find the file after using iturns.. so I just did it bharat’s way, that is, burned it to a dvd through itunes. Its much more convenient. I manage to burn a 14 hour audiobook in a single dvd in mp3 format. I’m now dowloading the freerip software..hope this helps
Thanks bharat!!
Comment By Aaron at 8:57am on Apr 8, 2009 (GMT/UTC) | Reply
My Sony Ericsson W910i came with Audible built in i thought the idea of this was great, i immediately set out and made a subscription on Audible.co.uk only to be struck by the same problem! Why did Audible come built into my phone if it doesn’t work?
I can download the files over my mobiles HSDPA internet, in 1 hour segments but thats it. :S
Not really very practical.
To the author, if you can find any way of getting them .aa files into MP3 so i can quickly send them to my Walkman phone (without wasting hundreds of CD’s and downloading iTunes, could you please tell us.