Anyone have any idea about why, when I pause and then turn off my iShuffle in the middle of an audiobook, and a few days later turn it back on (non-shuffle mode, natch) and hit play, that it has backed up about forty-five minutes of listening time? There’s no way to jump ahead except by slow-forwarding — jumping to the next thing on the iShuffle takes me out of the book altogether, as it isn’t stored in chapters, but in one big lump. Why does it go backwards? When it’s off?
Anyone? Ta very much.
Nope, but if you figure it out I’d love to know. my iPod does the same thing, but not consistently, only sometimes. It seems to be more likely to do it (and go back further) the longer the thing is turned off.
I’m not an iPod owner, but my first guess as a semi-techie individual is that somehow, in “pause” mode, the iPod isn’t able to save a bookmark for where you left off the same as if you stopped while playing.
I may be completely wrong, but that’s what I would test first.
My Mini did the same thing. I agree, it’s maddening. I researched it in the Apple forums. Apparently there’s some amount of time (I don’t remember now how long) that it’s able to save a “bookmark,” but beyond that, it loses it. It has to do with the length of time that it’s turned off. When I’m in the middle of an audio book, but not listening every day, I try to remember to turn the iPod on at least once a day, and that seems to work.
I’ve had the same problem with audiobooks. I’m not sure if this actually works or if I just want it to, but I’ve found that if I hit “pause” before I turn off my Shuffle, it’s better at remembering where I was. (If I turn it off without pausing first, it somehow restarts at the place I started from the time before. Weird.)
I think there’s a more important question here: Why aren’t audiobooks distributed on multiple tracks? I’ve wasted so much of my life scrolling around, trying to find where I left off.
Oops! Clearly I didn’t read your original post clearly enough. You’re already trying the “pause” technique. Sorry about the redundancy.
I think your ishuffle bookmarks by chapter, much like the chapters on a DVD, though you can’t select the chapter yourself. Though you pressed pause at say minute 36 of a sixty minute chapter, when you hit play again the ishuffle only knows you’re on chapter 7, not chapter 7 minute 36.
but if it’s an audible book, it’s all in one big lump with no chapter markers at all.
my iPod does the same thing, and i agree — just try to remember to turn it on and off once a day and you should be fine.
yay for audiobooks on iPod!!
I don’t have a shuffle, but with the reg iPod you can hit the select button and use the scroll wheel to rapid advance (or reverse) through the file. Audible audiobooks are broken up into sections which you can usually see and navigate through when you hit the select button. You’ll see a diamond shape, and hashmarks on the file progress bar and you can use the next or previous buttons to jump to them and the scroll wheel to finetune your placement in the file.
This of course doesn’t help your Shuffle issue since you don’t have a screen to see this on and it may not work the same but maybe..?
I have no idea what any of you are talking about. Just thought I’d say that. Continue.
I don’t have an ishuffle. Believe it or not I still use my little, worn-out Otis which has maybe 64k of memory. My Otis is supposed to bookmark, but I’ve never been able to get the bookmarks to work. Fortunately, it never loses it’s spot when I pause it or turn it off.
I’m so glad for all of these comments, though, because I’m just days – or hours away from renewing my audible membership and getting an apple device with the discount. I kind of knew that I didn’t want the shuffle, because I want a screen. But, I’ll look out for the bookmarking bugs.
Does apple have OS releases for these devices that can be upgraded? It would be nice if they updated the little OS that the device runs to fix these types of annoyances…Maybe I’ll go investigate the device forums before I make my final decision.
🙂 I love audible, too.
Hey, I thought the next post was gonna be a Hotel Theory…
Just want to say: I’m with Iris on this one. 🙂
Your audiobook file may not be bookmarkable. There is a script available to try and see if that is the case.