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About

Audiobookshelf is a self-hosted audiobook and podcast server.

Features

• Fully open-source, including the android & iOS app (in beta)
• Stream all audio formats on the fly
• Search and add podcasts to download episodes w/ auto-download
• Multi-user support w/ custom permissions
• Keeps progress per user and syncs across devices
• Auto-detects library updates, no need to re-scan
• Upload books and podcasts w/ bulk upload drag and drop folders
• Backup your metadata + automated daily backups
• Progressive Web App (PWA)
• Chromecast support on the web app and android app
• Fetch metadata and cover art from several sources
• Chapter editor and chapter lookup (using Audnexus API)
• Merge your audio files into a single m4b
• Embed metadata and cover image into your audio files (using Tone)
• Basic ebook support and e-reader (experimental)

Is there a feature you are looking for? Suggest it

Join us on discord or matrix

Android App (beta)

Try it out on the Google Play Store

iOS App (early beta)

Available using Test Flight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/wiic7QIW - Join the discussion

Organizing your audiobooks

Directory structure and folder names are important to Audiobookshelf!

See documentation for supported directory structure, folder naming conventions, and audio file metadata usage.

Installation

Docker Install

Available in Unraid Community Apps

docker pull ghcr.io/advplyr/audiobookshelf:latest

docker run -d \
  -e AUDIOBOOKSHELF_UID=99 \
  -e AUDIOBOOKSHELF_GID=100 \
  -p 13378:80 \
  -v </path/to/audiobooks>:/audiobooks \
  -v </path/to/podcasts>:/podcasts \
  -v </path/to/config>:/config \
  -v </path/to/metadata>:/metadata \
  --name audiobookshelf \
  ghcr.io/advplyr/audiobookshelf:latest

Docker Update

docker stop audiobookshelf
docker rm audiobookshelf
docker pull ghcr.io/advplyr/audiobookshelf:latest
docker start audiobookshelf

Running with Docker Compose

### docker-compose.yml ###
services:
  audiobookshelf:
    container_name: audiobookshelf
    image: ghcr.io/advplyr/audiobookshelf:latest
    environment:
      - AUDIOBOOKSHELF_UID=99
      - AUDIOBOOKSHELF_GID=100
    ports:
      - 13378:80
    volumes:
      - </path/to/audiobooks>:/audiobooks
      - </path/to/podcasts>:/podcasts
      - </path/to/config>:/config
      - </path/to/metadata>:/metadata

Docker Compose Update

Depending on the version of Docker Compose please run one of the two commands. If not sure on which version you are running you can run the following command and check.

Version Check

docker-compose --version or docker compose version

v2 Update

docker compose --file <path/to/config>/docker-compose.yml pull
docker compose --file <path/to/config>/docker-compose.yml up -d

V1 Update

docker-compose --file <path/to/config>/docker-compose.yml pull
docker-compose --file <path/to/config>/docker-compose.yml up -d

Linux (amd64) Install

Debian package will use this config file /etc/default/audiobookshelf if exists. The install will create a user and group named audiobookshelf.

Ubuntu Install via PPA

A PPA is hosted on github

See install docs

Install via debian package

Get the deb file from the github repo.

See install docs

Linux file locations

Project directory: /usr/share/audiobookshelf/

Config file: /etc/default/audiobookshelf

System Service: /lib/systemd/system/audiobookshelf.service

Ffmpeg static build: /usr/lib/audiobookshelf-ffmpeg/

Reverse Proxy Set Up

Important! Audiobookshelf requires a websocket connection.

NGINX Proxy Manager

Toggle websockets support.

NGINX Reverse Proxy

Add this to the site config file on your nginx server after you have changed the relevant parts in the <> brackets, and inserted your certificate paths.

server
{
        listen 443 ssl;
        server_name <sub>.<domain>.<tld>;

        access_log /var/log/nginx/audiobookshelf.access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/audiobookshelf.error.log;

        ssl_certificate      /path/to/certificate;
        ssl_certificate_key  /path/to/key;

        location / {
                     proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For    $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                     proxy_set_header  X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                     proxy_set_header  Host              $host;
                     proxy_set_header Upgrade            $http_upgrade;
                     proxy_set_header Connection         "upgrade";

                     proxy_http_version                  1.1;

                     proxy_pass                          http://<URL_to_forward_to>;
                     proxy_redirect                      http:// https://;
                   }
}

Apache Reverse Proxy

Add this to the site config file on your Apache server after you have changed the relevant parts in the <> brackets, and inserted your certificate paths.

For this to work you must enable at least the following mods using a2enmod:

• ssl
• proxy_module
• proxy_wstunnel_module
• rewrite_module

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName <sub>.<domain>.<tld>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyPass / http://localhost:<audiobookshelf_port>/
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} websocket [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Connection} upgrade [NC]
    RewriteRule ^/?(.*) "ws://localhost:<audiobookshelf_port>/$1" [P,L]

    # unless you're doing something special this should be generated by a
    # tool like certbot by let's encrypt
    SSLCertificateFile /path/to/cert/file
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/key/file
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

SWAG Reverse Proxy

See this solution

Synology Reverse Proxy

1. Open Control Panel > Application Portal
2. Change to the Reverse Proxy tab
3. Select the proxy rule for which you want to enable Websockets and click on Edit
4. Change to the "Custom Header" tab
5. Click Create > WebSocket
6. Click Save

from @silentArtifact

Traefik Reverse Proxy

Middleware relating to CORS will cause the app to report Unknown Error when logging in. To prevent this don't apply any of the following headers to the router for this site:

• accessControlAllowMethods
• accessControlAllowOriginList
• accessControlMaxAge

From @Dondochaka and @BeastleeUK

Forward Proxy Authentication

Users can be authenticated via an external proxy such as Authentik. To use forward authentication you need to set the following environment variables:

• PROXY_FORWARD_AUTH_ENABLED - enable/disable forward authentication
• PROXY_FORWARD_AUTH_USERNAME - the name of the header containing the authenticated user's username. For example, by default in Authentik the value would be X-authentik-username.
• PROXY_FORWARD_AUTH_CREATE - automatically create users if they don't exist (with account type of user).
• PROXY_FORWARD_AUTH_LOGOUT_URI - path to redirect to when logging out.

Run from source

See discussion

Contributing / How to Support

See the incomplete "How to Support" page