How to organise a local audio library

A local audio library has two layers. The first is the source audio in Finder, Files, or iCloud Drive. The second is the listening library that adds artwork, grouping, progress, favourites, notes, search, and playback controls around those files.

Keeping those layers distinct makes a collection easier to understand and safer to maintain. Your folders remain portable. Audely can then organise the same audio for listening without renaming, moving, or rewriting it.

Start with a folder structure you can recognise

You do not need a complex hierarchy. Choose folders that remain understandable even when Audely is closed.

A separated structure might look like:

• Audio/Audiobooks/Author/Book title/Part files
• Audio/Podcasts/Show name/Episode files

This works well when the two media types are already distinct. You can link the audiobook and podcast folders separately and identify each once.

A mixed top-level folder is also possible. When you add it as Audiobooks and podcasts, Audely asks you to mark audiobook files and imports the remaining audio as podcasts. New files in that mixed folder wait for classification during a later source scan.

Make ordering explicit

For a multi-file audiobook, track numbers, disc numbers, part numbers, and zero-padded filenames help preserve narrative order. For a podcast, useful ordering information can include a publication date, season and episode number, or a clear filename.

For example, 01, 02, and 03 sort more reliably than a mixture of 1, 2, and 10 in tools that rely on text ordering. Embedded numbering is better still because it travels with the file.

Avoid adding redundant details everywhere. A book folder already supplies useful context, so every filename does not need to repeat the complete author, series, and title when its metadata is accurate.

Improve metadata at the source when practical

Embedded metadata gives a player the strongest information about the audio. Before importing a very large collection, check a representative selection for:

• book, part, podcast, and episode titles
• author, narrator, series, and show information where relevant
• track, disc, part, or episode numbering
• publication dates and descriptions
• embedded artwork

Back up the originals before using a separate metadata editor. Audely deliberately does not rewrite this information in the file.

Correct the listening library without touching the files

Not every imperfection deserves a source-file edit. Choose Book settings, Part settings, Show settings, or Episode settings to correct library details while the original audio remains unchanged. Book and part editors include author, narrator, series, book number, and publication dates. Podcast editors use Creator, and episodes also have season and episode numbers.

Use book settings for shared defaults. A part’s own values take priority, and clearing an override lets that field inherit from the book again. Changing a part does not change its book or its siblings. Search includes narrator and series as well as titles, authors, creators, notes, and other audio details.

Mac provides bulk editing for larger corrections across selected parts or episodes. iPhone and iPad keep editing focused on one book, part, show, or episode at a time. Choose Edit metadata on Mac to work on selected parts or episodes. These edits do not rewrite book or show defaults. See Edit details for grouping, dates, inherited values, and bulk-editing controls.

Use separate audiobook and podcast views

Do not force all long-form audio into a music-style track list. Audiobooks need books, fixed part order, and progress across the complete work. Podcasts need show and episode browsing, played-state filters, and episode ordering.

Audely keeps those structures separate while sharing the player, queue, search, notes, chapters, speed controls, and sleep timer. Home also has independent audiobook and podcast scopes that you can arrange around the shelves you actually use.

Scan after changing files

When you add, move, rename, or update audio inside a linked folder, run a source scan. On iPhone and iPad, choose Scan folder from its options in Settings › Library. On Mac, use Scan all folders.

Folder information can report audio, non-audio, unsupported, unavailable, not-downloaded, and excluded files where relevant. This is the best place to understand why something did not appear in the library.

Remember that a source scan is not Audely Pro sync. A scan reads local files. Sync carries supported library information and listening state through the listener’s private iCloud account, never the source audio or folder permission.

Keep iCloud Drive files available when needed

An iCloud Drive folder can make the same source collection visible on several Apple devices. Each device still needs its own permission to access that folder, and an individual audio file may need to download before offline playback.

Before travelling, open Files or Finder and make sure the audio is stored locally. Test a complete book and representative episode rather than assuming every placeholder has downloaded.

Remove library items safely

Deleting a book, part, show, or episode inside Audely removes its library information and preserves the source audio. The source folder remembers the excluded file so a later scan does not immediately reimport it.

Use Reset excluded audio in Folder information if you intentionally want to import that source again. Deleting the file in Finder or Files is a separate action that removes the audio itself.

Grow the collection gradually

Test one multi-file audiobook and one podcast before importing everything. Confirm grouping, part order, artwork, chapters, and offline availability. Once that small sample behaves as expected, repeat the same folder and metadata conventions across the rest of the collection.

See Add audio and folders for the exact controls, or read how Audely supports audiobooks and podcasts in one app.