How to Transfer Audio Books to an MP3 Player
By Andy Osborne
Audio books are a convenient way to take in a good story or nonfiction piece while doing any number of everyday activities such as driving, jogging or cleaning the house. Transferring your audio book to an MP3 player enhances the experience greatly, since most MP3 players are small, portable and have excellent battery life to last through a long tale. Keeping a few simple points in mind, you can transfer your favorite audio books to your MP3 player quickly and easily.
Transfer your audio book to your computer if you purchased the book in CD format. To do this, you will need software capable of ripping your CD to your computer's hard drive (if you downloaded your audio book from a website, skip to Step 2). A list of CD ripping software from CNET has been provided in the Resources section.
Find out what audio file formats your MP3 player supports. Check the file type of your ripped or downloaded audio book on your personal computer by right clicking on the files and selecting the option that displays the file properties. The MPEG-3 (.mp3) format works with most MP3 player models; however, some models may require formats such as MPEG-4. If the file format of your audio book is not supported by your MP3 player, use a file conversion program to fix this (see Resources for a helpful link).
Connect your MP3 player to a USB port on your computer. You will need the USB cable that came with your MP3 player, since the attachments for individual devices vary. Your computer now will recognize the MP3 player as a portable storage device and display the player on your main hard drive directory.
Check your MP3 player's available memory by right-clicking on the device icon and selecting the properties option. Do the same with your audio book files, and ensure that you have enough free space on your MP3 player for the audio book, since these groups of files tend to be quite large (often exceeding 1 gigabyte).
Copy and paste your audio book files into the directory of your choice on your MP3 player. For instance, many MP3 players come equipped with an "Audio Book" or similarly titled folder within the device's main directory. Placing your files here will help you keep your MP3 player organized and prevent audio book tracks from mixing in with music playlists. It might take several minutes to transfer the audio book to your MP3 player, depending on the size of the files.
Remove your MP3 player device from your computer and disconnect the USB cable after the file transfer process is complete. Your audio book now will be accessible on your MP3 player in the directory to which it was transferred, generally found under an icon of the same name on the player's display. Plug in your headphones and enjoy!