brayhoward/convert_aax_files.md

## convert_aax_files.md

      
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              convert_aax_files.md
            
          
    Convert audible .aax files to usable format on a Mac

First we need to get all our deps and then our Audible authcode as outlined bellow


These steps where found here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/222917/how-do-i-use-ffmpeg-to-convert-audible-files/243670#243670

Run these commands in your terminal

brew install chromedriver ffmpeg
sudo easy_install pip
pip install selenium requests
git clone https://github.com/inAudible-NG/audible-activator
cd audible-activator
sed -i '' 's,chromedriver_path = "./chromedriver",chromedriver_path = "/usr/local/bin/chromedriver",' audible-activator.py
./audible-activator.py
Then enter your Audible username and password and wait for a while for the eight character activation key to be printed


Save your key. Maybe in a .authcode file where your doing all this??

Then we will grab this fancy JS script @r15ch13 thoughtfully created for us


npm package url here

npm -g install audible-converter
Now you can run the script with your authcode to convert your files

audible-converter *.aax -a YOUR_AUTH_CODE
If you need to convert a bunch of files at once and want to store the audio and cover img in a single directory heres a bash function I created


It requires you to have coreutils from brew installed though

brew install coreutils
__convert_aax_file() {
  local full_file_path
  # realpath comes from brew coreutils package
  full_file_path=$(realpath $1)

  local file
  file="${full_file_path##*/}"

  # bash regex i don't really get for parsing title from audible file names.
  re="^([^_]+)_(.*)$"
  [[ $file =~ $re ]] && TITLE="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"

  # make dir if not third arg and not exist
  mkdir -p ~/Documents/audiobooks

  local full_output_path
  full_output_path=$(realpath  ~/Documents/audiobooks)

  local stash_path
  # dir path for new files
  stash_path="${3:-$full_output_path}/${TITLE}"

  mkdir -p $stash_path

  audible-converter $1 -a 589b8805 -p $stash_path
}
# convert audible files
# Deps: brew coreutils
# usage:
# > caf audible_title.aax
# or use file globs to convert multiple files:
# > cat **.aax
# output path is ~/Documents/audiobooks
caf() {
  for file in $@
  do
    __convert_aax_file $file
  done
}
If you want to convert files without the npm script

After that run a command like this:
ffmpeg -activation_bytes youractivationkey -i input.aax -vn -c:a copy output.m4a;mv output.m4{a,b}
If you try to use the ffmpeg command with an aa file instead of an aax file, it results in an error like Option activation_bytes not found. To download a book from Audible as aax instead of aa, choose "Enhanced" from the "Audio Quality" dropdown in the view for downloading a book.
aax files are encrypted mp4 / m4a / m4b files so the ffmpeg command does not re-encode audio and it preserves metadata such as chapters. mp4, m4a, and m4b are alternative filename extensions for the MPEG-4 Part 14 container format. One difference between the m4a and m4b extensions is that the option to remember the previous playback position in iTunes is enabled by default for files with an m4b extension but not for files with an m4a extension. iTunes also displays files with an m4b extension under audiobooks by default.
Anti-Piracy Notice

Note that this project does NOT ‘crack’ the DRM. It simply allows the user to use their own encryption key (fetched from Audible servers) to decrypt the audiobook in the same manner that the official audiobook playing software does.
Please only use this application for gaining full access to your own audiobooks for archiving/conversion/convenience. DeDRMed audiobooks should not be uploaded to open servers, torrents, or other methods of mass distribution.