.m4b files
.m4b file
MPEG-4 Audiobook
An audiobook file that remembers your place and supports chapters.
What opens a .m4b file
- Windows
- VLC, foobar2000, Media Player (built in)
- macOS
- Books (built in), Music (built in), VLC
- Linux
- VLC, Cozy, mpv
What a .m4b file is
M4B is an MP4 audio file flagged as a book, which is what makes Apple Books and podcast apps store a bookmark and show chapter navigation. Rename it to .m4a and it still plays, but you lose the position memory that makes it useful for a twelve-hour recording. Audible's own .aax files are a different, DRM-protected format that only Audible apps open.
Converting it
A .m4b file is commonly converted to .mp3, .m4a, .wav or .aac. It is a binary format, so a text editor will show unreadable characters rather than its contents.
Details
- Extension
- .m4b
- Full name
- MPEG-4 Audiobook
- Category
- Audio
- MIME type
- audio/mp4
- Created by
- Apple
- Format
- Binary
Common questions
- How do I open a .m4b file?
- On Windows use VLC; on macOS use Books (built in); on Linux use VLC. An audiobook file that remembers your place and supports chapters.
- What is a .m4b file?
- MPEG-4 Audiobook. M4B is an MP4 audio file flagged as a book, which is what makes Apple Books and podcast apps store a bookmark and show chapter navigation. Rename it to .m4a and it still plays, but you lose the position memory that makes it useful for a twelve-hour recording.
- Can I convert a .m4b file?
- Yes. It is usually converted to .mp3, .m4a, .wav or .aac, either by exporting from one of the programs listed above or with a format converter.
Related pages
- .mp3 — MPEG-1 Audio Layer III The lossy audio format that made digital music portable, and still plays on ever
- .wav — Waveform Audio File Uncompressed audio — perfect quality, very large files, universal support.
- .m4a — MPEG-4 Audio Audio in an MP4 container — what iTunes, Voice Memos and most modern recorders p
- .flac — Free Lossless Audio Codec Compressed audio that throws nothing away — about half the size of WAV, bit-for-
- .aac — Advanced Audio Coding The successor to MP3 — better sound per byte, used by YouTube, Apple and broadca
- .ogg — Ogg Vorbis Audio The open, patent-free audio format used by Spotify, Wikipedia and countless game
- .opus — Opus Audio The modern low-latency codec behind WhatsApp voice notes, Discord and web calls.
- .mid — MIDI Sequence Not audio at all — a list of notes and instructions for a synthesiser to perform
- .m3u — Media Playlist A plain-text list of tracks or stream URLs — it holds no audio itself.
- .wma — Windows Media Audio Microsoft's music format from the Windows XP years, now legacy.
- .aiff — Audio Interchange File Format Apple's uncompressed audio format — the Mac equivalent of WAV.
- .amr — Adaptive Multi-Rate Audio The narrow-band speech codec behind old phone voice recordings and MMS messages.
Sources
- Media Types Registry — IANA
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place