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[Bug]: A book's playback fails in iOS #1321
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adam (Adam Melkus)
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Reference: starred/audiobookshelf-app#1321
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Originally created by @bigbeka on GitHub (Dec 23, 2025).
I have verified that the bug is not already awaiting release
Yes
What was the Problem?
Playback of an audiobook fails with no errors, when playback is attempted STDOUT shows:
audiobookshelf | [2025-12-23 08:31:37.136] INFO: [PlaybackSessionManager] startSession: Closing open session "book name" for user "username" (Device: iPhone16,2 / v0.11.0). No STDOUT for opening a session.Downloading that book to iOS shows popup message:
Failed to download.Playback of this book works perfectly in a browser, both on desktop and mobile browsers.
Playback of other books in the iOS work perfectly.
I have rechecked the file permissions, audiobookshelf has full permissions to the audiobook files.
The book in question is
341ce306-6f38-4c40-a83e-f332bc53f713- see iOS logs below.Steps to Reproduce the Issue
Install the latest versions of the docker compose and iOS TestFlight and playback the audiobook that I have.
What was Expected?
Audiobook should play.
Phone Model
iPhone 15 Pro Max
Phone OS
iOS 26.2
Audiobookshelf App Version
iOS App - 0.11.0
Installation Source
Testflight
Additional Notes
@Vito0912 commented on GitHub (Dec 23, 2025):
Please include logs from the server side when you try to start this book.
Please also include the codec and container of that book
@bigbeka commented on GitHub (Dec 23, 2025):
Please read "What was the Problem?" for STDOUT of the server.
Codec and container (from VLC info):
NOTE: this book's codec and container information are identical to the books that DO play on the iOS app.
@Vito0912 commented on GitHub (Dec 23, 2025):
You probably have a too high info level. Try to set the level to debug.
The app tries to make the request. See
api request to api/items/341ce306-6f38-4c40-a83e-f332bc53f713/play failedIf there is any crash it should be reported.
Please also check if that item exists
@bigbeka commented on GitHub (Dec 23, 2025):
@Vito0912 thank you for your reply, I described this in my original post, the items do exit in the folder and the audiobook in question plays perfectly in the browser.
Crash logs are empty, I checked
/metadata/logs/crash_logs.txtThese are the WebGUI > Settings > Logs (with Debug level). As I press play on iOS, they repeat the same
Debugmessage:@bigbeka commented on GitHub (Jan 3, 2026):
@Vito0912 did you get a chance to have a look at the more in-depth logs above? Do you need anything else?
@Vito0912 commented on GitHub (Jan 3, 2026):
No, not really. I know I asked some questions that you indirectly answered. I just wanted to be sure.
It seems like https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf-app/blob/b2c2b625e3cf586562397f4c02e38059f2b8ef5c/ios/App/Shared/util/ApiClient.swift#L491 fails.
But the server correctly starts the session and should return it. I am not an iOS developer, so I do not understand the Swift code at all. From what it looks like to me, only a failed request should cause this to fail. Assuming you are on the newest ABS version, this should not be a problem, sorry.
I would suspect a bad codec that apple does not correctly support, but as it works in the browser this probably is no issue too.
The file is in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and not actually MPEG-3, which I am not sure, but as it is even older than MPEG-3 I assume it should be no problem too. The browser could support additional codecs, but is unlikley. Also ABS should transcode then instead of failing. So after all I have absolutely no clue
@bigbeka commented on GitHub (Jan 3, 2026):
Thank you for looking into it and for your long reply.
I have two other iOS clients who use ABS (latest iOS TestFlight versions), they are also facing the same issue. This specific book is in a series, 1 of 7 other audio books, which were imported from the same source at the same time and they all played back normally. All other 6 audiobooks playback normally on iOS client and on webUI.
I will keep this issue open, maybe it will get resolved in the future.