starred/audiobookshelf
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf.git synced 2026-05-30 23:40:40 +02:00
Code Issues 1.0k Packages Projects Releases 10 Wiki Activity

[Enhancement]: Support for .nfo files encoded in ISO-8859-1 / non-UTF-8 #3030

New Issue
Open
opened 2026-04-25 00:13:05 +02:00 by adam · 0 comments
adam commented 2026-04-25 00:13:05 +02:00
Owner
Copy Link
Copy Source

Originally created by @wihauan on GitHub (Oct 8, 2025).

Type of Enhancement

Support for .nfo files encoded in ISO-8859-1 / non-UTF-8

Describe the Feature/Enhancement

Currently, Audiobookshelf assumes that .nfo files are encoded in UTF-8. This can lead to garbled or incorrect characters when users have metadata files in ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) or other non-UTF-8 encodings, which is common for older or Windows-generated .nfo files.

The requested enhancement is for Audiobookshelf to detect and correctly read .nfo files in different encodings, such as ISO-8859-1, without requiring users to manually convert their files to UTF-8. This would allow all special characters (e.g., accented letters, symbols) in book metadata to display correctly in the interface, improving the library scanning experience and metadata accuracy.

Why would this be helpful?

Many users maintain their audiobook libraries with .nfo files exported from older systems, Windows applications, or other tools that use ISO-8859-1 or similar encodings instead of UTF-8. Currently, these files display garbled characters in Audiobookshelf, making metadata like author names, titles, or series unreadable.

Supporting non-UTF-8 .nfo files would:

Ensure all characters are displayed correctly, improving readability and metadata accuracy.

Save users from manually converting .nfo files to UTF-8 before adding them to their library.

Make Audiobookshelf more compatible with existing audiobook collections and metadata tools.

This would significantly improve the user experience for those with older or non-UTF-8 metadata files.

Future Implementation (Screenshot)

A possible future implementation could involve Audiobookshelf detecting the character encoding of .nfo files when scanning the library and automatically decoding them correctly. The system would default to UTF-8 but fallback to ISO-8859-1 (or similar legacy encodings) if UTF-8 decoding fails. This would ensure that metadata is correctly read and displayed without requiring manual conversion by the user.

Audiobookshelf Server Version

2.30.0

Current Implementation (Screenshot)

No response

Originally created by @wihauan on GitHub (Oct 8, 2025). ### Type of Enhancement Support for .nfo files encoded in ISO-8859-1 / non-UTF-8 ### Describe the Feature/Enhancement Currently, Audiobookshelf assumes that .nfo files are encoded in UTF-8. This can lead to garbled or incorrect characters when users have metadata files in ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) or other non-UTF-8 encodings, which is common for older or Windows-generated .nfo files. The requested enhancement is for Audiobookshelf to detect and correctly read .nfo files in different encodings, such as ISO-8859-1, without requiring users to manually convert their files to UTF-8. This would allow all special characters (e.g., accented letters, symbols) in book metadata to display correctly in the interface, improving the library scanning experience and metadata accuracy. ### Why would this be helpful? Many users maintain their audiobook libraries with .nfo files exported from older systems, Windows applications, or other tools that use ISO-8859-1 or similar encodings instead of UTF-8. Currently, these files display garbled characters in Audiobookshelf, making metadata like author names, titles, or series unreadable. Supporting non-UTF-8 .nfo files would: Ensure all characters are displayed correctly, improving readability and metadata accuracy. Save users from manually converting .nfo files to UTF-8 before adding them to their library. Make Audiobookshelf more compatible with existing audiobook collections and metadata tools. This would significantly improve the user experience for those with older or non-UTF-8 metadata files. ### Future Implementation (Screenshot) A possible future implementation could involve Audiobookshelf detecting the character encoding of .nfo files when scanning the library and automatically decoding them correctly. The system would default to UTF-8 but fallback to ISO-8859-1 (or similar legacy encodings) if UTF-8 decoding fails. This would ensure that metadata is correctly read and displayed without requiring manual conversion by the user. ### Audiobookshelf Server Version 2.30.0 ### Current Implementation (Screenshot) _No response_
adam added the enhancement label 2026-04-25 00:13:05 +02:00
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag Specified
Branches Tags
Labels
Clear labels
authentication
backlog
bug
chapter editor
config-issue
ebooks
encoding/embedding
enhancement
help wanted
listening sessions & progress
planned
possible plugin
progress sync
pull-request
Mirrored from GitHub Pull Request
 sorting/filtering/searching
unable to reproduce
upload
users & permissions
waiting
No Label enhancement
Milestone
No items
No Milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
adam (Adam Melkus)
No Assignees
1 Participants
Notifications
Due Date
No due date set.
Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: starred/audiobookshelf#3030
Delete Branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?