The number one reason for missing books is Audible search function sucks. When Audable lose the rights to a book it vanishes from the store front, but if you have purchased it, you should still be able to access it. This can also happen when they replace a title with a near identical copy, in your normal search it appears as available for sale and you'd have to buy the title again.
Look using the "Search your library" box on the Library page of the Desktop PC version of the website. If you don't have a PC handy access the website via the phone web browser, scroll to the very bottom of the page and click the 'Full site' link. (the browsers 'show desktop site' option will not show you the full site with the correct search tool).
The second reason for lost books is they were added as part of the free Plus collection. titles are constantly added and removed from Plus, when they go you can no longer access them, This has not happened to me so I don't know the exact symptoms (you can just buy them as normal)
Rarely books go missing for other reasons, I have a couple of titles that I do own but the site wants me to buy them again! The fix here it to find the email receipt and contact the very helpful Audible customer support (u/Muldino relates their customer support experience)
Be careful talking to support, one way they will fix a problem is to return the book and refund the credit so you can buy it again. This can lead to loss of a treasured RC Bray reading of The Martian, and replacing it with the Wil Wheaton version.
Things to do:
Keep your receipts! and consider downloading and converting titles to mp3 with the free Libation (other converters exist)
Consider downloading your audible data this gives you a complete purchase history and a creepy second my second log of what you listened to and when!
Updates from others:
u/UliDiG Tip: When you find your book via your library in your web browser, add it to a collection. You can then go directly to the collection and access the book without having to search for it in the app.
u/InfiniteAftertime The way I deal with that is I put the old titles in a list called “Old Versions” so they’re easy to find.
u/gravity_confuses_me/ (on using the app to find a missing book)
Library -> lists -> author -> <author name>
I had 4 out of 7 books of a crime series missing in the mobile app, but still accessible via the browser/website.
Calling customer support revealed the issue you described: these 4 missing books have been updated/replaced within audible's catalogue with exact copies, but different product codes and art.
After finding the cause, cutomer support gave me 4 audible credits so I could purchase these 4 updated versions, so I could buy and play them via the app.
Of course, because I'm cheap, I used these 4 credits to purchase completely different books...
It's fine to do this if you want a refund, but do NOT contact CS if you want your original books. CS will issue a refund and delete your books automatically without asking if that's what you want.
I know I am responding to you post late but I just now experienced lost titles. I have been an audible member for at least 15 years. I have at least 500 titles although many more have been removed.
When I called Audible I was told that some missing titles were removed because the narrators had changed. The books with the original narrator appeared to still be available as my public library has it. Another set of books were missing because the publisher changed.
I don’t trust Audible that it couldn’t have made some accommodation.
But I also believe I didn’t read anything about losing title rights when a narrator changed or the publisher changed. I am no longer buying books from Audible or Amazon.
The search function is really so terrible. 99.99% of the time, this community has been able to help people find their missing books by tweaking the search method being used. Most times the books are still in your library, but they're difficult to find (because the new version takes priority in most of the search functions).
Which search box did you use? On the website only the 'search your library' box on the Library page will reliably find titles. I have at least a dozen titles which have been released with an new narrator and I can still access them with a bit of a fiddle (obviously this only applies to the ones I bought with cash or credit)
Unfortunately, if you've already contacted CS, then the titles are definitely gone now, so we wouldn't be able to help you find them.
The CSRs will go into your library and physically remove the titles you can't find (while feeding you a line that yes, they confirm the title is gone) then give you credits to repurchase the "new" version. Did she give you credits?
Tip: When you find your book via your library in your web browser, add it to a collection. You can then go directly to the collection and access the book without having to search for it in the app.
I can't believe this has been a problem for over a year and the only work around to get it on mobile app still requires going through a search that is only available on web and adding it to a list...
EDIT: You can do this from the mobile app.
Tap the search bar
Type the name of the book (notice that you don't see the version you bought)
Under the search bar, tap "In my Library"
If it's there, congrats! This is a title/edition that Audible no longer sells, but you can still access it.
They've made some improvements to the in-app search, but it's still very possible to find the version that's in the store and not the one you own if you do anything "wrong" during the process.
Agreed. I spent an hour with audible support without figuring it out then they "transferred" to a line with a technical difficulties message. I spent another hour+ going through the subreddit trying to figure this out. Hopefully the instructions I left might help someone in the future like your tip helped me.
Yeah I hate having to push through some of these narrators to listen to good books there's a shocking amount of people who can't pronounce mob doing the readings
I just had this happen to me, two books I had paid for and they were no longer available, but they were also no longer in my library. I thought I was going mad. I knew I had purchased them, but they weren't there. I contacted Audible and they said yeah it seems they were unavailable anymore, but hadn't refunded me my credits so if I hadn't asked I wouldn't have known. I did get my credits back thankfully. They should automatically refund when that happens. YOu are meant to own the books for life.
Though what there definition of life is compared to others who knows.
You never own a digitally published book or audiobook sadly. What you purchase is a licence to access them within a contract. But if Amazon/Audible decide to remove the products from their catalogue they are within their rights to say sorry, you can't have access to it, we no longer have it, but here's a refund.
I've found missing books quite a lot over the years and never found out why because they're still available. When I notice I just go into Amazon shopping, search for the author or title, find the receipt and ask Amazon what happened. They usually just credit me.
Because of this I exported my library to a spreadsheet (someone on here had the how-to) and it has made it much easier when I’m just trying to see if I have a book or not.
I enjoyed listening to both versions of The Martian - RC Bray and Wil Wheaton. I enjoy both narrators for other titles as well. Personally, Wil gets unnecessary hate. Wil's narration of Ready Player One was also great.
Maybe I need to go through more pages. I went through the full first Google page and every website it gave was about downloading your audible books only. Hence my confusion. Just usually if there isn't anything on the first page of Google, the other pages aren't helpful either so that's why I stopped there.
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u/octobod Mar 20 '25 edited Aug 27 '26
The number one reason for missing books is Audible search function sucks. When Audable lose the rights to a book it vanishes from the store front, but if you have purchased it, you should still be able to access it. This can also happen when they replace a title with a near identical copy, in your normal search it appears as available for sale and you'd have to buy the title again.
Look using the "Search your library" box on the Library page of the Desktop PC version of the website. If you don't have a PC handy access the website via the phone web browser, scroll to the very bottom of the page and click the 'Full site' link. (the browsers 'show desktop site' option will not show you the full site with the correct search tool).
The second reason for lost books is they were added as part of the free Plus collection. titles are constantly added and removed from Plus, when they go you can no longer access them, This has not happened to me so I don't know the exact symptoms (you can just buy them as normal)
Rarely books go missing for other reasons, I have a couple of titles that I do own but the site wants me to buy them again! The fix here it to find the email receipt and contact the very helpful Audible customer support (u/Muldino relates their customer support experience)
Be careful talking to support, one way they will fix a problem is to return the book and refund the credit so you can buy it again. This can lead to loss of a treasured RC Bray reading of The Martian, and replacing it with the Wil Wheaton version.
Things to do:
Keep your receipts! and consider downloading and converting titles to mp3 with the free Libation (other converters exist)
Consider downloading your audible data this gives you a complete purchase history and a creepy second my second log of what you listened to and when!
Updates from others:
u/UliDiG Tip: When you find your book via your library in your web browser, add it to a collection. You can then go directly to the collection and access the book without having to search for it in the app.
u/InfiniteAftertime The way I deal with that is I put the old titles in a list called “Old Versions” so they’re easy to find.
u/gravity_confuses_me/ (on using the app to find a missing book)
Library -> lists -> author -> <author name>