User profile for user: dcmini
dcmini Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

How can I verify the source of some older audiobooks (purchased in 2009/2010)

Recently I noticed that some audiobooks titles are missing from my Apple Books library. However, after some searching online, and mounting up an old backup drive. I found copies of the audiobooks in the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/Audiobooks


The books that are missing from my Books app library are all in folders that start with "sha1-<hash>" and then in that folder are the plaintext names of the audiobooks with an ".aa" suffix.


So the question is, are these valid purchased audiobooks, back from when Apple had a partnership with Audible? (Fairplay DRM?)


I have metadata for the books with parent_id/product_id and prices paid. But I can't find any purchase history on the Apple side (I also checked with Audible - no record of purchasing the books with them either).


What should I do next? If I try to play one of the files or import it into Books, Books takes me through an attempt to authorize the audiobooks through Audible which fails. I'd like to find some way to recover these without re-bying ~$100 worth of books.

iPhone 14, iOS 26

Posted on Nov 3, 2025 6:27 AM

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8 replies
User profile for user: Ingo2711
Ingo2711
User level: Level 9
79,437 points

Nov 3, 2025 9:33 AM in response to dcmini

You might have to buy them again, if you did not back them up somehow in Time Machine on a Mac, for example.


I found these notes on the Legal - Apple Media Services - Apple page:


...

- Purchased Content will generally remain available for you to download, redownload, or otherwise access from Apple. Though it is unlikely, subsequent to your purchase, Content may be removed from the Services and become unavailable for further download or access from Apple (for instance, because Apple loses its right from the Content provider to make it available). To ensure your ability to continue enjoying Content, we encourage you to download all purchased Content to a device in your possession and to back it up.

...

Content also may be removed from our Services at any time (for instance, because Apple loses its right from the Content provider to make it available), after which it cannot be downloaded, redownloaded, or otherwise accessed from Apple. We encourage you to back up your Content regularly.

...



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User profile for user: dcmini
dcmini Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Nov 3, 2025 10:42 AM in response to Ingo2711

From other sources that I found the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/Audiobooks folder is a backup (or sandbox) that was used for a while as the transition from iTunes to separate apps like Music, Apple TV and Books occurred. The "missing" audiobooks are in there, but I guess something is missing (original iTune key for fairplay DRM?) and now the Books app won't allow me to lay them. I am able to use ffprobe to see the metadata. It has the title, pubdate, ID#s and even the number of times the audiobooks was listened too.

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How can I verify the source of some older audiobooks (purchased in 2009/2010)

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