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Hi,

I am looking for a Jellyfin client app that will continue streaming audiobooks when the iPad screen is locked.

So far I have tried:

Jellyfin Mobile - This will stream the audiobook but once the screen is locked it stops.

Finamp - this does not recognise or find audiobooks specifically, it seems to only look for a "Music" library in particular.

Phyn - I'm not sure if this works or not as it requires you to pay for it's premium version before it will play an audiobook.

I am aware that the Jellyfin Mobile app has an option to keep the screen awake, however this is not what I am looking for as I want to be able to lock the screen.

Additional bit of info, the Jellyfin server has the Bookshelf plugin installed and I have added the audiobooks per the recommended file structure in the Bookshelf docs.

Would love to know if there's a way to make this work. If not, then my follow-up scenario would be to find out if there is an iPad app that will play .m4b files locally that allows you to the lock the screen (i.e. transfer files from Jellyfin server to iPad local storage and play directly instead).

Thanks in advance for any replies

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[-] illusionist@lemmy.zip 8 points 9 hours ago

If nothing works: use audiobookshelf for audiobooks. I haven't tested it on apples, I have oranges.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 2 points 7 hours ago

Yeah I hate saying "use something else" but jellyfin really is not the right tool for audiobooks. OP is seeing the frustration now. Audiobookshelf is the way to go.

[-] B0rax@feddit.org 3 points 8 hours ago

There are really cool apps for audiobookshelf

For example the native audiobookshelf app (only available in TestFlight sadly)

Or Still

Or Plappa

These are the ones I have tried without issues.

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 hours ago

Use audiobookshelf for audiobooks.

[-] DownByLaw@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Plappa should work on your iPad and has Jellyfin support

Edit: Just wanted to add that I didn’t try it with Jellyfin, because I use Audiobookshelf.

[-] mootny@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

I used plappa on ios with jellyfin and it was the best I could find at the time

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 points 8 hours ago

Does VLC work?

[-] apexnadir@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 hours ago
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
10 points (100.0% liked)

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