SoundLeaf
Find answers to common questions about SoundLeaf and how to get the most out of your Audiobookshelf experience.
SoundLeaf is a premium iOS client for Audiobookshelf, designed to provide a native and elegant experience for audiobook listeners. It connects to your self-hosted Audiobookshelf server and offers a beautiful interface with powerful features specifically optimized for iOS devices.
Read more about SoundLeaf in our launch announcement on Reddit.
Audiobookshelf is an open-source self-hosted audiobook server. It allows you to host your own audiobook collection and stream it to various devices. Audiobookshelf manages your library metadata, tracks your listening progress, and provides various features for audiobook organization and playback.
Visit the Audiobookshelf GitHub repository or the official website to learn more.
Yes, SoundLeaf is designed as a client for Audiobookshelf. You'll need to have access to an Audiobookshelf server (either self-hosted or one that someone else hosts) to use SoundLeaf. The app connects to your server to access your audiobook library.
SoundLeaf Pro is a one-time payment (USD 9.99) that unlocks:
There's also SoundLeaf Supporter, a yearly tier for people who want to back ongoing development. It includes everything in Pro, plus a tier of 33 app icons on four shelves (Botanical, Precious, Artisan and Nocturne), a Supporter badge, and a spot on the Hall of Supporters.
Everything else is free, including offline downloads, podcast auto-download, podcast transcripts, the ebook reader, the Apple Watch app, CarPlay, widgets and Siri Shortcuts.
SoundLeaf is a premium third-party client for Audiobookshelf, not the official app. The official Audiobookshelf iOS app is currently in beta testing through TestFlight, but the beta program is frequently full due to Apple's TestFlight limitations.
If you're looking for a fully-featured iOS client for Audiobookshelf that's available right now, SoundLeaf is ready to download on the App Store and offers a complete, polished experience for enjoying your Audiobookshelf library.
Yes. SoundLeaf Pro supports Family Sharing. When you purchase the premium upgrade, up to six family members can enjoy all the premium features at no additional cost. This includes access to all themes, Smart Downloads, and other premium features.
Family Sharing works automatically through your iCloud Family Sharing setup. Once a family member purchases SoundLeaf Pro, other members of the family group will see it available in their purchases.
What's in the app today:
Smart Downloads is a premium feature that automatically downloads audiobooks that you're actively listening to. If you listen to a book for about 10 minutes (configurable in settings), SoundLeaf will automatically download it to your device for offline access. This ensures that books you're interested in are available offline without having to manually download your entire library.
Yes, SoundLeaf supports downloading audiobooks for offline listening, free for everyone. You can download entire books or specific parts of your collection to your device, allowing you to listen even when you don't have an internet connection or want to save on data usage. Podcast episodes download the same way, and podcast auto-download is free too.
Yes. CarPlay arrived in v1.4 and covers both audiobooks and podcast libraries. You get Continue Listening, Recently Added, full library browsing with cover art, and playback controls. Since v2.1 you can also save a bookmark from the car, and tap again within 15 seconds to take it back.
Since v2.2 you can switch libraries from the car screen and filter to what is downloaded, so a car with no signal shows only what will actually play.
See the CarPlay guide for the details.
Yes. There's a library switcher in the app, so moving between an English and a French library, or between audiobooks and podcasts, takes a couple of taps. No signing out. Each library gets its own icon so you can tell them apart at a glance.
Press and hold the tab bar to switch library without opening the switcher at all. You can also switch from the CarPlay screen.
Yes, since v2.0. Browse, play and download episodes from your Audiobookshelf podcast libraries, with a playback queue you can drag to reorder and auto-advance to the next episode.
Since v2.2 every show's episodes are kept on the phone, so the podcast screens work with your server out of reach, and downloads finish with the app closed. When a show publishes a transcript, the player runs it along with the audio and a tap opens the full reader. Transcripts stay offline with the episode, and they're free.
Filters cover Unplayed, In Progress, Played and Downloaded. Per-podcast settings cover auto-download, keep last N episodes, Wi-Fi only, auto-delete after played, sort order and a playback speed for that podcast specifically. Auto-download is free for everyone. Podcasts show up in CarPlay too.
It does, and reading is free for everyone. If a library item has an epub alongside the audio, a Read button appears on the item screen and in the player.
The reader works offline after the first open, and you can set the font, text size, line spacing, page margins and theme. Your position syncs both ways with the Audiobookshelf web reader. You can also search inside the open book.
Full details in the ebook reader guide.
There is, as of v2.1. Send a book or a podcast episode to the watch from your phone, and the watch downloads it over Wi-Fi. After that you can listen with the phone left at home.
Playback speed, the chapter list, volume on the Digital Crown and headphone skip buttons all work on the watch. There are complications for the watch face, and a remote screen for when the phone is the one playing. Progress from a phone-free listen reaches your server once the phone is around again.
Managing it all happens on the phone, under Settings → Apple Watch: remove several things at once, set how many episodes a show keeps, and put back an episode you removed. A Downloads button on the watch shows what plays without your phone nearby.
See the Apple Watch guide.
It opens the page your narrator is currently reading. Tap it in the ebook reader while a book is playing and SoundLeaf takes about ten seconds of audio from your listening position, turns the speech into words on your device, and finds those words in the epub.
It all happens on the phone. No audio is sent anywhere. It can land a page or two off in books with repetitive phrasing, and reader search is the reliable fallback when it does.
Both, as of v2.1. The widgets are Now Playing with a working play/pause button, Recently Played, and a Listening card showing today's listening time, your streak, the week and your library totals. The sleep timer counts down on the lock screen as a Live Activity and in the Dynamic Island.
Siri Shortcuts cover "Resume my book in SoundLeaf", play or pause, and playing a book by name. Any of them can be wired to the Action Button. See the widgets and Siri guide.
When you first launch SoundLeaf, you'll be prompted to enter your Audiobookshelf server details:
If you're using HTTP instead of HTTPS, make sure to include the full URL with http:// at the beginning.
Yes, both HTTP and HTTPS work. If you leave the protocol off, the login screen tries HTTPS first and falls back to HTTP on its own, so a plain HTTP server still connects.
Typing it explicitly skips the failed attempt and is a little faster:
http://192.168.0.200:13378
One exception: the home and away addresses under Settings → Networking are used exactly as written. Those need the protocol on the front.
SoundLeaf requires iOS 17.6 or later. It's optimized for iPhone and also works on iPad with an adaptive layout.
Yes, since v2.1. If your Audiobookshelf server has OpenID configured, a Sign in with OpenID button appears on the login screen on its own. Authelia, Authentik, Keycloak and anything else your server accepts all work.
There's nothing to change on the server. SoundLeaf uses the redirect address that's already in every Audiobookshelf server's default allow list, so your admin settings don't need touching. The sign-in sheet keeps browser cookies, so your identity provider often remembers you and the next login is silent.
That's what v2.1 added. Set an address for your home Wi-Fi and a list of addresses for everywhere else. SoundLeaf checks which one answers and switches by itself, so you get local network speed at home and your tunnel or VPN address when you're out.
Setup is in the server addresses guide.
Yes, since v1.4. You can add custom CF-Access-Client-Id and CF-Access-Client-Secret headers for Cloudflare Zero Trust tunnels, and they're sent on every request including downloads.
Step by step in the Cloudflare Access guide. Tailscale works too, see the Tailscale guide.
It can land a page or two off, usually in books that repeat similar phrasing. The feature matches about ten seconds of transcribed narration against the epub text, and thirty-odd words are not always unique in a long book.
Reader search is the reliable fallback: search a distinctive phrase you just heard and it will take you straight there.
No. That's the normal resting state of every watch app, which is why it shows a grey dot rather than an orange one. iOS only reports the watch as reachable while the watch app is actually running, so a watch on your wrist with the app closed reads as asleep.
Anything queued for the watch goes through once both apps are awake. The Watch settings screen shows how long the oldest item has been waiting. Orange is kept for real faults.
Write the protocol out in full:
http://192.168.0.200:13378
Without it, the login screen tries HTTPS first and only falls back to HTTP after that attempt times out, so it looks like a hang before it works. Being explicit skips the wait.
If it still won't connect, check the port is right and that you can reach the same address in Safari on the same network. The connection troubleshooting guide goes through the rest.
Currently, there is no way to dismiss the mini player when it appears at the bottom of the screen. This feature will be added in an upcoming update, likely allowing you to swipe it away.
Most of the old list here has shipped. CarPlay, podcasts, the library switcher, OIDC, the ebook reader, Cloudflare headers, 3x playback, home screen widgets, the chapter progress toggle, the full In Progress list and the scrolling work are all in the app now.
Still on the list:
No dates. It's one person building this, and the list changes based on what people actually ask for on GitHub.
The development roadmap is now being managed on GitHub. You can check the SoundLeaf GitHub repository for the latest information on upcoming features and issues being addressed.
Visit the SoundLeaf GitHub repository
You can also follow the discussion in our launch thread on Reddit.
Feedback and suggestions are genuinely welcome. There are several ways to contribute:
The best ways to support SoundLeaf development are: