Archive vs Remove From Device: What’s best option in Audible?

Once you have finished an Audible book, it is always a good idea to either archive the title or remove it from your device.

Removing the title will delete the audiobook from your device, while the book cover stays visible in your account’s library section.

Archiving a title means it is moved from your Library list to the Archive folder.

Let’s understand the Archive and Remove from Device features in detail.

Option 1: The “Archive” Feature

What does archive this title mean in Audible

Archiving a title removes it from your account’s “Library” list and relegates it to the “Archive” folder, helping you with decluttering your Audible Library.

You still own the archived book and can unarchive and listen to it anytime you want.

Consider the archive feature as a box of books in your basement. You own the books and they are always there if you need them but you do not see them every day and they do not take storage space on your library shelf.

Note: Archiving a title removes it from your view in the Library section. When you unarchive a title, its back in your account’s Library section again

Archiving is a useful option for users who have a large collection of books. It helps you clean up and manage your library section.

If you have hundreds of books from various series, it is easy to get confused about which books you have listened to and which one is next.

How to archive Audible books

Follow these simple steps to archive an audiobook in the Audible app

• Open the Audible app on your device
• Go to the Library section from the bottom navigation bar
• Either long-press on the title that you want to archive or tap on the ellipses option ( 3 dots) in front of the title

• Tap on Archive this title from the list of options

The book is now archived. This method works on both iOS and Android devices.

Here is a short video to show you how to archive an Audible book.

What happens when you archive an Audible book

So, where do archived Audible books go? and how to find the archived titles?

Well, the archived titles are moved to the Archive folder in your Audible app.

To access the archive folder, follow these steps

• Open the Audible app
• Tap on the Library option from the bottom navigation bar
• Tap Collections on the top navigation bar
• The Archive folder will show in the list

You can tap on the Archive folder to access all archived books.

Does Archiving Audible Books Save Space

The main function of archiving is to remove the title from your view in the Library section and move it to the archive folder. It does not help with saving space on your device.

Note: If the book is already downloaded on your device, you can always use the ‘remove from device‘ option to delete it from your device before archiving a title.

You will be amazed at how fast audiobooks pile up and your library grows. The next thing you know, audiobooks are using most of your device’s storage space.

On average, each hour of audiobooks requires 28 to 30 MB of storage space. If you download a 9-hour book, it will take up 280 to 300 MB of storage space.

While shorter audiobooks take up less space, lengthy novels and series use lots of storage space.

3 Reasons to Archive Audible Books

As mentioned earlier, it is always a good idea to archive the finished books on your device. The main reasons for achieving a title include

1: Manage Storage Space

An average Audible book takes 300-350 MB of storage space. It will not take many books to eat up your device’s storage.

The best way is to only download the 2/3 books that you are currently listening to and keep other books archived.

When you are ready to listen, unarchive the title and it will move back to the library section where you can download and listen to it with a single tap.

2: Declutter your Library

The primary reason for archiving is to help you declutter and manage your library section. It is a helpful feature for users with a large selection of books.

Related Article: 4 Methods to export Audible library list

You may have 50-100 books in your library from various series. It can be very confusing to figure out which one you have listened to and which one is the next book in the series.

Archiving a title will move it to the Archive folder helping you clean the clutter.

3: You can Always Unarchive the Audiobook

You own the audiobook that you have purchased (through credit or cash) forever. You can unarchive the archived books anytime you want.

You can also redownload the deleted audiobooks as many times as you want, at no extra cost.

Option 2: The “Remove from Device” Feature

The “Remove from Device” feature will delete the book from your device but the book cover stays visible in your account’s Library list.

You can redownload the book with a single tap to listen to it again.

This option is helpful if you want to free up storage space on your device. You can also archive a title after deleting it from your device to manage your library.

How to Delete Books From Your Device

Follow these steps to remove/delete an audiobook from your device.

• Open the Audible app and tap on Library
• Tap on the 3 dots in front of a title to delete it
• Tap on Remove from Device option

Using this method, you can delete an audiobook from your Android, iPhone, and other iOS devices.

Note: To remove an Audiobook from Apple Watch, launch the Audible App. Go to the Library screen and tap Edit. Scroll down and tap the Delete option next to the book to delete it.

The Remove from Device option deletes the book from your device, but the book cover is still visible in your account’s library. You can always re-download the book in your library section with a single tap.

Once the audiobook is deleted from your device, the book cover will change, featuring a small downward arrow.

How to Remove Books from Kindle Devices

The best way to remove/delete an Audible audiobook from Kindle (Oasis/Fire/Paperwhite and others) is as follows.

• Connect the device to your computer via a USB cable
• Locate the downloaded Audible books in the Audible folder
• Right-click the downloaded file to delete it and choose Delete.

The audiobook is now deleted from the Kindle device.

Auto Remove Finished Titles from Your Device

Audible app has an option to automatically remove the finished titles from your device.

To enable the auto-remove option on your device.

• Open the Audible app and tap on the Profile option at the bottom navigation bar
• Tap on the Settings gear on the top right of the screen

• Tap on the Data & Storage option
• Enable the Auto-Remove option from the list

Once auto-remove is enabled, Audible will automatically delete the ‘finished’ audiobooks from your device.

Note: You can enable the auto-remove option on both iOS and Android devices using the above method.

Can You Permanently Delete Books from Audible

Yes, you can permanently delete books from Amazon’s desktop website.

• Open Amazon.com in your browser and go to Manage Your Content and Devices page
• Select View: Audiobooks
• Select the audiobook you want to delete
• Click Delete and then Yes, delete permanently

This will permanently delete the book from your account. If you have the deleted book on any of your devices, make sure to remove it from your device.

Archive vs Remove From Device – Which Option to Choose?

As explained above, archiving an Audible book means

• It is moved from your account’s Library list to the Archive folder. This feature is helpful for decluttering the Library section.
• You can unarchive the archived book anytime

And remove from device option means

• The book is deleted from your device. It helps with storage space.
• The book cover is still visible in your account’s library list
• You can redownload the book anytime by tapping on the book cover

Note: You still own the purchased books and can add them back to the library if you archived them or removed them from your device.

My recommendation is to use both Archive and Remove from Device options to save storage space and manage your library.

Here are some of the tips to use the features effectively

• If you purchase a new book, do not download the book until you are ready to listen. You may want to keep your new books in the Archive folder or Library section
• Enable the auto-remove feature (as shown above) to automatically remove completed titles from your device. You can then move the completed titles to the archive
• Keep your library clean and only download the books that you are currently listening to

The purchased Audible books (through credit or cash) are yours to keep forever and you can re download them as many times as you want, even after cancelling your Audible membership.

Resources: Manage Your Library