Help - Apple Products
A PDF document of these instructions with images is also available.
Installing the Overdrive App
The first thing you will need to do is install the Overdrive App from the Apple “App Store”. On your devices home screen, you should see a blue icon with a circle and an “A” formed by a pencil, pen and a line. It is for the “App Store.”
Once in the app store, you should see a search box in the upper right. In the search box, type in “Overdrive Media Console.” You should see Overdrive listed in the results box that drops down below the search area. Select this.
After selecting “Overdrive” in the results area, you should see the icon for the Overdrive app. It is blue with a white circle on it. Select “Free”, then “Install.”
Next, please find the app on the iPad. It looks the same as the blue square with the white “O” on it as seen in the app store.
Go to the Library’s Digital Media Catalog
To start downloading eBooks or eAudio, click the “Get Books” button in the upper right hand corner of the app screen.
You will now need to select a library to download from. Select “Add a Library.”
You can type in your zip code or you can browse for your local branch name or for “Harris County Public Library”. You will need to choose a HCPL branch to access our catalog.
If you click on the star next to the library name you selected, the app will remember your library selection in the future.
Once you have selected a library, you will be taken to our digital catalog.
Downloading
While browsing the catalog on your mobile device, please be aware that you will only be shown the compatible titles for your device. You will not see the titles that cannot be downloaded to your device.
Next you will need to search the catalog to find and check out a title.
To download a title that you have just checked out, select the “Download” button.
To access any title you have previously checked out, click on the link for “My Digital Account.”
Next Select “My eBookshelf.”
Once you select “download”, the app will open and the download will begin.
After the title downloads, select it from the app menu and it should begin to play.
Returning a Title Early
To return the title early, or to delete it from the device, make sure you are in the Bookshelf screen.
Select the “Edit” button from the upper left.
After selecting “Edit,” a red circle will appear to the left of the titles in your bookshelf. Pressing the red circle will make the word “Delete” appear to the right of the title.
Once you press the red “Delete” button, you will then be able to choose to “Return and Delete” the title of “Delete without Returning.”
A PDF document of these instructions with images is also available.
You can return MP3 eAudio early using either the Overdrive App or the Overdrive Media console on a PC. Returning WMA eAudio and returning eAudio on a Mac are not yet compatible.
Returning MP3 through the Overdrive App.
1. To return the title early, or to delete it from the device, make sure you are in the Bookshelf screen.
2. Select the “Edit” button from the upper left.
3. After selecting “Edit,” a red circle will appear to the left of the titles in your bookshelf. Pressing the red circle will make the word “Delete” appear to the right of the title.
4. Once you press the red “Delete” button, you will then be able to choose to “Return and Delete” the title of “Delete without Returning.”
Returning MP3 through the Overdrive Media Console on PC.
1. Open the Overdrive Media Console on the PC.
2. Highlight the title to return by left clicking on it one time to turn it blue.
3. Select “File” in the upper left corner of the program.
4. Select “Delete.”
5. In the window that pops up, select “Return/Delete.”
Because of the lack of a screen for the iPod Shuffle, setting up this device works differently than any other apple device.
The complete instructions for setting up an Apple device can be found here.
The iPod Shuffle has a different setting than other iPods. In order for you to be able to transfer titles, you must select “Enable Disk Use". You may need to scroll down in the window to find the setting. If it is not selected, please select it and hit the apply button.
This should allow titles to transfer to your iPod Shuffle.
In order to transfer eAudio titles from a computer to your Apple device, you will need to have both iTunes and Overdrive Media Console installed on the computer. You can download Overdrive Media Console here. If you are transferring from a Mac, only the MP3 format is compatible. If you are transferring from a Windows PC, both the WMA and MP3 are compatible.
After you have installed these two programs, you will need to set up your Apple device.
First, connect your device to your computer and let it finish synching with iTunes.
The left hand side of the iTunes window should list the name of your device. It should be listed under "Devices." If you do not see your device listed under "Devices", click the triangle to the left of the word "Devices."
If you left click once on the name of your device, the preferences should appear in the main iTunes window on the right. In this window there should be headings for Device type (iPhone, iPod etc) "Version" and "Options". Look at the settings under "Options."
Find the setting for "Manually Manage Music and Videos." You may need to scroll down to find this setting. A check mark will need to be selected in this field. If there is no check mark, the titles will not transfer.
IPOD SHUFFLE USERS ONLY: Please make sure that the setting for "Enable Disk Use" is also selected. Next, select the “apply” button located in the bottom of the window in the grey area.
There is one more setting that is good to change when transferring eAudio titles to the Apple device. In the upper left hand side of the iTunes window is the word "edit." Click on "edit", then "preferences."
In the middle of the window that pops up, click on the word "import settings". Under "import using" it should say "AAC Encoder". Under "Setting" it should say "Spoken Podcast." Click "ok" to finish. This will cause the audiobooks to take up less memory on your device.
Whenever you import a music CD, you will want to change it back from “Spoken Podcast” to whatever it was set to originally. Music may have a slight decrease in quality when imported under spoken podcast.
After these settings are changed, open the Overdrive Media Console (with your iPod still connected). After Overdrive loads, left click once on the title you wish to transfer to highlight it in blue. Next, click on the "Transfer" button located towards the top of the program window. This should start the transfer process for you.
After the title is transferred, it will be in the “Music” folder of your device. WMA eAudio titles will be in the “Audiobook” section of the Music library. To access this, open your music library. Next, select “More” in the bottom window. Next select Audiobooks.
MP3 eAudio transferred from the Overdrive Media Console are placed in the general library folder in your music library, not in the audiobook folder like the WMA audiobooks. You can find the MP3 eAudio by looking for the title of the book under “album,” or the author of the eAudio under “artist”.
MP3 audiobooks transferred from the Overdrive Media Console are placed in the “music” folder on your iPod, not in the audiobook folder like the WMA audiobooks. You can find the MP3 audiobooks by looking for the title of the book under “album,” or the author of the audiobook under “artist”.
If you wish to move the MP3 eAudio from the iTunes Music folder to the specific “audiobooks” folder, please complete the following steps. (Note: If you don't see an “audiobooks” folder in iTunes, go to the “Edit” menu and select "Preferences". On the “General” tab, check the "audiobooks" box.)
- Connect your iPod to your computer and wait for iTunes to finish synching and backing up the files. If iTunes does not open automatically after connecting your iPod, please open the program.
- Click on the name of your device to expand your device’s playlist library. If the name of your device is not listed, click on the word “Devices” and see if it shows up.
- Click on the “Music” icon under your device’s name.
- Find the name of the audiobook you wish to move.
- Select all the MP3 parts of the audiobook you wish to move to the “Audiobooks” folder. You may hold down the Ctrl (control) button and click each part to highlight multiple parts.
- Right click the highlighted group and select "Get Info".
- A message may pop up saying “Are you sure you want to edit information for multiple items?” Click “yes” if you have only highlighted the parts of the eAudio and none of the other songs in your library. This helps keep them as a group in the “audiobooks” folder.
- In the new window that pops up, click on the “Options” tab.
- Under "Options," click in the checkbox next to “Media Kind”.
- Next, click on the drop down menu for "Media Kind."
- Change the setting from “Music” to "Audiobooks".
- Click "OK" on the dialog box.
The audiobook parts move to the "audiobooks" folder. You may now disconnect your iPod from the computer.
MP3 audiobooks transferred from the Overdrive Media Console are placed in the “music” folder on your iPod, not in the audiobook folder like the WMA audiobooks. You can find the MP3 audiobooks by looking for the title of the book under “album,” or the author of the audiobook under “artist”. If you wish to move the MP3 audiobook from the iTunes Music folder to the specific “audiobooks” folder, please complete the following steps. (Note: If you don't see an “audiobooks” folder in iTunes, go to the “Edit” menu and select "Preferences". On the “General” tab, check the "audiobooks" box.)
The audiobook parts move to the "audiobooks" folder. You may now disconnect your iPod from the computer.
- Connect your iPod to your computer and wait for iTunes to finish synching and backing up the files. If iTunes does not open automatically after connecting your iPod, please open the program.
- Click on the name of your device to expand your device’s playlist library. If the name of your device is not listed, click on the work “Devices” and see if it shows up.
- Click on the “Music” icon under your device’s name.
- Find the name of the audiobook you wish to move.
- Select all the MP3 parts of the audiobook you wish to move to the “Audiobooks” folder. You may hold down the Ctrl (control) button and click each part to highlight multiple parts.
- Right click the highlighted group and select "Get Info".
- A message may pop up saying “Are you sure you want to edit information for multiple items?” Click yes if you have only highlighted the parts of the audiobook. This helps keep them as a group in the “audiobooks” folder.
- In the new window that pops up, click on the “Options” tab.
- Under "Options," click in the checkbox next to “Media Kind”.
- Next, click on the drop down menu for "Media Kind."
- Change the setting from “Music” to "Audiobooks".
- Click "OK" on the dialog box.
