Setting Up On-Device Audio Files

When viewing Bible text in the Hebrew Bible iPhone/iPad Application, one can also listen to an audio recording of the Hebrew Bible text (the audio readings are pronounced in Sephardi-style Hebrew and they are streamed from the Snunit Kodesh site (http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il) in Israel). By default, the audio is steamed over an Internet connection; however, some users have requested the ability to store the audio locally so that they can hear the audio when they don't have access to the Internet. With release 5.1 of the Hebrew Bible iPhone/iPad Application, it is now possible to (optionally) store audio files on your device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch). This allows users to either store the default audio files on their device or (with certain constraints) store alternative audio files on their device. These files will be played instead of the streamed audio files if they are present on a device.This is entirely optional and most users will probably prefer to stream the audio over the Internet rather than store audio recordings of the entire Tanach locally on their devices (the current audio files, if entirely stored on a device, will take up almost 2GB of storage). Users may however choose to store only specific audio files and not the entire set of audio files (for example, if you plan to read a particular book of the Bible and you know you won't have access to the Internet to stream the audio that day, you can download and install on your device just the audio files for that specific book).

The steps to install audio files locally are:

1. Download the audio files that you want to install to your Mac (or PC). The audio files that the app currently streams are available from Mechon Mamre(Book-by-Book MP3 Recordings of the Hebrew Bible section). If you intend to use different audio files, read the section below on the Audio File Requirements for naming convention and file type constraints.
2. Start up iTunes, connect your device to your Mac/PC and select the device in the left-hand side of the iTunes screen.
3. On the right-hand side of the iTunes screen, select the Apps tab, scroll down to the "File Sharing" section, and select the "HebrewBible" app from the list of apps that are displayed there:

1. Click the "Add..." button at the bottom-right and, in the file selection window that appears, go to the audio files that you downloaded in step #1 above. Select the files that you want to install on your device and press the "Open" button. All the selected files will be copied onto your device:

1. Disconnect from iTunes. You should now be able to play the copied audio directly from your device without an Internet connection. Just navigate to the Bible chapter that you want to read, press the "Play" button (the right-arrow in the upper-right of the HebrewBible app screen) and the audio will play. The app will automatically determine if an audio file is available locally. if it is, it will play that file. If it isn't, it will play the audio from the Internet.

NOTE: If you store audio files on your device and you have enabled iCloud support on the device, you will almost certainly want to disable iCloud backup of the HebrewBible audio files (as this can consume significant space in your iCloud account). You can do this by going into your device's iOS Settings app and turning off "HebrewBible" backup to iCloud (this is normally in Settings at iCloud/Storage & Backup/Manage Storage/DEVICENAME/HebrewBible).

Audio File Requirements

If you intend to store the default audio files (from Mechon Mamre), then the files already have the correct names. However, if you want to use alternative audio files (in "mp3" format only), then you will need to ensure that the alternative audio files follow the same naming convention so that they will be "recognized" by the app. For Bible chapter files (e.g. - "Genesis Chapter 1"), the naming convention is: "t" + BOOKNUMBER + CHAPTERNUMBER + ".mp3". For Bible Book (e.g. - "Genesis") files (which are played when you have selected to view the entire Bible book rather than just a single chapter of a book), the naming convention is: "t" + BOOKNUMBER + ".mp3". The BOOKNUMBER and CHAPTERNUMBER values are always at least 2 characters (so, for example, the BOOKNUMBER for Genesis is "01" and not just "1"). The BOOKNUMBER values that you should use are: Genesis("01"), Exodus("02"), Leviticus("03"), Numbers("04"), Deuteronomy("05"), Joshua("06"), Judges("07), 1 Samuel("08a"), 2 Samuel("08b"), 1 Kings("09a"), 2 Kings("09b"), Isaiah("10"), Jeremiah("11"), Ezekiel("12"), Hosea("13"), Joel("14"), Amos("15"), Obadiah("16"), Jonah("17"), Micah("18"), Nahum("19"), Habakkuk("20"), Zephaniah("21"), Haggai("22"), Zechariah("23"), Malachi("24"), 1 Chronicles("25a"), 2 Chronicles("25b"), Psalms("26"), Job("27"), Proverbs("28"), Ruth("29"), Song of Songs("30"), Ecclesiastes("31"), Lamentations("32"), Esther("33"), Daniel("34"), Ezra("35a"), Nehemiah("35b"). Therefore, the name of the file for Genesis Chapter 5 would be "t0105.mp3" and the name of the file for 2 Kings Chapter 3 would be "t09b03.mp3".