Because one life just isn't enough for your audiobook collection.
A beautiful, native Windows desktop client for Audiobookshelf. Built with WinUI 3 and .NET 10, Nine Lives brings your audiobook library to life with a cosmic dark theme, offline downloads, and seamless sync across all your devices.
- 🌌 Cosmic Dark Theme - Beautiful dark UI with gold accents that's easy on the eyes during late-night listening sessions
- 📥 True Offline Support - Download audiobooks and listen without internet. Your progress syncs automatically when you're back online
- 🎯 Smart Playback - Seamlessly switches between local files and streaming. NAudio for downloaded content, MediaPlayer for streaming
- ⏱️ Sleep Timer - Fall asleep to your favorite book with timers from 5 minutes to 2 hours
- 🔖 Bookmarks - Mark your favorite moments, name them, and jump back anytime
- 🪟 Pop-Out Mini Player - Keep playback controls floating above other windows while you work
- Download the installer from the latest release
- Run
NineLivesAudioSetup.exe
⚠️ Windows SmartScreen Warning? You'll likely see "Windows protected your PC" because this app uses a self-signed certificate. This is completely normal for open-source projects. Here's how to proceed safely:
- Click "More info"
- Verify the publisher shows "Static Hum Studio"
- Click "Run anyway"
Why does this happen? Microsoft only trusts expensive certificates from big companies ($300-500/year). As a free, open-source project, we use a self-signed certificate. You can verify the code is safe by reviewing the source yourself - everything's right here on GitHub!
- Launch Nine Lives Audio from your Start Menu
- Connect to your Audiobookshelf server in Settings
- Start listening! 🎉
- Open Settings (gear icon)
- Enter your Audiobookshelf server URL (e.g.,
http://192.168.1.100:13378) - Enter your username and password
- Click "Test Connection"
- Once connected, your library will sync automatically
Your 9 most recently played audiobooks, front and center. Because cats have nine lives, and you have nine audiobooks fighting for your attention.
- Beautiful grid layout with cover art
- Progress bars so you know exactly where you left off
- One tap to jump back in
- Grid or list view - Your choice
- Search and filter - Find that book you're thinking of
- Multi-library support - Separate your fiction from non-fiction
- Downloaded badges - See what's available offline at a glance
- Connection indicator - Always know if you're online or offline
- Chapter navigation - Jump ahead or back through chapters
- Playback speed control - 0.5x to 3.0x (because sometimes you need to speed through that boring chapter)
- Volume control with mute detection
- Sleep timer - 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes
- Bookmarks - Save your favorite quotes or important moments
- Source awareness - Shows whether you're playing from local storage or streaming
- Lock screen controls - Play/pause/skip from your lock screen
Because you need to work AND listen.
- Compact 360×200 floating window
- Transport controls (skip back 10s, play/pause, skip forward 30s)
- Progress slider with time display
- Always-on-top toggle to keep it visible
- Auto-closes when you stop playback
- Queue-based - 2 concurrent downloads
- Smart organization - Saved to
Music/AudioBookshelf/Author - Title/ - Pause and resume - Stop and start anytime
- Auto-retry - Up to 3 attempts with exponential backoff
- Progress tracking - Real-time percentage and byte count
- Cover art downloads - Optional automatic cover downloads
- Cleanup - Delete from the app to free up space
Your audiobook life, everywhere you need it.
- Auto-sync - Configurable intervals (1-30 minutes)
- Progress tracking - Syncs every 12 seconds during playback
- Offline queue - Progress saves locally when you're offline, syncs when you're back
- Smart recovery - Scans your downloads and rebuilds metadata when needed
- Manual sync - Hit the button in Settings anytime
- Server connection configuration
- Theme selection (System, Light, Dark)
- Default playback speed and volume
- Sync interval control
- Custom download path
- Start minimized / minimize to tray
- Self-signed certificate support
- Diagnostics logging
Built with modern Windows development tools:
- UI Framework: WinUI 3 / Windows App SDK 1.6
- Runtime: .NET 10
- Architecture: MVVM (CommunityToolkit.Mvvm)
- Local Audio: NAudio 2.2
- Streaming: Windows MediaPlayer
- Database: SQLite
- Dependency Injection: Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
Want to hack on Nine Lives? Here's how:
- .NET 10 SDK
- Windows 10 SDK (10.0.22621.0)
- Windows App SDK 1.6
# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/StaticHumStudio/NineLivesAudio.git
cd NineLivesAudio
# Build
dotnet build -r win-x64
# Run
dotnet run -r win-x64Note: You'll see 69 MVVMTK0045 warnings during build. These are expected - they're AOT compatibility advisories from the MVVM toolkit that don't affect functionality.
# Build, sign (dev cert), and run in one command
.\build-and-run.ps1NineLivesAudio/
App.xaml(.cs) # Application entry point and DI container
MainWindow.xaml(.cs) # Shell window with navigation frame
Controls/
BookCard.xaml(.cs) # Reusable book cover card with hover overlay
MiniPlayer.xaml(.cs) # Compact playback bar (bottom of window)
Data/
LocalDatabase.cs # SQLite persistence (books, progress, downloads)
ILocalDatabase.cs # Database interface
Helpers/
Converters.cs # XAML value converters
DownloadPathHelper.cs # Shared download path and filename sanitization
LegacyMigrationHelper.cs # One-time migration from legacy folder/vault names
Models/
AudioBook.cs # Book model with chapters, audio files, progress
DownloadItem.cs # Download queue item with status and progress
AppSettings.cs # User preferences
Library.cs # Server library model
Bookmark.cs # Bookmark with timestamp
ServerProfile.cs # Server connection profile
UserProgress.cs # Progress sync DTO
Resources/
Styles.xaml # Global styles and design tokens
Converters.xaml # XAML converter resources
Services/
AudioPlaybackService.cs # NAudio + MediaPlayer dual-mode playback
AudioBookshelfApiService.cs # Audiobookshelf REST API client
DownloadService.cs # Queue-based file download engine
SyncService.cs # Library and progress synchronization
PlaybackSourceResolver.cs # Decides local vs. streaming playback
SettingsService.cs # Persistent app settings
ConnectivityService.cs # Network monitoring
NavigationService.cs # Frame navigation
NotificationService.cs # In-app toast notifications
MetadataNormalizer.cs # Title/author display formatting
LoggingService.cs # Diagnostic logging
OfflineProgressQueue.cs # Queued progress for offline sync
AppInitializer.cs # Startup orchestration
ViewModels/
HomeViewModel.cs # Nine Lives data
LibraryViewModel.cs # Library browsing and filtering
PlayerViewModel.cs # Playback state and commands
DownloadsViewModel.cs # Download queue management
MainViewModel.cs # Shell and mini player state
SettingsViewModel.cs # Settings page logic
Views/
HomePage.xaml(.cs) # Nine Lives recently played
LibraryPage.xaml(.cs) # Book browsing grid/list
BookDetailPage.xaml(.cs) # Book info, chapters, actions
PlayerPage.xaml(.cs) # Full player with controls
MiniPlayerWindow.xaml(.cs) # Pop-out compact player window
DownloadsPage.xaml(.cs) # Download queue and completed list
SettingsPage.xaml(.cs) # App configuration
Clean MVVM architecture with dependency injection. Everything's wired up in App.xaml.cs.
This is currently a private project, but if you're interested in contributing:
- Fork the repo
- Create a feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature) - Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature') - Push to the branch (
git push origin feature/amazing-feature) - Open a Pull Request
- SmartScreen warnings: Self-signed certificate triggers warnings (see installation notes above)
- 69 build warnings: MVVM toolkit AOT compatibility advisories (non-blocking)
- OS: Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) or Windows 11
- Server: Audiobookshelf server instance (any version supporting API v1)
- Storage: ~60 MB for the app, plus space for downloaded audiobooks
Q: Why is Windows blocking the installer? A: This app uses a self-signed certificate. See the installation instructions above for how to safely bypass this warning.
Q: Can I use this without downloading audiobooks? A: Absolutely! Nine Lives works great for streaming-only. Downloads are completely optional.
Q: Does this work with [other audiobook server]? A: No, Nine Lives is specifically designed for Audiobookshelf. It uses Audiobookshelf's REST API.
Q: Will my progress sync with the mobile app? A: Yes! Nine Lives syncs progress with your Audiobookshelf server, so it works with any official or third-party client.
Q: Can I use this on Mac or Linux? A: Not currently - Nine Lives uses WinUI 3, which is Windows-only. A cross-platform version would need to be rebuilt with MAUI or Avalonia.
- Audiobookshelf - Amazing open-source audiobook server
- Microsoft - WinUI 3 and Windows App SDK
- NAudio - Fantastic audio playback library
- CommunityToolkit - MVVM patterns made easy
Private project by Static Hum Studio.
Made with ❤️ by Static Hum Studio
Because every book deserves nine lives worth of listening.
Nine Lives Audio is a trademark of Static Hum Studio. All rights reserved. See TRADEMARK.md for full trademark notice.
© Static Hum Studio — statichum.studio