Audible Archive vs Remove from Device: Which is Better?

By Adam Gorden Updated on June 17, 2025

If you listen to audiobooks on Audible regularly, you may have noticed that your device's storage space is filling up faster than expected. On average, each hour of audiobooks requires about 30MB of storage space, and if you have too many books stacked up in your Audible library, the device's storage space can fill up quickly.

So you may wonder what should you do when you finish reading a book? Should you archive the Audible books or remove them from your device? Which method would be effective to save storage? Go ahead, this post will give you the ultimate answer.

archive audible books

Part 1. What Does Archive Mean in Audible & How to Use It

When you see the option Audible "Archive this title" option, you may feel confused. Before we explain what it means, let's clear up your doubts with a conclusion: by archiving books in Audible, your main library view will be more organized, and you won't loss access to the books you've purchased.

What Does It Mean to Archive a Title in Audible?

You can think of archive as a basement full of books. Whenever you archive on Audible, you are moving books you don't read often or books you've finished from the shelves to the basement book archive. Audible's archive feature is just like that. These archived audiobooks will always be there, but you won't see them every day. If you want to listen to them, you can always unarchive them as well.

In the latest Audible app, "Archive this title" has now been replaced with "Hide this title" to make its purpose easier to understand. So now you'll know that "Archive this title" simply hides the title from the library without deleting it.

How to Archive Audible Books

Step 1. Launch the Audible app on your device.

Step 2. In the bottom navigation bar, tap "Library" icon.

Step 3. Tap the three dots at the end of this card.

audible library

Step 4. Select "Archive this title" at the pop-up list, then the book will be archived.

audible archive this title

How to Find Archived Books in Audible App

Step 1. Open the Audible app on your device.

Step 2. In the bottom navigation bar, tap "Library" icon.

Step 3. Find the "Collections" on the top navigation bar.

Step 4. Tap the "Archive" in the list.

Step 5. All the Audible books you have archived are stored here.

audible unarchive

How to Unarchive Audible Books

Step 1. Tap the "Collections" tab on the top.

Step 2. Tap "Archive."

Step 3. Locate the title you want to unarchive and tap the three dots at the end of this card

Step 4. Select "Remove from Archive" at the pop-up list, then the book will be unarchived.

audible remove from archive

Part 2. What Does "Remove from Device" Mean & How to Do It

If you're low on storage space on your phone or tablet, "Remove from Device" is one of Audible's most useful features. But many users ask: Will deleting a book from a device delete it permanently? Don't worry, the answer is no.

What Does "Remove from Device" Mean in Audible?

When you tap "Remove from device" option, Audible will only remove the downloaded audio files from your device to free up more space. You'll notice that even if you remove books from Audible, they remain in your Library view, with a download arrow icon on the cover to let you know you can re-download them if needed.

downloaded audible titles

How to Remove Books from Audible

Step 1. Launch Audible app on your device.

Step 2. In the bottom navigation bar, tap "Library" icon.

Step 3. Find the book that you want to remove and tap the three dots at the end of this card.

Step 4. Select "Remove from device" at the pop-up list, then the book will be removed.

audible remove from device

Part 3. Audible Archive vs Remove from Device

After you finish a book, archive or remove is a good choice. But you may not yet know when to archive audiobooks and when to remove audiobooks from your device. Here's a comparison table of "Audible Archive vs Remove from Device" so you can clearly see the difference between them.

Feature Archive This Title (Hide This Title) Remove from Device
Function Hides the book from your visible library Deletes the downloaded audio file
Saves Device Space ❌ No ✅ Yes
Loses Ownership ❌ No, you still own the book ❌ No, book remains in your library
Reversibility ✅ Yes, can unarchive anytime ✅ Yes, can re-download anytime
When to Use For organizing your Audible library For freeing up storage on phone/tablet

For archive, it is helpful to declutter your library, and it is convenient to restore the book, you can unarchive the archived book anytime for free. But you need to find the book in the archived list, since the title is removed from the library.

As for remove, its advantage is that it can free the storage of your device, and the book cover is still visible in your library list. However, if you want to listen to the book again, you need to redownload it, which may be a little inconvenient.

Our suggestion is to use these two methods according to your situation:

  • Use "Archive" if you need to settle your library list and don't want to remove any files.
  • Use "Remove" if need to get more storage space of your device and want to keep the book in the library list.
  • Of course, you can use these two features together: remove the title from device and then archive it to fully clean up your Audible library view and save space.

Looking for more tips to manage your Audible audiobooks? Check out this guide:

manage audible audiobook
Organize, Remove, Archive, Download and Share Audible Library

Do you think it is inconvenient to stream, manage Audible audiobooks? You can use Audible Manager or ViWizard Audible Converter to do it easier.

Part 4. Keep Your Audible Books Without Using Storage [Bonus]

Find it a hassle to re-download and have insufficient storage? Want to save storage for the audiobooks you're listening to at the moment, but don't want to delete the audiobooks you used to love so much?

Downloading audiobooks to a USB drive or external hard disk is the best solution to these problems. For this you need ViWizard Audible Audiobook Converter. This tool allows you to download Audible audiobooks in MP3, AAC, FLAC, M4A, M4B, 2AV, AC3 and more formats. After downloading, you can transfer these audiobook files to an external hard disk for permanent backup.

audible audiobook converter
Audible Audiobook Converter

A unique and innovative Audible audiobook converter to convert any protected Audible audio book from AA or AAX formats to universal formats, including lossless audio, MP3, AAC, FLAC, M4A, M4B, 2AV, AC3, and more in an easiest yet fastest way ever and with up to 100× super faster speed.

Step 1Add Audible Files to ViWizard

Before moving audiobooks, you should download the Audible files first on the Audible app. Locate the audible files on the computer folder and drag and drop them to the ViWizard program page or you can click the "Add Files" icon to locate and select the files you want to move.

add audible audiobooks

Step 2Setting Parameters

At the bottom left corner, there is a "Format" icon, tap it. Then you can choose any format you want to set, also including the channel, codec, sample rate, and bit rate. Besides, you can choose whether to split the flies and change the volume, speed, and pitch in the Edit section.

choose output format

Step 3Convert Audible Audiobook Files

Click the "Convert" button. The process will only take you a few minutes, for it offers a 100X faster speed. The file will be in the history list after it is converted.

download audible audiobooks

Step 4Move the Audible Files to a USB drive/Cloud Drive

Connect your USB drive to your computer and drag the converted Audible audiobook files to a folder on your USB drive. Alternatively, you can upload your audiobook files to a cloud drive, such as Google Drive, for faster backup.

Read More :  How to Save Audible Books to USB [100% Working]

Read More :  How to Upload Audible Audiobooks to Google Drive for Backup

Part 5. FAQs about Audible Archive & Audible Remove

Q1.Does archiving Audible books save space?

A1.No, archiving Audible books will not free up space on the device. It will only hide this book in the main library view. To truly free up storage space, you need to use the "Remove from device" option.

Q2.Will I lose access to a book if I archive it on Audible?

A2.No, you won't lose access. Archiving (now referred to as "Hide this title" in the Audible app) simply removes the book from the visible library. You can still re-download it anytime.

Q3.Can you remove books from Audible library permanently?

A3.Yes, you can completely remove books from your Audible library. Do this as follows:

  1. Visit Amazon.com.
  2. Navigate to the Manage Your Content and Devices page.
  3. Check the box next to the book title.
  4. Click "Delete."
  5. Confirm by clicking "Yes, permanently delete" in the pop-up window.
  6. The audiobook is now removed from your Audible library and you will not be able to access it, whether you purchased it or not.

Q4.How do I free up space on Audible?

A4.To free up space on your device, use the "Remove from Device" option to delete downloaded audiobook files. For long-term storage, consider using the ViWizard Audible Audiobook Converter to download and back up audiobooks to a hard disk or other device.

Conclusion

In this post, we contrasted archive and remove in Audible. In addition, we provide another useful way to free up device storage space while without requiring you to re-download audiobooks to your phone. Use ViWizard Audible Audiobook Converter to convert your audiobook file so that you can listen to audiobooks without storage anxiety.

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