Free companion for Mac
Sync a book on your Mac. Send it to your phone, already synced.
The first sync of a book is the slow part, and a phone takes its time. Your Mac does the same work in minutes, then hands the finished book to your iPhone or iPad over your own Wi-Fi. Open Witbound and it is there, ready to read along.
Free. Version 1.5.1, for macOS 26 or later on Apple silicon and Intel. Signed and notarised by Apple. You need the Witbound app on your iPhone or iPad to read the synced book.
Three steps, from your Mac to your phone.
- First
Drop the files in
An ebook (epub or PDF) and its audiobook (m4b, m4a or mp3). Single files or folders, and audiobooks in several parts.
- Then
Your Mac syncs them
It goes through the narration once and lines every word up with the text. A long book takes minutes, not hours.
- After that
Send to your phone
Your Mac and phone find each other on the same Wi-Fi. Every finished book has a gold Send button: one click, and the book lands in Witbound already synced. With no phone to send to, the button says why.
Bring books from your own library.
- Audiobookshelf
- Browse your server for the audiobook.
- Calibre and OPDS
- Find the ebook in Calibre, Grimmory, BookOrbit or any OPDS catalogue, with title and author suggestions. Grimmory can be searched and browsed by author, series or shelf, and you can type an address on its own, like 192.168.1.10:8080.
- Plex
- Audiobook parts from your Plex library.
- Kindle files
- DRM-free azw3 and mobi books convert through calibre, if you have it installed.
- Books in parts
- Joined without re-encoding, and much faster since 1.5. A part that arrives incomplete stops the import and says which one.
- Your shelf
- Books on an unplugged drive stay on the shelf. Removing a server book moves its files to the Trash.
- Dark Mode
- Since 1.5.1 the app keeps its light look when your Mac is in Dark Mode, so every button, menu and field stays readable.
What leaves your Mac.
Your books and audio leave your computer only to go to your own phone, on your own network.
If you leave community sync on, Witbound shares the book’s word timings and fingerprints, never its text or its audio, so the next person with the same edition syncs in seconds. There’s an off switch.
The update check only reads GitHub’s public list of releases. The privacy policy has the rest.
Questions
Which files work?
DRM-free only: Libro.fm, Downpour, LibriVox, Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg and your own rips. Audible and Kindle-store files are locked and will not open.
Does my phone need to be on the same Wi-Fi?
Yes, for the one-click send. It works over VPNs and on Macs with both Ethernet and Wi-Fi. You can also AirDrop the same files to your iPhone and Witbound will pick up the sync.
Windows or Linux?
Mac first. If you would use Witbound on Windows or Linux, email hello@witbound.app so I know.
How much?
Free. Witbound for iPhone and iPad is a one-time purchase; the Mac companion just makes it faster.
Release notes for every version are on GitHub.