Audiobooks do not show up properly

I just traded in a non-functioning Clip+(after only 7 months!) and the only players Best Buy had was the Sport. So I charged it, downloaded a bunch of audiobooks and now can’t figure out how to make them play in order. They will all play, but randomly, and Shuffle is set to off in Settings. that was the first thing I did.

I have spent hours today searching for a solution, I even spent time in a help Chat with Sandisk and the only option they could give me was to spend addtional hours using iTunes to rename, tag, etc. each file individually. The user manual says that you can only have files with less than 16 characters. So I renamed the files and recopied them to the Sport, but they retain the original file name so that was time wasted.

Other sources say to tag the file but that doesn’t seem to be a functiion I can figure out on a Mac, it also doesn’t seem to be an option in the version I have.

Overdrive (the source for the audiobooks) says all you have to do is drag and drop the files into the player. And yes, I did check to see that my player was on their supported list. 

here is their user info:    http://www.mcpl.us/catalogs/overdrive/OverDrive-to-MP3-Mac.pdf

Now, playing around with the player I have discovered that if you go to Folders/Audiobooks/your book title, you can play the books in the proper order. ??? I hope this is a glich that they can fix because it is really a stupid bug. This is the 5th Sandisk I have owned and each one gets less and less usable. Maybe should put one out that is for the exclusive use of audiobook users since a lot of the mess seems to be linked to the needs of OCD music users!

wandaframe wrote:

 

Now, playing around with the player I have discovered that if you go to Folders/Audiobooks/your book title, you can play the books in the proper order. ??? I hope this is a glich that they can fix because it is really a stupid bug.

Yes it is. SanDisk is aware of it and there is a firmware update to be released soon (sometime this month) that should address it.

I have Pimsluer language instruction files from Audible. The 30 lesson file when loaded onto my last MP3 player allowed access to each chapter by clicking the Next button. This one, even with Ch. Mode switched on, doesn’t find the beginnings of the chapters. Will the firmware update also include a fix for this? If so, I can keep this unit. Thanks for an answer.

Thank you for the information!  This was driving me crazy.

Has anyone figured out a fix? I have firmware 01.02.18A and have been using this Clip Plus for over 2 years. Suddenly the audiobooks are not showing except a few under unknown. I’m extremely frustrated.

I always delete old books, have a 16 gig card in the slot. I’ve tried removing the card to see if the books on the built in memory will show and they did not. I tried returning to the factory settings. Most of my podcasts do show up although some of them have been a problem for some time. 

HELP Cecill, Help!

@tollertoller wrote:

I have firmware 01.02.18A and have been using this Clip Plus for over 2 years. Suddenly the audiobooks are not showing except a few under unknown.

 

A.) This board is for the Clip Sport. You have a Clip+. Your question is off-topic for this board. You should be posting here instead.

B.) If your audiobook files are displaying under “Unknown” it means the player cannot decipher the ID3 tags of the files. You will need to edit them; they may have the wrong format of tag. It should be ID3v2.3 ISO 8859-1. MP3Tag is a great, free tag-editing software download.

Okay, now I have a Sandisk Clip Sport and none of the books will show up under audiobooks. Was there ever a resolution to this problem? What is the newest firmware and did it help?

Please provide a  bit more information so SanDisk Forum readers can provide specific suggestions.

There are dozens of message streams in this forum with excellent guidance and weblinks to popular tag editing software.

A significant number of “problems” can hopefully be resolved by careful editing of ID3 tags.

Enjoy using your new Clip Sport !!

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Has anybody determined the trick to naming and tagging the audiobooks for the Clip Sport?  The audiobooks I have are .mp3 files.  I use the MP3Tag program to rename all the filenames and titles so they have a numerical order starting with a larger number to avoid a leading zero (ex. 1000Got.mp3, 1001Got.mp3), I have the Track numbers set in order, I set them to the AUDIOBOOK genre, modify the Artist, album, etc. so all of the files are the same.  This method has worked on the previous SanDisk players with no issues at all.  They have always played perfectly in order since the only thing that is different is the Title and Fielname and these are in a very obvious order.  This doesn’t work with the Clip Sport.  If you go to Books -> Audiobooks they are usually just mixed up.  Like someone said previously, if you go to Folders -> Audiobooks they will list in order, but why can’t this happen when using the Books feature.  I have contacted customer support and they requested screenshots and files before determining it was the player, but I bought two players at the same time and they did the same thing.  It isn’t this player, it is the firmware.  I have the latest version of firmware and it still happens.  Is there a trick to naming, numbering, tagging, etc. the files to make it work?  I process mine so much that I can’t imagine there is anything else I could do to them.  Or, is there another FW version coming down the line?

Hopefully a few more experienced Clip Sport users will reply to your request. I have some recent experience with Audio Books ripped from CDs (from my local public library).   I made mp3 files encoded at 128 kbps (using iTunes). 

 Then, I used MP3Tag to create this tagging scheme.

        Album Names:  Abcdef-CD01, Abcdef-CD02, Abcdef-CD03, etc  [no higher than CD99 for one book]]

            Titles (Chapter Titles):  Chapt 01, Chapt 02, Chapt 03, etc  [no higher than Chapt 99 for each CD] 

                   2-digit track numbers that match the Chapt numbers for each CD. Start renumbering at 01 for each CD

Maybe try out this scheme for a few files and see if the Clip Sport plays them in order in AUDIOBOOKS mode ??

Maybe write back with your comments & suggestions to help everyone find a better way to solve this problem.

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Thank you DFELD2005 !!

That seems to make a very large difference.  I do the same thing by getting a audiobook from the library, and some are very large, so there are a lot of files.  I have all of the files sequentially numbered with the title, filename, and track going in order, usually starting at 1000 to avoid the leading zeros and to accomodate all of the tracks.  Like I said, this has worked perfectly before, but not with the Sport.  I updated the files to go by Album (I only had one album before), and changed the titles to “Chapt 01”, etc. with the track getting the cooresponding number.  This actually worked!  This is the first time I have had the tracks play in order on the Sport.  I am wondering with the track numbers being so high and so many under the same album if it just couldn’t process that properly…  I guess I will be breaking them up by album in the future.  Thank you so much for the help!! You have figured out the trick :slight_smile:

Did DFELD2005's recommendations work for you?

Lately I’ve been using an Apple Nano and I so completely miss the older Clip Plus but I have 2 of the Clip Sport and should be getting some use out of them. By the way, I hate being locked into iTunes.

trollertroller,

Yes, DFELD2005's recommendaton worked great.  This is the first time I was able to get the files to show up properly on the Sport.  I have a Clip Zip, and I never had these issues, but my Clip Zip is starting to act up, so I have been trying to figure out the trick on the Sport in the event I have to switch to it.

Thanks again DFELD2005 :-)

Thanks to everyone for testing this tagging scheme. Likely for casual users,  all that re-tagging may be too much hassle.

For the past several months I have been playing around with my mp3 collection and experimenting with solutions for the various questions & problems that are posted in this Forum,  

I continue to enjoy my Clip Sport(s) for the pleasant sound, convenient features, swappable micro SD card and “direct access” via PC or Mac.   I like to think of my Clip Sport as “the little player that could”.   Gotta collect all the colors one day.

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@dfeld2005 wrote:

 

I continue to enjoy my Clip Sport(s) for the pleasant sound, convenient features, swappable micro SD card and “direct access” via PC or Mac.    I like to think of my Clip Sport as “the little player that could”.   Gotta collect all the colors one day.

Some would describe it as “the little player that should”. :smileyvery-happy:

I am a computer programmer, so I am used to trying to figure out, from limited info, what is causing a problem.  I suggest that the problem is not about naming the tracks, but rather in some other failure the software.

Consider the following theory.  (This may turn into a “test case”)

  1. Memory is empty.  You put on something with several tracks.  It plays in ‘correct’ order.

  2. You put something else on.  It plays correctly.

  3. You delete the first one and put a third on.  Now the 3rd one may or may not be laid on disk in the right order; it depends on what happened to the “free space” after the delete.

  4. Repeat various combinations of add/delete until it fails.

Or maybe it does not get in trouble until you have completely filled the drive and started to reuse the space.  Or maybe something else.

Possible solutions (This is aimed at San Disk programmers, not us users.):

* Write to the disk in order and preserve that order.  Do not lose this order after deletes.

Or…

* When finished playing one track, sort all the track names, and continue with the alphabetically next track name.

The first suggestion may be harder to program, but it is easily understood by the end users.  The second fails to allow users to sequence ‘albums’/‘books’ without renaming them.  Either case should play any one album/book correctly.

Please take a look at the discussion at this weblink.

I think the file sorting “problem” is not limited to SanDisk programmers.

 http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/sort-files-alphabetically-usb-stick-or-mp3-player.htm

Please take a look at the discussion at this weblink.

I think the file sorting “problem” is not limited to SanDisk programmers.

 http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/sort-files-alphabetically-usb-stick-or-mp3-player.htm

And, if anyone is interested in the cited software “FatSorter 1.0.4”, this PC freeware program is still available at this link:

     http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/FAT-Sorter.shtml

I’m not sure if this is the right forum.  I’m dealing with a Clip Sport Plus (I think) that I helped buy for a blind friend, and I’m setting it up for him.  Lots of trouble with many books not showing up in “Books/Audiobooks” from main menu (although we can get to them through “Files”)  All of the books I installed are in folders in the Audiobooks folder. 

The files don’t show in the order, as they do on my wife’s Clip (which model, I’m not sure).

If found this Quick Tip in the pdf manual:

“Quick Tips: to ensure files sort correctly, file should not exceed 16 characters long or use ID3 tags.  Also, to make sure you book shows under Audiobooks, place your book under the Audiobook folder.”

This English is a little ambiguous: is it: “files should not {exceed 16 characters long or use ID3 tags}.”, implying that we should not have ID3 tags, or is it “fles should not {exceed 16 characters long}, or use ID3 tags.”, in which long filenames would be OK with ID3 tags?

I initially had rather longer filenames, but with ID3 tags correctly set by “MP3BookHelper” (https://sourceforge.net/projects/mp3bookhelper/), but the files did not display in correct order. 

I’m willing to write a program to shorten file names, and share it with everyone onthe forum, but before I commit to doing that, I’d like to know if retaining the ID3 tags is a problem.  If I have to add removing ID3 tags to my program, that will take a little longer.  I don’t want to write it without removing the tags, and then have to go back in and add code to remove tags. 

I teach Java programming, so writing the program isn’t too big a deal. I can make it do all the folders in the AudioBook folder in a single click.   That still won’t address the question of why the books don’t appear in the main Book menu, but maybe someone has a fix for that. 

@dhstraayer wrote:

If found this Quick Tip in the pdf manual:

 

“Quick Tips: to ensure files sort correctly, file should not exceed 16 characters long or use ID3 tags.  Also, to make sure you book shows under Audiobooks, place your book under the Audiobook folder.”

 

This English is a little ambiguous: is it: “files should not {exceed 16 characters long or use ID3 tags}.”, implying that we should not have ID3 tags, or is it “fles should not {exceed 16 characters long}, or use ID3 tags.”, in which long filenames would be OK with ID3 tags?

 

I took this bit and used Mp3tag to update the track titles and filenames and the books still weren’t recognized properly. I was going to try to remove the ID3 tags next (which doesn’t appear to be a thing), when I noticed that some books didn’t have entries in the Album field. So I added those in and recopied the books to the player. Now all my books are recognized.