Audio book sorting

[thlju]

I’ve had a lot of Sansas, like a number of Clips and Clip +, but I recently got myself a Clip Sport. However, I cannot get to grips with the sorting. It’s completely different from my old Sansas. I use the device mostly for audio books in the mp3 format. Sometimes the first file in a folder/book according to Sansa is actually the 128th. I can then scroll up to the first, but the counter in the upper left corner will then claim it’s number 49 of whatever.

More serious is that some books only contains 8 or 18 files. When i switch to folder view, I can see all the files. Why isn’t all files showing in the Audio Books section? I’ve checked id3v1 and id3v2 tags to see if there is any difference between the mp3 files that show and those that doesn’t, but there’s no difference. 

I’ve tried to remove the id3v2 and only use id3v1, but this doesn’t change the devices behaviour. Of course, I can listen to the files in the Folder view, but I would prefer the Audio Books view. It’s more easy to read due to the text/background contrast. (Folder view: white text on light blue background, who came up with that?!)

So basically my question is this:

How is the sorting managed in the Audio books view? Apparently not file name. Is it id3v1 or id3v2? Track number, title? Both?

I’m grateful for any information on this subject.

[dfeld2005]

I am sure a few other SanDisk forum members will add better advice.

But, for starters, the Clip Sport performs best when reading mp3 tags written as 

  ID3 v2.3 ISO-8859-1

And you should try using 2-digit numerical prefixes to album names and track names in the mp3 tags 

[thlju]

Thanks for your reply. Please let me elaborate my question a bit by the following example. I’ve just removed the id3v1 tags to perform a test using this book.

-Number of mp3 files: 245.

-File names: From 001_MyTitle.mp3 to 245_MyTitle.mp3

-ID3v1: none.

-ID3v2: yes, every file is tagged like this:

  -Track: three digits from 001 to 245.

  -Title: track number + title, from “001 My Title” to “245 My Title”.

  -Artist: The authors name.

  -Album: The book title.

  -Year: 1991.

  -Genre: Speech.

The result of this:

When I enter the Books section and select this book, the Title screen shows like this:

Titles

128 My Title

129 My Title

130 My Title

131 My Title

132 My Title

I can scroll up to 001 My Title. If I play it, the text 9/135 is displayed in the left, upper corner.

I can scroll down to 135. That’s it, i.e. 110 files are missing.

I’ve tried with just id3v1, both id3v1 and id3v2 and the example above with just id3v2.

Any ideas?

[dfeld2005]

Still hoping another SanDisk forum member will add some expert advice here…

I think I remember reading in this forum that the Clip Sport correctly reads prefixes 01 to 99, but not 3-digit prefixes.

Is there a way you could break your 245 files into groupings of 100?

   For example, tracks 00-99 belong to “00 bookname” and saved into sub-folder “00 bookname”

   Then tracks 100-199 belong to “01 bookname” but are numbered as 00-99 and saved into sub-folder “01 bookname”

   Then tracks 200-245 belong to “02 bookname” but are numbered as 00-45 and saved into sub-folder “02 bookname”

Try these naming conventions in the filenames and in the mp3 tags (as ID3 v2.3 ISO-8859-1)

Maybe you can test only a few track titles sorted into these groupings and see how it goes?

I guess the iTunes-iPod player file naming system provides more immediately pleasing results with complex audiobooks.

Clip Sport owners need to work harder to get satisfying results with the more limited capabilities of this device.

[thlju]

I will try your suggestion with a two digit tracknumber. I work as a software developer, so I use my own software to rename files and id3 tags accordingly. I actually already have a break for larger mp3 books as the Sansa Clip+ has a limit of 255. I break larger books in A_BookTitle 1 to 255, B_BookTitle 1 to 255 and so on. I will change the limit to 99 to see what happens.