Audiobook files display/play order

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. 

Hello,

Not sure if you’ve finally solved this problem. And I’m not sure if this is the right solution I just found it by mistake. Have noticed that when I add new mp3 song to my folder (I used folders instead of playlst still haven’t worked that out yet :frowning: ) unless I choose random play the latest songs will only be played at the end. So I tried this with the audio books. Create folder e.g. Lauren Willig - That Summer and added the chapters one by one into the SanDisk starting from Chapter 1 and so on. Don’t be tempted to add more a a time as the order will be scrambled again. It’s tedious I know but well worth it. Somehow the San Disk is programmed to play according to the time when the files were added. In this case the earlier files are played first regardless of the titles… But if it’s somewhere in the settings maybe you can have a look at that too.