A trick to get audiobook chapters in good track order

your audiobooks are in the audiobook directory of the device internal memory, tags are OK (title = track number + chapter title), 

each audiobook is in its own subdirectory.

  1. cut and paste all your audiobooks subdirectories together from the audiobook directory to an empty directory of the internal memory (the copy from internal memory to internal memory takes less than one minute)

  2. transfer back each audiobook subdirectory ONE by ONE (it takes a few seconds for each transfer back. Don’t push and expect the few seconds between each transfer.

JC75, the trick you describe works more generally for every file in the memory (viewed from the Folder menu). What is displayed on screen is directly what is read from the file allocation table (FAT) without any further type of sorting according to alphabetical order, modification date or creation date as you would for instance see in file navigation software in operating systems. As a result files are sorted according to the order in which they were added to the FAT list. There is ready-made freeware available that exactly applies the trick that you describe. It can be used at once on the entire Music or Audiobook folders, no further manual actions required. FatSorter is an example of such a FAT sorting software tool (pointed out to me by Miikerman).

However, this trick will only work if the filenames start with the track or chapter number where all numbers are appended with leading zeros, i.e. 01-10, etc (or 001-100) i.s.o. 1-10 (or 1-10-100). This should not be a major issue since in most tagging/ripping software this is default behavior (I believe). If not you can adjust filenames in bulk quantities with e.g. the mp3tag tool.

Hi, AUC.

FatSorter (or DriveSort) doesn’t solve the problem of Audiobooks.

Just after transfering a bulk of files from the computer to the audiobook directory of the Clip Sport, displaying the content of the audiobook directory on the Clip Sport screen shows something like

audiobook / firstbook /

02-track

14-track

11-track

etc…

And you may apply FatSorter ten times it will not change that.

And when you play the book, you get 02-track, then 14-track etc… !

A big Arrrggggg . . . .    :frowning:

Hi JC75,

Just for the fun of it I also tried to fix the order of audiobook tracks with a FAT sorter. It worked fine for me. I did not use your trick with the manual transfer, because I’m convinced that it will indeed work. However, if one has to do the sorting manually file-by-file it would take a big chunk out of your day every time that you would like to upload an audiobook. Perhaps we can understand why it did not work for you if we compare the steps that we have taken? Here is what I’ve done

-> I downloaded a random audiobook from the public domain (in order not to breach copyrights …). This audiobook contains a separate mp3 file for every chapter (all below 20MB):

               <some_text_1>_<volume_#>_<some_text_2>_<chapter_#>_<some_text_3>.mp3

where the <some_text_123> is the same for every mp3 file.

-> I manually copied (some of the files) one-by-one and in the wrong order to the Audiobook folder of the player. Disconnected the player and verified that indeed the tracks were in the intentionally wrong order.

-> Reconnected the player and applied a FAT sorter (not FatSorter or DriveSort, but a similar tool). Disconnected and then all tracks were in the correct order.

Did I do something differently from what you did?

BTW, what puzzles me from your description is that in your case the same random order occurs before and after applying the FatSorter. To me this suggests that the FatSorter did not run on your folder at all. Would it be possible for you to verify that FatSorter actually did anything? What if you apply it to another folder, such as on the Music folder? Does it work properly then?

BTW2, the above applies only when viewing the audiobook from the Folder menu, since in the Book menu the ID3 tags are used for sorting. I suppose that you were referring to the Folder menu as well?

… Hope this helps. Cheers :wink:

Hi AUC,

I have no problem with the “Folder” directory : my files in this directory are always in the right order.

But I never use this folder because with the audiobooks I need the slowdowner function, so I use only the “Audiobooks” directory.

My mp3 tags are OK.

For the test of a FAT32 sorter I used : NewFAT32Sorter (no problem, but no effect either).

I tried also Fatsorter (I don’t know why I can’t check the subdirectory button).

and Drivesort (which cut the 10 last chapter titles from the FAT!).

I did some more tests : if I copy the audiobooks one by one or two by two, chapters appears in the right order. If I copy and paste 3 books I get two or three chapters out of order.

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding, but FatSorter and its related software will only help on the Folders side of the player, which uses the FAT to sort.  On the database side of the player, the player’s firmware sets the sorting.

I think so.

Even if it was not clear enough the object of my initial post was audiobooks in “Audiobooks” directory.