I know there have been many post on the problems with the stock Fit HU's ability to sort multiple folders correctly. I did find one post that claimed to solve the problem so I will give it a try ASAP.

My question, in the mean time is, on my first attempt I used a smaller drive (about 512 MBs) and put one Artist and Album on it to test the HU navigation. The file was archived Artist>Album>List of Tracks. When I plugged it in all worked fine, it sorted by the Artist and I could navigate into it, then into the Album, and then I could select a song to start playing from that Album.

I then purchased a 16 GB usb drive to up the amount of songs I could put on on drive. However, this now includes files that now have multiple Albums and Tracks for each Artist. Like so, Artist>Album1>Tracks, Album2>Tracks. When plugged in it not only sorts by the way they were transferred onto the drive (which I understand from the other posts), but it also by-passes the Artist and just displays Albums. I listen to a lot of music from different genres so it is very difficult to keep all my Albums straight in my head. Has anyone else had this problem and have a solution for it? I would just keep my iPod Touch in the car, but I use it often and do not want it to get damaged in the elements like the heat and the cold.

 

It won't show a directory if there isn't a music file in it. Put a blank mp3 file in each directory that only has subdirectories.

 

I've tried it and it didn't work. Is there a program that will sort it so it will work?

 

After posting my original question I did a lot more research. There does not seem to be a solid way to get the navigation and directory that you get with an iPod on a Flash drive. I have also tried the various sorting programs listed in other threads. They definitely resort the drive so the directory will make sense, but it still was not what I was looking for.

Solution, I got a 5th Gen iPod on eBay with dead pixels and cosmetic scratches for like $30 after shipping. It has over 2x the storage my Flash drive has and since it is not my primary iPod and it's already pretty beat up who cares what happens to it. Since 16 GB Flash drives retail for $35-$50 I think this is the best solution for this particular problem. No, it does not solve all the navigation issues, like having to scroll forward to get to "Z", but it will sort by artist, genre, album, etc... Also, you will get playlists so if you have a bunch of particular artists you can put them all in a smartplaylist to have them available whenever. Hope that helps everyone and get bidding on a busted iPod.