Hopefully someone knows a trick on these forums. I have 51 albums stored on a 4GB USB flash drive. Most of the folders are sorted in the appropriate order, but there are a few scattered ones. In addition, the songs in the folders are sometimes played in the wrong order. For example, one folder contains 11 files, starting with "01 - Listen.mp3" and ending with "11 - Better Days.mp3". The radio actually plays "11 - Better Days" first upon inserting the USB drive.

Does anyone know how to get the radio to always sort in alphabetical order? I checked the manual, but it doesn't address sorting from what I found. Thanks...

 

If it's playing out of order there may be a chance that it's identifying the songs by their ID3 tag, which is absolutely wonderful. It's a similar system to what Windows Media Player and Winamp and other popular players use. ID3 is a (somewhat hidden to most people) tag system in the file that lists track information, title, album, artist, etc.. When you load an album into WMP, for example, it will ignore actual file names and sort the titles by the track number on the ID3 tag. Ipods and other players do the same thing.

Most of the time I'll use MP3 Tag Tools http://massid3lib.sourceforge.net/ to do my tagging, mainly because it supports batch tags and I'm familiar with the software, so I don't have to mess around in other programs.

Try it out, let me know. It's good information to have!

 

I checked the files in Winamp and there is no ID3v1 or ID3v2 tags on the files. I did not rip them from a CD. I guess I can rule that out. It still seems that a file with a leading zero should play before 11. That is why I name the files with a leading zero.

 

I just got back from a long drive and watched my mp3s play 01 - 12, like expected. Haven't a clue why yours dont. Mine were ripped from CDs with tags in place.

Edit - my filenames are in the form 0xx - name

I think the Fit sorts by filename, but will display (using tags) trackname if the title button is set to Trackname. Same with Folder or Album (uses tags).

All I know is, by using CD-EX to rip cd's to mps, it works perfectly for me.

 

I guess I can try tagging them, but even the folders appear out of order. A folder that starts with 'N' appears all the way at the end of the list. That happens to be the last folder that I added to the USB flash drive so it seems like folders are chronologically sorted. Weird...

 

Weird, that sucks. Too bad I don't have a Fit to figure this one out, I'd like to get to the bottom of it.

 

I'll continue to mess with it. Maybe I'll figure it out.

 

You could try adding the ID tags, there's a field for track number.

 

It looks like it is reading the file names and not the ID3 tag. Not sure about how it sorts though.

 

I just had the same problem, my theory is that it is getting the order directly from the File Allocation Table on the disk, which is listed by the order they were copied on. (MP3 CDs have a similar issue).

I'm going to try deleting the ones I put on and copy them back on in the right order and see if that helps at all...

 

The car's stereo is displaying the folders in the order in which they're created on the drive.

I created a folder on the desktop that houses the music I want from my library. Then I drag the folders over to my blank USB flash drive one by one in the order I want them displayed on the car stereo. Pain in the neck but it works this way.

 

Nice, that is what I had suspected...

So really the problem is that windows seems to randomly "prioritize" the files when copying...

I had a sorted list of songs selected, dragged them over, and it started with track 8 for no obvious reason...

What I've been doing instead of copying one by one is selecting the songs, adding them to a zip file in winzip (compression turned off to make it go faster), I then open up that zip file, sort the tracks so they're in the order I want, and then extract them to where I want them.

Winzip then copies the files in a sane predictable order.

Still not ideal, but faster than manually copying track by track.

HTH

 

this can't be the way it sorts. i mean, it seems to make sense compared to what is happening, but it just seems like an impractical way to order songs/folders. that means if i want any particular organization i have to make sure to add them to my drive in that order. and if i want to add a new folder to the middle somewhere, i have to remove everything after and then re-add it. that would be a seriously tedious exercise.
here's to hoping that this is not true, or that there is a way to change it...any one know?

perhaps i'll contact honda.

thanks.
randy

 

Yes, it sorts by the order that the files were copied onto the drive.

There was a previous thread on this awhile back. You can use a program called DriveSort and it will automatically rearrange the order so that it's alphabetical (or by track number).

Anerty's Lair - DriveSort

 

fitnoob:
that is most unfortunate, but that DriveSort is precisely what i needed. thanks. i got it working great now.

randy

 

...for keeping me from going even crazier that I already am.

 

Yeah that is what I found they play in order that you copied them to the drive, good reminder about driveSort, thanks!

 

I need to try Drivesort as well. Thanks for the posts.

 

Here's a problem: The only way I have found to get the TRACKS to sort within an album in proper order, is to put the filename in the format NN-FILENAME.mp3 (example: 01-mytrack.mp3), and then use drivesort to get proper sorting on the allocation table of the disk.

You'd think this is ok, *but* the Fit audio system (non-Navi) puts the track number at the front of the file name, so you end up with it twice, and it shows: 01:01-mytrack.mp3 which is just more than I can bear! The audio system is SO close to being nice... damn honda for screwing up so bad with it!!!!

 

Anyone? No fix for this?! agh!!!!