Albums with 10+ songs unorganized

[JBThazard]

My J3 arrived today and I have been extremely unsuccessful with organizing my albums. Whether it is through drag and drop, Winamp syncing or Mp3Tag, everytime I try to put an album with more than 10 songs on my J3, it messes up, and always in the exact same way.

Example: In Absentia - Porcupine Tree has 12 songs. Here is the order of this album on my J3:

Tracks:
1
11
12
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Tracks from 11-19 will always be in between tracks 1 and 2, and I have no idea how to fix this on any of my albums, and it is extremely annoying.

[JBThazard]

Okay, so an update:

I think it only messes up with my lossless files. I converted all my ALAC into WMA lossless and those albums seem unorganized. But syncing some mp3 albums from winamp works perfectly in terms of track order. I'm going to experiment with FLAC and see if this error reoccurs.

[Nahlidge]

JBThazard: I just renamed 'em to "01, 02, 03, 04, ....."

Whether theres an easier way, no clue. :\

[JBThazard]

I've tried that, no good. I even named tracks 11 and 12 "21 and 22" but they still show up as the second and third tracks.

[Nahlidge]

That is odd... hm.

Sorry man, I have no idea. :(

[DSperber]

Tracks:
1
11
12
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Tracks from 11-19 will always be in between tracks 1 and 2, and I have no idea how to fix this on any of my albums, and it is extremely annoying.If you browse by Library -> [Folders], you are browsing just like Windows Explorer. The presentation order is STRICTLY ALPHABETICAL by external file name.

Just because you think these file name prefixes (which are human-understandable as numbers) should be in NUMERIC SEQUENCE, they are actually being presented in alphabetical collating sequence correctly. Those leading digits are just alphanumeric characters, have an ASCII collating sequence to them, and the order you show is exactly correct.

If you look at the same folder using Windows Explorer from your PC they will show up exactly the same way.

If you're going to browse using Library -> [Folders] and you have track number as the prefix of your external file names, and you want this "alphabetical" list to show in "numeric track number" sequence, then you must do what's been suggested and rename your files to all start with high-order zeros as necessary. Then the alphabetical presentation will actually match the numeric value in that prefix, and you'll get what you want.

01 -
02 -
03 -
04 -
05 -
06 -
07 -
08 -
09 -
10 -
11 -
etc.


Note that if you are browsing not by [Folders], but instead by the tags database (e.g. Library -> [Artists]), say pick an artist to show [All Tracks] as well as each individual album for that artist, and then say select a particular album, then the presentation sequence of the music files inside that single album will be BY TRACK NUMBER... based on the "track number" tag field.

If you choose [All Tracks] for an artist using tags-based browsing, then the list of music files presented is once again alphabetical, but it is alphabetical by INTERNAL SONG/TITLE TAG FIELD VALUE, not by external file name.


If you play an individual album from Library -> [Artists] -> specific artist, and then specific album, you'll see the list in track number sequence using the "track number" tag field. That "track number" value can be any understandable numeric form.

So, say the CD/album had 12 tracks. You can have "track number" values in any of the following formats:

(a) 1, 2, 3, ...

(b) 01, 02, 03, ...

(c) 1/12, 2/12, 3/12, ...

(d) 01/12, 02/12, 03/12, ...

or any mix/hybrid. You don't really have to be consistent, as long as one of the above four formats is used in each "track number" field.

The J3 will correctly interpret that numeric track number and use it to display the tracks from that single album in "track number sequence". And what you'll see in the list will be the internal "song/title" tag field values, not the external file names and extensions.

[DSperber]

There is one more "wrinkle" I forgot to mention, that may be relevant here.

If you are using tags-based browsing, and you go down to a specific single album, the tracks would normally be presented in "track number" sequence based on the internal "track number" tag field value as I described earlier.

However, the J3 has a quirk... in that if your album folder has a MIXTURE of both MP3 and FLAC files in it, then EACH SUBSET IS PRESENTED IN ITS OWN TRACK NUMBER SEQUENCE.

So you end up with two sub-set group lists (one for MP3 and the other for FLAC). And each of the two groups is themselves sorted by track number within that group.

There's nothing that can be done to overcome this arrangement, since that's simply how the Cowon firmware presents the music files in that album folder when doing tags-based browsing... major MP3 or FLAC, minor track number within each file type.


But again, this "wrinkle" only affects tags-based browsing (which does not show external file name or extension, but only internal "song/title" tag field value) where you come through say Library -> [Artists].

If instead you do "folder browsing" and start through Library -> [Folders], then your lists are ALWAYS PURELY ALPHABETICAL SEQUENCE BY EXTERNAL FILE NAME. And then having proper leading zeros on your external file name track number prefix will work as you want.

[da1writer]

I've tried that, no good. I even named tracks 11 and 12 "21 and 22" but they still show up as the second and third tracks.

You have to change the file names 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
to 01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09 if you are using folder sorting.
Not the tags but the file name itself...

[JBThazard]

Thank you for the posts, I will try all I can now and come back with an update later.