USB drive organization

[Rat]

So here's a new one. I listen to a lot of audiobooks in the car. Usually I use CDs from the library, but increasingly the library does not stock the CD version, only a digital version using a program called OverDrive. It was a bit of a pain to install the program and figure out how to use it at first. It is designed to install onto an iPod or mp3 player of some kind. It won't save the files onto the hard drive of the computer, which was my first choice since I don't have one of those or a smart phone. I found I could get it to download onto a USB flash drive, though. The first time I did that I tried playing that in the car and even though I was in normal mode, not random, it played the files out of order. Apparently it did not install them physically in the same order as they downloaded them, I guess, or the operating system put them in different places. I copied them from the USB back onto the hard drive, deleted the USB copies and all other files on that device, then recopied the files by ordering/sorting the directory in correct numerical order then highlighted it all and copied to the USB again. That still didn't work. Apparently the computer did not copy in the order listed and they ended up in somewhat random order on the USB stick. I deleted those and did it a second time, copying the files one by one to an empty folder in correct order. That still doesn't work. The files are all there and play just fine, but they are not displayed or played in correct order. They do play in the order shown on the screen and they are named correctly (Section 1, Section 2, etc.) so that if they were played by name order they would play correctly, but the Leaf system does not have a way to direct the player to do that. Does anyone know how to force the player to consider "Normal" to be in alphabetical order? Is there a way to copy the files to the USB drive and force the OS (Win 7) or OverDrive to put the files in that order physically, which I think may be the problem? Of course I can just push the on screen button for the next file in sequence when it goes off order, but that's not always immediately apparent since the books often jump from one scene to another, and in any event it is distracting. Sometimes I also hear "spoiler" information before I realize it is out of order again.

[Nubo]

The files are all there and play just fine, but they are not displayed or played in correct order. .

Iirc, there's a setting on the head unit to either play the files sequentially, or randomly. Sounds like maybe yours is set to random?

[Rat]

The files are all there and play just fine, but they are not displayed or played in correct order. .

Iirc, there's a setting on the head unit to either play the files sequentially, or randomly. Sounds like maybe yours is set to random?

No, it's set to "normal" which is sequential. I made sure of that. I play my music in random order, but when I first loaded on an audiobook instead of music I made sure to change it, and I've checked it more than once since. Also, it always displays the files in the same order and plays them in the order shown. It does not do that when set to Random. In fact, the files are semi-sequential. They are something like Section 8, Section 9, Section 10, Section 1, Section 2, Section 3, Section 4, Section 11, Section 12, etc. I think it must have something to do with the way the computer orders files when copying them to the USB, or how the file index table of the USB is written, but I don't know how to change that. With a music player on my computer, Windows Media Player for example, I can sort the files any way I want - by name, date, size, etc. - and play them in the order shown. I don't see any way to do that with the Leaf's system.

[Nubo]

Not sure of the collating sequence. You might try eliminating the spaces, and also be consistent in the numeric part.

I.e., instead of "section 1"....."section 9" ..."section 10",

section01
section02
section03
.
.
.
section10
section11
.
.
.

[Rat]

Nubo, I do appreciate the suggestions, but I don't have much hope that will work. The files are named automatically by the OverDrive program at the time of download. I would have to manually change them all, which is not a big deal, but I already know from having renamed some files on my other USB stick (music files, usually done because I have two versions of the same song), the Leaf player doesn't reorder them when playing in normal order, even if they are now out of alphabetical order. Another reason this is frustrating is that with my music files, I originally sorted my songs on my hard drive in alphabetical order for each of the three folders and then transferred them to the USB stick. The display in the Leaf came up in that same order and will always play in that order if I don't go to random. That's what I wanted, and it makes it easy to find a specific song out of the hundreds in the folder. That's why I thought it would do the same thing with the audiobook flies, but it doesn't. Maybe it's because the files are so much larger. The OverDrive program creates one file (called a section) for each CD, somewhere around 60 - 70 minutes long. If I want to select a spot, I can only choose a Section and it will start playing at the beginning of that section, i.e. like at the very beginning of the CD. It's a royal pain to try to fast forward to the right spot if I want somewhere in the middle, which is why I don't want to pull the USB stick out to rename anything. It loses my current spot if I do that. That's different from what you see if you actually insert a CD. Typically each CD has dozens of files, or tracks, each only 2 or 3 minutes long. Some split the audio in 99 tracks, each 30 - 45 seconds long. It's very easy to select your exact starting point on those. I know this is a first world problem here, but it seems like this is a simple problem in the software of the Leaf's player. Why not just allow it to play in alphabetical or numerical order?

[larrycookjr]

I've had the same problem with audio books. I suspected it may be due to the part number being at the end. I edited the names of the files and put the part number at the front, then the LEAF played them in order.

[Rat]

I've had the same problem with audio books. I suspected it may be due to the part number being at the end. I edited the names of the files and put the part number at the front, then the LEAF played them in order.

I'll try renaming them yet again.

[RLewisCA]

I have a 2013 SL, and have been frustrated by the USB drive organization for a while, so after reading this thread, I did some testing yesterday, and I think the 2013 works a bit differently than the 2011 or 2012, at least according to how this thread describes the functionality.

Here is what I found out - the 2013 organizes folders alphabetically, but based on the parent folder not necessarily the folder where the music resides. However, the Leaf only displays the folder names of the folders that actually hold music.

Here is what I mean - most software I've come across rips music such that there is a folder with the band name, and inside that folder is another folder with the album name, and inside that folder are the individual tracks on the album. What the Leaf does in this example is display the album names in a list (because those are the folders where the music resides), but orders the albums alphabetically based on the band names (because those are the 'parent' folders).

So, let's say you have the following on your SD card:

Band: Elephants, Album: Zoo Animals
Band: Zebras, Album: At The Zoo

Where your folder structure is this:

Elephants/Zoo Animals/Tracks on the Album
Zebras/At The Zoo/Tracks on the Album

The 2013 Leaf will display those like this:

1 Zoo Animals
2 At the Zoo

It does this based on the parent folder for both of these albums - Elephants and Zebras, because E is before Z - regardless of the name of the album and regardless of what order the folders (or tracks) were written on the SD card.

[karma]

I stick my USB drive into my Leaf and all I get is an error. Does it not read .wav files?

[Rat]

I stick my USB drive into my Leaf and all I get is an error. Does it not read .wav files?

No, it doesn't read .wav files. Only mp3 and wma. That's in the manual. You'll have to convert them to use the USB option. If you have a phone or music player that plays wav files and has the right output cable you can use the auxiliary jack (at least I think you can, but I don't have one).