Windows 10: How do I arrange songs on USB the order I want?

Wouldn't making .m3u playlist do that?

 

I personally use MediaMonkey to organise and play my Music collection, All the files are (mostly) complete with full Meta Data and I can sort the data within MM for playback by use of search or any of the fields, from any source, including NAS or USB storage, play-lists and Drag & Drop are also fully supported.

Now the catch, I have 2 64GB USB sticks for use in my Car Audio, this is an issue as to keep things standard I name all my actual files with a simple Artist - Title.mpg format, with all other organisation down to folder structure(for manual access from file explorer, and MM controls as stated above.

For use in the car, I used MM to sort and create the Album folders, (Artist - Year - Album) and upload to the USB, The player displays the albums by Artist - Year - Album, correctly but the player ignored the, (correct), file order in the album folder and played Alphabetically -

I am now using MM to re-name all my files to a new format to get around the issue Track# - Artist - Title which is a long term project on 25000 tracks in hundreds of albums, I'm glad I have MM to do the grunt work.

The purpose of this mini War & Peace missive is that to best order media, the output device capability is as important as anything else, if the Audio System supported play-lists then my issue could have been sorted by creating a play-list for each album folder when uploading.

The same sort of restriction on playback applies to many devices, (including the File Explorer), and so the set-up of a media collection needs careful organisation to allow playback in all devices, from the start, set up for the least capable device and the more capable will adapt to suit

@jimbo45
I always avoid any Voice based media whilst driving, as it takes more concentration than music which tends to blend into the background when you are concentrating on missing a tree *Wink - this is backed up by the statements given by the UK authorities regarding avoiding falling asleep at the wheel, on long drives, stating that a talk radio type show will keep you awake as it will take more concentration than music - SCARY!! *Smile

 

Hi there.

Apparently even using a Mobile on Hands Free in a car is more dangerous than drink driving 2 X over the European limit (50) !! Makes you wonder a bit when using a Taxi where the driver has both a mobile And a Satnav and is using them both. !!!!

Not sure that a Court would take that as mitigation that you were SAFER being Drunk than using a Mobile though !!!!! -- BTW in Iceland the limit is ZERO and it is at least where there are Police (Lögreglan) RIGIDLY enforced - with steep fines and Jail plus deportation too -- so if you are a vistor please don't even THINK of alcohol and cars.

I don't think though listening to Audio is as dangerous as dropping off to sleep !!!!!
Mediamonkey is fine too -- but I've found Mp3tag works just fine for me and I usually store my Audio in folders anyway rather than use or even bother with playlists.

Nice that cars these days have USB playback -- who bothers with CD's -- especially where I am - I doubt if the thing would even load knowing our roads !!!

Cheers
jimbo

 

If I had to rely on CDs to cover the music I have available in the car, I'd need a bigger car *Wink , I have several hundred albums available, and some of these are actually box sets containing up to 500 tracks, (OK it's overkill but I can, so Why not *Wink and the Head unit is remotely controlled either through stalk controls, voice, or my phone used as a HUD so I keep my eyes on the road and the touch screen is millimetres from my fingers, with hands on the wheel, Might look if I can fit one of the actual HUD devices for GPS speed etc (as a business expense for research of course *Wink )

I store everything in folders, and this issue with the audio player means that I've decided to change my folder and file names, to a different format - In Mediamonkey I can select a batch of files and automagically create suitable named and ordered folder structures containing structured files, just through the use of a template, of meta-data fields, the Metadata can be sourced off the net, including the images and lyrics, in a few clicks.

The car audio will handle random selection playing from album or whole device, and repeat track, album or play albums in order, but it doesn't play the tracks in the order intended by the artist, a strange oversight

 

Due to the way that Files are stored on a USB Stick - They are always stored in the order they are loaded onto the Stick, dependent on the application used to read the stick, the application may be able to read and display in other orders.

Not all applications can do this so, to be sure you need a specialist tool

Take a look at this free tool Anerty's Lair - DriveSort which allows you to create your own order or alphabetical list which is readable correctly Full instructions are supplied on the download page - I use it for sorting my 64GB sticks for the Car and is the only Application I know that works for that usage

 

God, I *LOVE* these forums. Great bunch of suggested tools, but even better discussion. Thanks!
--Ed--

 

I use iTunes (Free) to organise Music. Import your music and consolidate files so ITunes puts your files in the structure Artist / Album / Track. Use iTunes to create .m3u playlists. Copy the playlists and music across to your USB stick when ready. You will need to do a search/replace on the .m3u playlist files using Word or something similar to change the music track file path to reflect the path stored on the USB. I've found Tagscanner most useful for setting metadata and album art and MP3Diags for in depth diagnostics of MP3 files.

 

Hi folks

as suggested before try this on Windows

Mp3vtag

Mp3tag - the universal Tag Editor - History of changes


sort on file name then track nr otherwise you'll get tracks numbered for example 01/10/02 etc not what you want = you want 01/02 ....10 etc on tracks.

same procedure on the Linux app.

Linux app here :

Download puddletag

actually for cars now -- assuming you have some sort of modern car (i.e in the U.K that means something built before about around 1750 - around the time of George III or G.F Handel --great musician by the way) try the aux in from a phone or even a blue tooth input -- decent cars usually have these options on their "Media" device input menus.

Cheers
jimbo

 

I use good old Windows Media Player to create playlists of the tracks I want in the order I want. Isn't that what the OP wants?

 

Without the OP posting back it's anyone's guess.

 

I get a lot of questions like that. People don't realize that they are not arraigning songs but files that are shown in some order device you are using may arrange them in different order. In some places you can see them in alphabetical order, some by date/time, some in any other order.
It's not a magnetic tape or recorded disk.

 

Hi there

Not sure if WMP is any good these days --especially if playing tracks stored on a Linux server with long file names -- C'mon Windows please fix that issue !!!!

But as Count Mike says - the music tracks are FILES so have in the file name your sort key -- e.g Album name track nr.

The two apps I listed can do this very fast so you don't have to spend a long time doing it yourself and can recurse several directories in one go making job really easy.

Cheers
jimbo