Audiobooks Sorting

Hi,
I have a number of audiobooks, with the extension .m4b. In iTunes these are sorted into Audiobooks, which is great.
On my iPod 5G, these are listed under Audiobooks, but I can also search for them through genre, artist etc. which is very handy.
However, on my iPod nano 3G, audiobooks can only be found under Audiobooks and not through any other sorting.
The problem I have is that the audiobooks listing is very messy, especially when some books are broken into parts (such as 10hr books from iTunes or Audible).
Is it possible to list audiobooks under genres/artists/etc on the iPod nano?
I know I could retag the the books as just ordinary songs, but then I'd lose chapters etc. and it defeats the purpose of the audiobook category.
Any ideas? Am I the only one who considers this a problem?
Thanks,
David

David,
I agree 100% with your issue. With the new iTunes 8, it's easy to tag tracks as audiobooks. This has finally resolved one of my issues. However, it's created the problem that you described. I can tell you that I have 3 ipods and they all handle this problem differently.
My ipod touch does exactly what I want. Select audiobook and you can choose artist and such, just like music. Brilliant!
The second gen nano that I use most frequently shows all the audiobooks in jumbled up order and is completely unusable. However, it still allows me to choose by artist and album just like it was a music file. This is a workable situation.
The third gen nano that I bought for my wife only shows the audiobooks in the audiobooks category, not in the general music section. Yes, the tracks are all messed up and there's nothing that can be done. The only workaround was to create playlists for each book and choose from those. HORRIBLE!
I am really confused at how each model handles these differently. Yes, all ipods are running the most current software. Make them all work like the touch!
I hope somebody notics this thread,
Joe

Similar Messages

Audiobook sorting and grouping

How do I group the audiobooks on a iPod nono G5. The same audiobook works perfectly on my iPhone, but when i add them to my iPod the books don't group and all the tracks are sorted by track names, so all the books are mixed in one long list.

This is a very annoying bug which Apple do not seem to be addressing. If you look at the previous thread "Major Audio book problem ipod 5th gen" then you will find some workaround.
Hope it helps

IPod Audiobook Sorting is HORRIBLE

I have to say I am really disappointed in the way audiobooks behave on the ipod. I have a bunch of audiobooks I got from CDs, as well as a few spoken word albums (comedy mostly), that I would love to reclassify as audiobooks to keep them separate from my music.
Reclassifying them in iTunes is easy and organic, but once I pull out my iPod, everything is a mess. All the audiobook chapters are separated as if they were individual books and thrown together in one alphabetical mess. iTunes knows better, but apparently my iPod never got the memo.
I've done a lot of online research, and I apparently have a few terrible options:
- Classify the audiobooks as music (which means they will clutter up song lists, and show up in shuffles)
- Rename every audiobook track so they group properly
- Create playlists for every book
- Purchase third party software that will join all of the tracks into one file!!!
Really??? My iPod can't just organize things the same way as iTunes??? Why is this so hard?

Here's what I do that works well... I see you use a Mac so you are in luck. Sorry to the Windows crowd I don't think this is available there.
I'm assuming you've brought over an audiobook from a set of CD's like I did. After it's in iTunes you highlight all the tracks (I do 1 disk at a time) and launch Join Together. You have to fill out the disk name (I abbreviate a lot) and and then hit a couple of OK type boxes. It takes a little while but it creates a new single track. Then you "Get Info" on that and change the type to Audiobook. Trash the original in iTunes.
Now you have a single track for the whole disk and there are chapter jump points ... not sure what you call these. It sync's right over into the Audiobook section nice and separately. I think this is donation-ware and there's an upgrade price. I was very happy when I found this, I think the donation was ~$5-$10... worth every penny!
I agree Apple should fix this!

Audio book has no chapter headings

Downloaded "Walden".
It appears in iTunes as Part 1 and Part 2.
No chapter headings.
No way to navigate through eleven+ hours.
Imagine a CD with no song titles.
Think of a city with no street signs.
Is this universal?
Any help?

Glad you got the Audiobook sorted out. Audible.com seems to have a really good model for iTunes and iPod integrated audiobooks, as well. I've been using their service for quite some time, and highly recommend it.
In iTunes, click your iTunes menu and select Preferences. Click the Playback tab. If 'Crossfade playback' is selected, go ahead and de-select that option and click OK.
CG

How I can sort music files (audiobook) in music player on iPhone by file name, not by title name?

I have audiobook of abt.500 files, all titles are the name of the book. iPhone music player does not understand sorting by file names, but by title, hterfore it plays files chaotic. So, how I can sort audiobook files in music player by file name, not by title name?

I have the same problem.
I've went through the pains of merging all chapters into one big file for each and every audiobook, so that at least the chapters don't get played in random order. Month and month of work….. In iTunes 12.01. I can now order my audiobooks by title or by author.
But once they're uploaded to my blo*dy expensive iPhone 6Plus 128 (which I bought especially to have all my music and my audiobooks on one device) my audiobooks are NOT sorted by author, but by Title.
So, let's say I have 15 books by Ken Follet, they don't appear as Ken Follet > Title of the book but they are sorted alphabetically with all the other titles of other authors.
iPods where originally designed for music and audiobooks, but each and every version of iOS makes handling your music and especially your audiobooks harder and harder….
I am very disappointed and after so many years of using apple, I am considering to move on to android devices.

ITunes 11 not sorting multi-disc audiobooks by disc number

I just updated to iTunes 11, and for some reason, my multi-disc audiobooks are not being ordered by disc number in the Books view. Instead, it goes track 1 of disc 1, track 1 of disc 2, etc.
The tracks have the disc numbers in their metadata, so why aren't they being sorted that way?
This issue does not occur for music tracks, however. Puzzling, eh?
Message was edited by: Jawshooah

This worked perfectly for me. Thank you Giacomo!
P.S. I also used PayPal to give DougScripts a $5 thank you.
Giacomo Italy
Re: iTunes 11 not sorting multi-disc audiobooks by disc number
Dec 10, 2012 2:17 AM (in response to Jawshooah)
Guys, I have the ultimate solution!
Use the following Applescript:
Embed Disc Number in Track Number v1.0
Applies selected tracks' disc number as hundreds digit in track number
Short link: http://dougscripts.com/461
date posted: July 14, 2009 - total downloads 926
you can find it at:
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/
It is a reversible operation by definition!
Cheers!

Sorting Audiobooks in iTunes

Here's my problem, this weekend I spent most of it ripping and tagging the 7 Harry Potter audiobooks into my library because I am planning a road trip and it’s a lot easier for the books to be played off the iPhone that keep switching the CDs in the car. Anyway I am a little OCD when it comes to organization and stuff. I have all my music organized by author and then year in iTunes and in the grid view and I want all the audiobooks to be in the same order. Here’s the problem first of all when right click on the header and hit sort by author, I can’t hit “within author, by years” because it is grayed out. How do I get it un grayed out so I can click on it? Secondly because as of right now I only have 1 series of audiobooks (I’m planning on ripping 2 more from CDs later) I simply sort them by year instead of by author and then year. However even with the year field all properly labeled, they don’t sort by year! This is only in grid view. Any help?

As ed2345 says, for Paul McCartney, the way to control the sort order is to use the sort fields. Find a Paul McCartney track, preferably one he has a sole composer credit on, and "Get Info.". On the sorting tab put "McCartney, Paul" into the *Sort Artist*, *Sort Album Artist* and *Sort Composer* (if applicable) fields. Click OK, now right/option/cmd-(whatever works)-click and click on *Apply Sort Field > All Matching Fields*. Repeat for each solo Artist as desired. This has to be done manually as iTunes can't hold a comprehensive directory of all artists and their "correct" sort position. In any case, sometimes people have different views on what is correct.
Again, *Album by Year* should do what you want in iTunes unless there are two albums by the same artist where the chronological order is different from the alphabetical order. Even if you put the full release date into the tag via a 3rd party tool iTunes only works with the Year value. Sorting on iPod/iPhone is always alphabetical.
tt2

Sorting Complete Audiobooks, Not Tracks

I have an iTunes sorting question but it is not about ordering tracks within an audiobook but about the ordering of complete audiobooks in the Books > Audiobooks view.
For several authors I have many audiobooks and what I want to do is have the audiobooks library sorted first by author and then have them ordered chronologically within the author. I have been using Get Info and trying to enter information in the various fields to make this happen but can't figure out how iTunes does the sorting.
It is very confusing to me and I cannot find anyplace that it is explained.
I'm using iTunes 11.11 and OS X 10.8.5.

Unchecked tracks are skipped during normal track to track playback and are usually excluded from syncing to devices. I use them for things like bonus interview tracks which I will keep in my library but don't want to play accidentally when listening to the album. There is a preference to hide the checkboxes if you don't have a use for them.
tt2

Sorting of Multi-Disc Audiobooks not corretly - iTunes 11

Hello all,
After i upgraded to iTunes 11, my audiobooks are not sorted correctly now (Like it was before the update).
Before it was sorted like:
Disk01 Track01
Disk01 Track02
Disk01 Track03
Disk02 Track01
Disk02 Track02
Disk02 Track03
Disk03 Track01
Disk03 Track02
Disk03 Track03
Now its sorted like that:
Disk01 Track01
Disk02 Track01
Disk03 Track01
Disk01 Track02
Disk02 Track02
Disk03 Track02
Disk01 Track03
Disk02 Track03
Disk03 Track03
But i cann't change the track number. I have about 400 Audiobooks with Multiple-Disks and Tracks.
If i click on "List", the Sorting is correct.
If i change one Audiobook to "Music", the sorting is correct. But that is not a solution, because i have more than 200 Music CDs there.
Furthermore, I want iTunes 11 to sort the Audiobooks by the Author. This makes much more Sense!
what i mean e.g.: All audiobooks of J.R.R. Tolkien should be sorted by "J" and not like it is now, by the name of the novel.
I want the "Audiobooks" to be sorted by the same way as they would be (and are) sorted in "Music".
I spent so many days to get it sorted perfectly in iTunes 10. And now its all gone.
I would appreciate it very much if someone could help me.
Best regards,
Chris

Apple devices have always sorted audiobooks on the name field, instead of the disc number and track number values. This has normally made it tricky to listen to non-iTunes sourced audiobooks. It looks like iTunes 11 has now taken on the same rules. See Audiobooks on iPods for some possible workarounds.
Took me some time to "see" your problem because my books still order sensibly in iTunes. I routinely fix the track numbers so that multi-disc albums/audiobooks have consecutive track numbers. For audiobooks I recycle the disc numbers as series numbers for books that are part of a series. Together with suitable sort names I get the series listed together, in the right order, with the tracks of each book in the right order, in iTunes and on my iPods.
tt2

Can I determined sorting order audiobooks on my 4th Gen. Ipod Nano ?

Why aren't audiobooks listed on ipod nano 4th generation the same order as they are in itunes?
I have an audio book on several CD's that I copied into my Itunes library. I have already gone into the track information and set them all to audiobook. On my Ipod (Nano 4th Generation) they are listed by the track name (Chapter name). Which means during playback they are out of order. However, in Itunes on my Mac they are listed under the name of the book and the chapters are in the right sequence.
I haven't read any solutions for how to change the sorting order of audiobooks on the Ipod Nano 4th Generation. (I'd be interested in a solution to this problem on other Ipods. Like Ipod Nano 1st Generation and Ipod shuffle 4th Generation)

Did you already load the audiobook manually (by dragging it to the shuffle)? To confirm that the audiobook is on the shuffle...
Select the shuffle in the iTunes sidebar. If the sidebar (along left side of window) is not visible, from the menu bar, under View, select Show Sidebar.
Click the small triangle to the left of the shuffle name (in the sidebar) to drop down its content list, indented below the shuffle. Click on Audiobooks there. To the right, your audiobook(s) should be listed.
NOTE: if you don't see Audiobooks on the content list, there are no audiobooks on the shuffle.
When you turn ON the shuffle, you are playing from the default All Songs list. Audiobooks (and podcasts) do not play from the All Songs list. You need to use VoiceOver to select the audiobook from the playlist menu. This document explains how to set up and use VoiceOver on your shuffle
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4322

Odd problem trying to sort audiobooks

i have quite a collection of audiobooks, that i had previously had jsut in my music library as mp3s, with large numbers of files for each one
last night i discovered a piece of software that let me join the files together to create jsut one or two files that i could then have in the audiobooks section
however, i seem to be having trouble getting them to display in the correct order
specifically i am having trouble with the discworld audiobooks
they are titled as such:
name: bookname - Part #
artist: Terry Pratchett
track number: track #
album: Discworld book # - book title
sort album: book #
yet for some reason they appear in the wrong order currently 1,2,4,9,11,3,5,6,7,8,10
can anyone explain why they won't display in the correct numerical order
also, on the ipod itself, is there a way to get the audiobooks menu to display by artist, as presently it has all my audiobooks jumbled up ordereed alphabetically, i'd like to be able to select the author, and then have the books displayed in chronological order

Anyone with Unlimited Anytime Calls should check their package hasn't changed when broadband is added.
I ordered this combination and migrated from Plusnet. My first monthly bill (phone only) showed the correct plan, but with the 2nd bill I got a nasty surprise with charges for a load of calls that should have been inclusive. It turned out that Unlimited Anytime Plan had been "accidentally" removed when my broadband service was activated

Sorting Audiobooks on Nano *****

Why won't audiobooks be sorted by book instead of putting every track from every book in one long line and not in order??, Why won't audiobooks be sorted by book instead of putting every track from every book in one long line and not in order??

Audible audiobooks play extremely well on iPods and iOS devices. They generally download as 1-2 fairly large files, representing ~5-8 hours of playback each. The tracks are named so that they should always sort in the correct order on your device, so you shouldn't have difficulty playing them back.
I mostly use my iPhone for playing audiobooks, but have listened to a couple on my Nano (the first psuedo-Touch Nano). It works reasonably well.
I don't recommend using any of Audible's software for auto-loading the books onto your device. Just download them in your browser, and drag them into the iTunes Library window. iTunes will add them to your library, and you can then sync them to your device as you would any other track.
When I used Audible's software in the past (which, I must admit, was the distant past, on my wife's then-reasonably new Windows XP system) it had quirks, which were mostly designed to deal with the problem of unreliable, slow speed Internet connections. These days speed isn't usually a problem, and who's using a modem? Dropped connections are rare, and if you do, just re-download.

Sorting Audiobooks by Series

Is there a way to treat audiobooks like the music? I would like to be able to see all books in a series. As of right now I can only see all of my books in one list but with 20 plus books listed I never remember which one goes with which series and in what order. I'd like to be able to keep them in the audiobook section though I do understand that if I really wanted to could make a playlist for each series. Just wasn't sure if there was another way.

Use the supplementary fields attached to the files.
Choose a track and do Command I in iTunes on your computer.
Select the Info Tab and make sure the track Numbers are in the right order and that they all have the same Album title.
they will then group just fine.

ITunes sorts audiobook chapters in a random order how do I correct this?

I own a copy of Arkange Complete Shakespeare, I have copied them onto my hard drive and tried to import them into iTunes. No matter what I do, each track appears in a random order. I've numbered the tracks like this:
What I Want ...
Track #    Name
41 of 42   30.41 Antony and Cleopatra - Act 5 Scene 1
42 of 42   30.42 Antony and Cleopatra - Act 5 Scene 2
01 of 29   31.01 Coriolanus Act 1 - Scene 1
02 of 29   31.02 Coriolanus Act 1 - Scene 2 ...
What I get ...
Track #    Name
27 of 42   30.27 Antony and Cleopatra - Act 4 Scene 2
07 of 24   20.07 As You Like It - Act 2 - Scene 4
24 of 24   20.24 As You Like It - Epilogue
01 of 29   31.01 Coriolanus Act 1 - Scene 1
10 of 29   31.10 Coriolanus Act 1 - Scene 10...
No matter how I try to sort they do not appear in order. If I manually move each track one at a time into a playlist in the order I wish to listen to it, it will still change the order within the playlist as I make it matching the random order. For example, if I add Coriolanus Act 1 - Scene 1 first and I then add Coriolanus Act 1 - Scene 2 second when I get to Scene 10 and add it after Scene 9 it will jump from where I put it to the spot imediately after Scene 1 as you see above. I have tried renumbering the tracks so that each play, act and scene runs in chronological order, but it will still sort it wrong in iTunes. Is there some hidden metric that I need to change to correct the order? I have noted that although the sorting is random as I add them to iTunes the random order is the same each time.
I do not have this sorting order problem in any other audio programs on my PC, but those other audio programs do not synch with my iPod

See my previous post on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, in particular the topics Use an album friendly view and Tracks out of sequence.
When you say the songs are listed alphabetically is this when looking at the iPod while connected to iTunes, in the iPods Cover Flow, Album & Artist Menus or within your playlists. If a playlist is showing up in the wrong order, arrange it iTunes the way you want, then right/option-click on the playlist title and click on Copy To Play Order.
tt2

Sorting audiobooks on ipod

hello,
so i have downloaded an audiobook and imported it into itunes. i have converted it to m4b. so now my audiobook appears in itunes under audiobooks. so i go to my ipod select the only audiobook i have. then it shows me about 300 tracks that make up the audiobook. when i play it it shows 1 out of 1 being played. i have searched everywhere on how to fix this.
hope that made sence
many thanks andrew

Aldo on Audiobooks is probably the best reference for all things audiobook. The main problem is that the Audiobooks feature is really designed for books that have been stitched up into a single file. Personally I haven't bothered to make the extra effort and jsut have an "Audiobooks" playlist folder containing sub-folders for each author and within these playlists for each audiobook.
tt2

Audiobooks Sorting

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for