iPod Audiobook Sorting is HORRIBLE

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Level 1

2 points

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?

2.16 GHz Core 2 iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Dec 15, 2010 10:29 PM

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Answer 1

ZBurnett

Level 1

104 points

Jan 13, 2011 7:56 PM in response to delventhalz

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!

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