iTunes 11 not sorting multi-disc audiobooks by disc number

I got the tracks to order correctly by just turning them from "audiobook" to "music." yeah they aren't in the right menu but at least they play in the correct order.

hope this helps

Hello!

This is really annoying and I think at least someone from Apple Inc. should reply on this toppic. Most of the audiobooks feature more than one disc and so this is a real big mess in listening to audiobooks.

Especially as it works in the 'List' view and in the 'Music' category and so it is not consistent at all.

SOLVING THIS ISSUE IS A MUST IN THE UPCOMING ITUNES UPDATE...!

Good news! There's a great and simple answer:

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=embeddiscintrack embeds the disk number in the track number so it plays in perfect order in both Audiobook or Music menus.

I sent him a $5 paypal donation, but I'm so thankful I should give him more.

94 Autiobooks is nothing try sorting though 654 autiobooks.

Just adding another person requesting this be updated.

I know about the script. I don't think external solutions are the answer here. This is a fundamental problem with iTunes and how it sorts. It appears to be sorting incorrectly after spaces (or perhaps multiple spaces or hyphens as well).

I had a problem in older versions of iTunes when I'd make an audiobook and iTunes would display it correctly sorted but when I put it in my iPod it was sorting by title name or something. Effectively playing the books out of order.

So I went through and corrected the problem by naming tracks:

Book - disc ## - track ###

Some of my books have over 1,000 tracks. So it was easier to sort by disc and track number at that point.

They should display... sensibly... like everywhere else... as:

Peter Pan - disc 01 - track 001

Peter Pan - disc 01 - track 002

...

Peter Pan - disc 02 - track 001

Peter Pan - disc 02 - track 002

... etc

in iTunes 11 they instead display (as previously indicated):

Peter Pan - disc 01 - track 001

Peter Pan - disc 02 - track 001

Peter Pan - disc 03 - track 001

to be absolutely clear, I don't mean
title: Peter Pan
disc: 1 of 12
track: 1 of 17

I mean I actually went through and named each track to include the disc and track number. So it would be
title: "Peter Pan - disc 01 - track 001"
disc: 1 of 12
track: 1 of 17

I imagine using the script "would" work but it would then be "01 Peter Pan - disc 01 - track 001 - 001" or something. Since it seems to be sorting by extreme left then extreme right (and ignoring everything in the middle) this would work but it'd also mean manually going back and retitling every single track to take out the disc and track numbers I spent hours putting in to begin with. Regardless, even if the script does work we're still talking about using an outside script to fix a fundamental problem in iTunes which isn't how the problem should be fixed.

It's clearly sorting by the extreme left and extreme right side... it's ignoring what should be sorted in the middle.

Standard sorting goes left to right... not left only then extreme right only.

To make this even more confusing... it's just a display issue. They appear to be playing in correct order but it's like watching it play on shuffle.

You may ask, "well, if it plays correctly what's the problem?"

A) When entering a new audiobook if I need to edit titles it takes ages to sort through each one correctly as I have to search every single time.

B) Sometimes I need to find a specific track... as jumbled up as they are it's about 10x harder than it should be.

C) It's wrong. It should display correctly.

I have no idea if this is even the correct place to put something like this but please would someone in Apple development look into this? It's core functionality of sorting and someone has either broken it or intentionally defied standard sorting for some reason.

Throwing in my 2 cents: This needs to be fixed in the next minor update. I had audiobooks before iTunes, and I will have audiobooks after iTunes. Allowing issues like this to go unresolved and completely unaddressed will be a key factor in users switching to other devices.

Let's be clear: I like Apple's products and their customer service is generally pretty good. Unfortunately, you can't expect anything to 'just work' anymore. The software development teams need more staff, more funding, appropriate oversight (perhaps more, perhaps less interference by an exec who has a terrible sense of usability) and the ability to be responsive to issues. Any combination of these things would make a much better experience for the customers. The assumption that everyone wants one big shiny button to push is a bad one.

Your customers want the UI to be as streamlined and intuitive as possible, but no more. When you strip away control or hide it within some obscure menu or command line option, you make your software less powerful and less utilitarian. Don't forget that people use computers to actually get things done. Eye candy is great, functionality is better.

Summary: I should have control over how everything is sorted within my music library. A broader concept is applicable here: Your users are willing to accept better ways of getting things done, new layouts and interfaces, so long as the changes actually improve our ability to do what we want to do. Again, make things more simple than they should be and the powerful versatility that brought us to the Mac to begin with evaporates.

EDIT: Also, if you're viewing this thread, please do the entire community the common courtesy of logging in and posting a reply. Even if it's only a "me too". We'll be much more likely to get the attention of the moderating forces in larger numbers.

I agree totally, I love audiobooks and love my ipod and ipad but if Apple don't resolve this issue I'll consider buying Android devices, Apple should have resolved this by now, in fact they shouldn't have updated itunes until this issue was put right, I have many many Audiobooks added using gracenote to id and number and tag the tracks and now when I open the book it's just a total jumble of tracks, any audiobooks I add now I join the CD so there are no tracks just numbered discs so no problems in future but what do I do about all the Audiobooks I've added over the years!

Has anyone had a response from Apple on this issue?

This is a problem on Windows as well, and is incredibly annoying. However, on Windows the files show in the correct order in Playlists, even though they don't show in the correct order in Library. I've created a smart playlist of all my audio books, and now view everything in there.

That's a solid workaround, although it still adds an unnecessary (IMO) abstraction to what should be a simple process. Thanks for the response.

It's incredibly frustrating that Apple, being aware of the issue and having massive resources, is unwililng to devote a few labor hours to resolving this (and probably 15-20 other minor irritations) that exist in iTunes and iOS. I have some background with PHP, javascript, etc., so I'm not speaking from a knowledge of the language used to code iTunes (Cocoa framework??). It makes me want to join the developer program so I can get ahold of the tools to fix it myself and submit it.

In our version of iTunes, it won't allow us to make the same selection twice. Thanks for the response!

Apple routinely messes up audiobook sorting! In fact, I got so fed up with it when version 10 was introduced that I decided to end Apple's ability to cause that problem.

I used Join Together to combine the segments in each audiobook into parts of 12-hours or less. It took forever to consolidate all the audiobooks (I have about four thousand books), but eventually my collection dropped from hundreds of thousands of short segments to about six thousand items for iTunes to deal with. Since most audiobooks are under 12 hours in length, a book like the one you mention that has thousands of short segments can be combined into one audiobook file.

Result: No more sort issues ever again! Also, iTunes is much snappier with so many fewer tracks to keep up with.

Join Together doesn't work beyond OS 10.6 because some QuickTime feature got whacked. But toward the end I started using Audiobook Buillder and it did the job.

I also discovered this problem when I changed my audiobook files from "Music" to "Audiobooks". I agree with the general sentiment here - that Apple needs to fix this! We should have control over how things are sorted plus this sorting makes absolutely no sense! I like to use Shuffle to play my music, so I don't want my audiobooks as music - who wants to randomly get thrown into the middle of a book when listening to music! But I *always* want my audiobooks to play in Disk then Track order. Right now, I have managed to get all of my audiobooks into separate "books" by disc - but that's just a workaround. I also like the DougScript as a workaround, but since I use iTunes on Windows, that doesn't work either.

I too am having the same problem with audiobook sorting. It is very frustrating!! I have jumped through a lot of hoops trying to fix this issue, including deleting my entire itunes library and reinstalling everything (I have over 200 books and thousands of songs). I am getting very fed up with itunes and the issues I have with it. Seriously considering switching to a MP3 or using my Android phone. I like itunes layout and concept but when I am spending more time trying to "fix" their program issues than I am anything else there is a problem.

Have they address any of these issues yet? Responded to this thread in any way? I really do not want to rename all my tracks in order to sort them, or switch them to music, or pay another site to fix this issue. Would like to see itunes fix this before I say forget it and quit using it all together.

totally agree...

I cant believe this hasnt been solved yet. Many Audiobooks bought on itunes are out of order now.

How long would it take to fix this for apple?

this is more than ridiculous but what can we do? nothing..