iTunes 11 not sorting multi-disc audiobooks by disc number

This issue is so easily solved with playlists. It takes about 10 seconds. Select the audio book. It will list all the tracks in some crazy random order. Click on the icon for creating playlists. Choose "New Playlist from Selection." This will create a playlist using all the tracks from the selected book, and the tracks in the playlist will be in the correct order. Because the playlists are so easy to create, there's no reason you have to create playlists for every book in your library. Just create the playlist when you want to listen, and delete it when you're done if you don't want it cluttering up your list of playlists.

The issue isn't solved with playlists at all. We currently use playlists, rename files or jump through some other hoop, but these are all workarounds. The audiobooks section of iTunes (and iOS devices) should work properly. Period.

The main selling point of these devices is that they are easy and intuitive to use. That I can't go to the section of the software dedicated to audiobooks and play them flawlessly should be a serious issue for a company that has prided themselves on their user interfaces for so long. I understand that they're not led by a passionate visionary engineer anymore. That's no excuse for this nonsense and other issues like it. Put 5 people on the job and give them 30 days to address this stuff and hundreds of issues could be resolved.

The fellow now is a numbers guy, and you see how the stock price has dropped as the competition is doing very well, Apple is dumping resources into boutique retail outlets that probably lose money and the company doesn't seem to be doing anything that's going to be game changing. A flexible screen watch? Everyone is working on flexible screens, and who wears a watch anymore? Where's the next paradigm shift, Apple?

This is so terrible.

I am a teacher with loads of student/teacher audio cds that go along with textbooks. Why on earth would iTunes organize the tracks in such a way when as audiobooks they are meant to be listened to as entire CDs. With me, it has me jumping from three different cds all messed up. I don't even know how to create a playlist as some have suggested to fix this because iTunes will not allow me to add audiobook tracks as part of playlists. Gosh, this has to be fixed.

I thought about to use the script, but why do I need to do that when Apple should fix it!?

mark.barnes wrote:

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.

For Windows users I have a workaround described at Audiobooks on iPods by way of a script called AudiobookSortName that generates names that sort logically in iTunes & on devices.

tt2

Same problem here, this is absurd.

This is a problem for me too. I find it irritating becuase it used to work fine. I could just play my audiobooks in the order I ripped them from the CDs. Ironically, I had been trying to listen to audiobooks on my android phone but I decided to switch back to Apple because it worked better...only to discover this glitch. Although creating playlists is a fine stop-gap measure, it removes all the benefit of designating files as "audiobooks," like being able to playback at different speeds, remember position, etc.

Please fix this! Many people want it and it makes sense!

Why does creating playlists remove the benefit of designating the file as an "audiobook?" I have created several playlists from my audiobook files, and they playback at 2x speed and remember position just fine.

Fixed in 11.0.3!

This problem is still not fixed, why?

Does Apple think that the way that thier devices are sorting/playing audiobooks is the best way?

Evan, it's not fixed on my ipad, can you be more specific?

On my windows laptop the audiobook is listed in itunes in the correct order but on my ipad and ipod the discs are listed in the wrong order e.g. Nature girl by Carl Hiaasen is sorted in this order - chapter 1a - 3f - 7a - 10b - 13 c etc etc etc!

Is tehre anyway to get Aplle to fix this? Is there any way to find out if Apple will ever fix this problem? I used to love my ipad but now I hate it!!!!! 😟

The issue has been fixed in iTunes for Mac OS.

Possibly because single track audiobooks, which the iTunes store sells, work just fine.

As given above... for Windows users I have a workaround described at Audiobooks on iPods by way of a script called AudiobookSortName that generates names that sort logically in iTunes & on devices. There are also links to single track conversion programs, including those for Mac.

tt2

Thanks for the info Gentlemen but I've really had enough of this now, I spent a lot of time and effort adding a hundred audiobooks to iTunes making sure they were all indexed correctly, which they were in the old version of iTunes but they're not anymore, I'm going to buy an Android tablet and bin my ipad, this problem along with other quirks like Adobe Flash and Bluetooth file transfer makes Apple devices, which are undeniably very high quality devices, not worth he hassle of owning them! If updates make the product worse then the update shouldn't be released at all or should be backwardly rollable to go back to a version which was considerably better!

Have you looked for (or started) a thread in the iPad section of the forums? This is the "iTunes for Mac" area. Somebody in the iPad forum might have some more info or tips for you.

If you're not happy with the iPad I'm sure you can find someone to take it off your hands.

The way iTunes treats audiobooks on devices hasn't really changed in the five or so years that I've been taking notice. Workarounds are what there is. If the new look of iTunes has made organizing things harder than they used to be for you then this post has some tips. FWIW I doubt the grass is any greener, I suspect you'll just get different problems to bug you.

tt2

I can really understand how aggravated you are about it. It doesn't help to say sarcastic things to you about your iPad. I can understand the feelings you have and feel bad about your situation. For me I was messed up for months until the fix was added to iTunes for Mac. I'm still not sure it's working that great on my iPhone though.