Transferring iTunes Playlist to USB While Maintaining Track Order

paintedbird wrote:

I figured out that the key is to prepend the tracks while still on your desktop so that the information will transfer over to the USB like that. I was trying to prepend in the USB, but the data from the songs must have still been ingrained from when they were transferred over.

I am guessing the above is Microsoft's fault. Seriously.

FAT filesystems as commonly used on USB and SD memory are stuck with 8.3 filenames. Microsoft's hack to fix that is to use an invisible file which cross references the mixed case long filename you see displayed with the calculated 8.3. Guessing your player only bothers with the 8.3 names. The 8.3 names are normally never seen so there is no point in changing that name just because you changed the long name.

So if you prefix a number to your song names before copying then that prefixed number will be used in creating shortened 8.3 names on the USB media.

The filenames don't matter to the MP3 player because the player uses only info embedded in the song file, the stuff you see with the Info command in iTunes.

go to the playlist. click on one song and hit ctrl + a to select them all. than click on on just one song and drag it into the folder you want it in. its just click and drag. it wont let you copy and paste from itunes. and the music doesnt get screwed up at all.

instead of drag n drop you can try a free tool i've found.

the tool is named iSyncer

see http://www.isyncer.de/en

the tool synchronizes selected itunes playlist to usb stick or sd card.

have fun.

I just had to do this today and noticed the playlist was out of order on the thumb drive. But when I uploaded them from the thumb drive to my wife's MBP into an iTunes playlist the original order was restored. Has anyone else had this experience? Does it have to do with the formatting of the thumb drive?

Thanks.

curler1947 wrote:

I just had to do this today and noticed the playlist was out of order on the thumb drive. But when I uploaded them from the thumb drive to my wife's MBP into an iTunes playlist the original order was restored. Has anyone else had this experience? Does it have to do with the formatting of the thumb drive?

No. It has to do how you are sorting the songs.

On the thumb drive, it is sorted on the column you select in the Finder window. There is no track number to sort on in a Finder window.

In iTunes, it sorts on the column you select in iTunes.

To add a question to this discussion...

Will a iPod compatible stereo be able to read the playlists like it is on an iPod? For example, if I copy three playlists, i.e. Rock, Country and Pop will it read three separate lists and I can tab through them?

I am looking at stereos for my motorcycle and trying to determine if I absolutely have to get a stereo with an iPod connector or if a USB drive will work.

Thank you for your time.

maddog094 wrote:

Will a iPod compatible stereo be able to read the playlists like it is on an iPod? For example, if I copy three playlists, i.e. Rock, Country and Pop will it read three separate lists and I can tab through them?

It is up to the stereo manufacturer if they include this function.

You will need to look at the specific stereo.

Thank you so much. I was having a similar problem and your fix worked.

I discovered that iTunes 12.1.2.27 automatically numbers songs, in their original order, when I burn a CD from a playlist. Using the CD with the numbered songs, I copied the playlist to a USB drive. The songs on the drive are in the same order as the playlist in iTunes with a number assigned to each song. Much faster than numbering each song individually. It does waste a CD but if you want to copy many playlists each with dozens of songs, you could do it all at one time using just one CD (in mpeg of course). It could take all day to number each song in each play list by hand. With this technique, it takes just a few minutes.

iTunes version 11 does not seem to have this feature.

An addition to this discussion...

First, one question... Do I need to make mp3 versions before I transfer them to the flash drive/stick?

2) Within my playlist, I add/delete songs as I want then I transfer them. I open up the memory stick to confirm and all seem to be OK until I put it in my car. When it is in my car the songs are out of order, the songs that I deleted are there again and each song is duplicated.

Thoughts?

You do not have to make a MPG version but if you don't use this encoding your player will not be able to display track name and other info associated with each song.

THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT. SO EASY. NO DOWNLOADING NEEDED!

WINDOWS 7 USER. TRANSFERRING 117 SONGS FROM A PLAYLIST IN ITUNES TO A FOLDER TO TRANSFER TO A USB.

MP3 FILES.

OPEN PLAYLIST.

CLICK TOP SONG.

PRESS CTRL + A.

DRAG TO A FOLDER OF YOUR CHOICE.

DONE.

ENJOY!

FILES DIDN'T REMAIN IN THE ORDER THE PLAYLIST PLAYS BUT WHO CARES!

This may not be elegant, but it works as it transfers the playlist and music in the order that it is on the iTunes playlist.

Burn your playlist to CD (or DVD if it is large). I use a rewritable DVD.

Open the CD or DVD in a Finder Window.

Copy the playlist to your flash drive.

In the flashdrive, sort the files by the track number.

I had the same problem and also figured it out using the above method. But now I have an odd wrinkle. A colleague and I are making several playlists for a prominent music industry person. Each playlist is 3 and one half hours long, and is sequenced. This amounts to around 70 songs per list. I have been numbering each file - doing so while they are in a folder on my desktop - and they have been downloading perfectly in order when sending them via DropBox. However, Dropbox is very unwieldy to use, and our client has had difficulties navigating DropBox successfully. I recently switched to WeTransfer which is much much easier to use. However, when my colleague downloaded the list, and put the list into his iTunes to preview and critique the list before we send it off to the client, the songs were out of sequence, even tho they have all been renumbered. He has gone to View / View as / Playlist and still they are not in the correct order.

Any suggestions?

paintedbirdLevel 1 (0 points)

A:

Holy crap!! I think I just figured it out on my own (and by re-reading/piecing some things together in this thread).

1. Create a new Finder folder on your desktop. Title it with the name of your playlist.

2. Copy and paste the playlist from iTunes into the folder. No need to change anything in iTunes, just transfer as-is.

3. Prepend your tracks in the folder on your desktop (i.e. re-name them with the number of the track preceeding the track title). This will not change the title of the tracks in iTunes.

4. Drag and drop the folder of your playlist into your USB.

5. Voila! Tracks are transferred in order!

I figured out that the key is to prepend the tracks while still on your desktop so that the information will transfer over to the USB like that. I was trying to prepend in the USB, but the data from the songs must have still been ingrained from when they were transferred over.

Hope this helps someone else out, too! I noticed that there hasn't been a clear answer on any of the message boards yet (at least, that I was able to use).

Posted on Sep 13, 2013 9:04 AM

Sorry - I meant to include the above post in my reply just now. This is the method I have been using to 'lock in' the sequence of my playlists prior to the We Transfer problem.