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Sorting Tracks

On The Archos 8Gb MP3 Player

Success In Sorting Songs On The Archos 8gb mp3 Player

When I bought this Archos 8Gb 18 Vision mp3 player and transferred as many CDs as would fit on to it I was astonished that the tracks didn't play in the correct order. Some people may like songs played randomly but for me the original order is the only way to play a CD.

I was frustrated. I really couldn't believe it - an mp3 player that couldn't play tracks in the correct order. It seemed a waste of money. I tried renaming the tracks and once was able, with great difficulty, to organise a CD but it was hit and miss. Then I suddenly realised how it might be done. I tried it out and it worked like a charm.

The rest is history! Read on.

It is only slightly more suitable if you keep CDs in separate folders, or even if you keep separate folders for each artist. It is nothing to do with the tags. It is the order they are saved to the mp3 player. So when you grab a folder from your computer and drag it over to the mp3 player the order in which the tracks are transferred is not necessarily in the track number order and you end up with tracks in any order. This is ANNOYING.

Aaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh!

In fact as far as I can tell it is a bug in the software of the player. It seems to be the case that it is always the 'first' track which is never in the correct order. The 'first' track doesn't necessarily mean track number 1. Nevertheless, the method shown here works for me, hopefully it will also work for you.

Unfortunately correcting the situation is a slow process and awkward, but if you have favourite CDs and want them ordered correctly - this is how you do it. It's very straight forward. The following are the basic instructions. Below them are images of both linux operating system (which I use) and also Microsoft XP operating system, with further instructions.

1. Firstly, go to the MUSIC folder on the Archos mp3 player.
2. Go into the folder of the CD you want to sort.
3. Create a new folder within the particular CD album folder, use the same as the CD, but alter the name slightly so it is not exactly the same as the name of the folder you are in
4. Drag the tracks, one by one, in the order you want them to be played to the new folder.
5. Cut the new folder and paste into the main MUSIC folder.
6. Delete the old folder, which should now be empty
7. Rename the new folder whatever name you want, or leave it as it is.

It's simple. Yeah, right!

It is possible to create a new folder outside the original folder but then it may be more awkward dragging the tracks from the old folder to the new one, unless you use linux. Anyway, if you create the new folder within the old CD folder the dragging of files is very easy. It is your time. It is your mp3 player. It is your choice!

If you use the Microsoft operating system you can skip past the next image and go to the next one down the page. But have a look at how the linux operating system works, as regards how one of the file and directory explorers (konqueror) works. The linux operating system is totally free and there are HUGE choices of different types of user interface (desktops).

There is a section further down the page describing what to do if you keep all the tracks together and don't have any CD or Artist folders. In other words if when you go to the Archos player MUSIC folder you can see all the tracks together.

Using Separate Folders For CD or Artist

Using the Linux operating system

As you can see the original folder was named PastPresentAndFuture. Within that folder I created a new folder and named it Al-Stewart-PastPresentAndFuture and have dragged 3 files into the new folder, one at a time. When I am finished dragging tracks 4 to 8 into the new folder I will drag, or cut and paste, the new folder to the main MUSIC folder where it will end up between A-Hard-Road-vbr and Aqualung. I will then be able to delete the folder PastPresentAndFuture, which will be empty.

The image below is just after I dragged the first 3 tracks.

Using the Microsoft operating system

Instructions using Microsoft File Explorer:

1. Connect the player
2. Open the file explorer on your computer
3. Go to the Archos mp3 player MUSIC folder and open the folder of a CD you want to sort
   In the example above it is PastPresentAndFuture
4. Create a new folder within that CD folder
   In the example above Al-Stewart-PastPresentAndFuture
5. Drag the tracks into the new folder in the order you want them to play
   In the example above I have already dragged tracks 1 through (thru) 3
6. When you are finished you should be left with just the new folder In the example above: Al-Stewart-PastPresentAndFuture
7. Click on the folder to select it, click EDIT in the menu at the top of the window, choose CUT, then press the icon - the folder with green arrow pointing upwards, when the window is refreshed, click in the EDIT menu and choose PASTE. The new folder should be in the correct place with its tracks sorted in the order you wanted.
   
8. Then delete the original, now empty, folder
   In the example above the last part of the address bar would read \ARCHOS 2\music. And I would then delete the PastPresentAndFuture folder and be left with the Al-Stewart-PastPresentAndFuture with all my tracks correctly sorted.

They should now be in the correct order. Check it out to make sure before proceeding to the next CD - just to be sure - to be sure!

Now only another 4,000 CDs to go! You'll be finished before teatime - next year!

No Separate Folders For CD or Artist

It is difficult for me to show how to do this as I always use separate folders per CD.

These are the steps, as far as I can tell. I created a dummy folder TEMP, and some dummy mp3 files in order to demonstrate what you need to do.

Presumably each track will have its track number at the start of each file name, or at least before each track title, otherwise you may run into problems. The files in the TEMP directory (as set out below) need to be sorted alphabetically (see the little arrow beside the column title 'name' in the explorer or konqueror images - this means they are sorted in alphabetical/numerical order by name.

Using the Linux operating system

1. Rename the 'music' folder on the Archos player to TEMP.
   (This saves you the problem of creating a TEMP folder and then dragging all the files to it. It would take too long.)
2. Create a new folder and name it music
3. As you can see on the image above, just drag the mp3 files from the TEMP folder to the MUSIC folder one by one. It shouldn't be necessary to drag the tracks according to the CD, as far as I can tell anyway.

Using the Microsoft operating system

1. Connect the player
2. Open the file explorer on your computer
3. Go to the Archos mp3 player.
   You should see a few folders (Video, Music, Photo, Data etc)
4. Rename the 'music' folder on the Archos player to TEMP.
   (This saves you the problem of creating a TEMP folder and then dragging all the files to it. It would take too long.)
5. Create a new folder and name it music
6. Start a new file explorer and go to the TEMP folder within the Archos folder.
7. At this stage you should have 2 file explorers open as shown above.
   The first (top window) at the top level in Archos player where you should see the 3 or 4 main folders (music, photo, video, etc). The second (bottom window) where you are IN the TEMP folder and seeing all your tracks.
8. Then drag each track, separately, from the TEMP folder to the original MUSIC folder on the player.
9. I would advise you to stop after moving about 50 files and check the player to see what the results are. This all depends on how the tracks are named. There is no point in spending a lot of time moving each track if it doesn't work for some reason or other.

This may not solve all the world's problems but it may ensure there is one less frustrating aspect to life.

Updated: 31st October 2011