[EXPLANATION] How to sort songs in USB car stereo

[Peke]

Hi,
I tested on another pioneer car stereo and app from https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewt ... 00#p460200 works flawlessly when files named from MMW as described.

[Guy Turner]

That was much better than copying files in bulk to the drive. It sorted the Artists in order, mostly, with a couple random albums put on the drive in between albums from another artist, but didn't sort the albums by my playlist order at all. It sorted Albums mostly by alphanumeric order with a couple exceptions where it sorted in seemingly random order instead of the order in which I have my playlist sorted, (Chronological order or Reverse Chronological order). It also mostly sorted the songs in order with a few random exceptions.

Also, If any files are added to my playlist later and I re-sync the drive then my stereo sorts the newer folders and songs last regardless of the order in my playlist because my stereo will Always sort by the order in which the file was put on the drive.

I don't mind deleting everything on the drive and re-syncing with my playlist when I want to update my drive but I need it to be in the order that I use on my playlist which is usually either Chronological Album order or Reverse Chronological Album order depending on the Artist.

In a perfect program I would want the files to be copied to the drive in this order... (1-Artist order (alphanumeric, the way the playlists are sorted) 2-Album order in my playlist (usually either Chronological or Reverse Chronological order) 3-Song order in my playlist (Usually the song order of the album).

I guess I will continue to do it the old way for my Pioneer DEH9600BHS... putting everything on the drive in the order I want, one at a time.

Thanks anyway,
Master Foo

[Peke]

Hi,
I was right someone lied you at pioneer support as based on https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Stat ... 080713.pdf under "USB storage device" and "Sequence of audio files" is exactly the same as in my old https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Stat ... al1006.pdf and naming works. Only thing is that playlists are not supported in both devices, so you basically will have duplicate files in folders as each folder will be your Playlist fit file content from them.

DriveSort app worked a miracle every time.

EDIT: Only thing I think I needed to change is to set Folder Mode playback.

[Cienega32]

For me, the easiest way was setting the File Locations in the USB device config to <Playlist>\<Auto Number> <Title> and just right-click-send to whatever playlist to the device.

[Peke]

Hi,
Let me clear this once em for all.
- There is NO device that reads files as they are put on device. PERIOD
- it is not possible to make such device to read files as they are put on device as it is too complicated. PERIOD (on each Copy Device would need to be LOW LEVEL FORMATED and COMPLETELY BLANK prior to first track save. That behavior even if made would kill Device itself withing weeks. LOW LEVEL format is death wish for SDD/Flash Drives/ SDCards/... that are chip based storage devices.
- Devices that Claim to read files as they are written to Drive only READ FAT/FAT32/eXFAT First partition Table here File names and file positions on drives are stored. THAT is invisible to normal user and apps as it is written in order files are saving on device.
- DriveSort APP I recommended rewrite FAT Table making devices think that the files are stored in that order.

[Lowlander]

You really wonder why anyone found this a logical choice?

[Peke]

Hi,
Simple answer speed of access, less memory usage, lower CPU cycles, easy to implement due the strict standards and even recommended to be used for ReadOnly Devices. FAT is written on number of sectors at the beginning of Drive/Partition (that is why if HDD sector 0 is damages it is hard to make that drive be boot drive) and it is easy to read that to get exact positions of files on drive. With increase of storage capacity things changed, but principle stayed the same.

More info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_of ... ile_system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Gxqv3bJCk , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgQtlXBxH0c and how they are allocated on disk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyk9dXOuq30
Another clear example is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbHMDZTVrJg

If you watch all these videos then you will get the answer why there is a BIG BIG WARNING not to DEFRAGMENT SDD/Flash Drives/SDCards/... as defragment eats chip Read/Write times that can easily end up in killing the drive. That also explains why Defragmenting HDD after system install improve loading times especially if Defragment app is separate boot OS and is aware what most common and most used files will be loaded on startup and put them in continuous chain on faster parts of HDD. I can go on for hours as I use this for more than 25 years and often used direct FAT access to my hardware projects.

[techster]

Pramod, thank you for the instructions. I have successfully auto numbered numerous flashdrives over the past years using this method to sort by title. It has worked perfectly up to 999 songs. I recently attempted this method for a playlist with over 1200 songs. Although it seems to keep the correct order on the flashdrive, it does not work in my BMW (which has previously always worked in). It now skips from 100 to 1000 instead of 101.

Do you have any suggestions for larger playlists over 1000 songs (other than weeding thru songs and cutting down the list)? I am hoping someone has experience with this.

[Lowlander]

Change <Auto Number> to <Auto Number:4> to force a 4 digit AutoNumber for Playlists up to 9999 files.

[techster]

Problem solved! It worked like a charm for a playlist with over 1000 songs! Thanks so much!