Track Order reversed

[d.darroch]

Hi, just bought myself an SE. A nice little player, but I've already come across an interesting problem, for which I can't find a solution.

After transferring music to the player, ALL my tracks have been stored in reverse order. ie the last track of an album is now the first (displayed & played as eg. 001/012), all the way through to what was the first track of the album (now the last, eg. 012/012).

As soon as I got the player I updated the firmware using sansa firmware updater 1.083. It now has 01.01.05P (P, I believe, for Pacific Rim, as I bought the SE in Australia).

I transferred the music on a different computer, with XP SP2, & WMP 10, by drag-n-drop in Explorer.

All my files are mp3's. I'm pretty vigilant with my ID3 tags, both while ripping from CD's using CDex, or manually changing them in Explorer - properties, or itunes.

Not a huge issue, but annoying for live albums, & excruciating for audiobooks.

Any help would be much appreciated.

NOTE: I have fixed this issue by deleting all music, & syncing to player to WMP. A solution of sorts, but I'd rather not be bound to that horrible WMP!

[huxley]

Yep. This still happens and often with FW 1.01.12A2 from Windows XP. It's a drag and it's incompetent programming on Sansa's part. There is no excuse I can see for SE not to order the files by tags. It's especally horrible for audiobooks.

Like others, the only fix I can find is using playlists. However, the good news is that you can avoid using the dreadful Windows Media Player directly.

* Install Windows Media Player 11.
- This also updates Windows Explorer for more sophisticated MTPhandling.
* Attach SE to your computers.
* Drag'n'drop mp3s to SE.
* Now, in Windows Explorer, select a group of files (or even folders) on your Sansa Express, as you would for drag'n'drop, then right-click the selection.
- Select "Create Playlist" in the right-click menu.
- Double-click the playlist you just created.
- Playlist dialog comes up.
- Reorder the files in the order you wish them to play.
- Click OK.
- Rename the playlist file.
- You can move to playlist file to "Playlists" but you don't have to.
* Remove SE from computer.
* Play mp3s from "Playlists" in Music.

[timmyjoe42]

Are your mp3 files named with the number first such as:

01 - Song
02 - Song

as opposed to:

Artist - 01 - Song
Artist - 02 - Song

I've found that the first method resolves play order in other mp3 players.

[dougak]

I posted about a simillar problem with the Sansa Clip running the latest firmware http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=38455

The MP3's sort backwards as you describe on the Clip, but if I put them on my Fuze or e280 they sort properly.

[huxley]

Yes, I name my files and tags "01 TitleA", "02 TitleB" etc. (I include the number in the title tag as well since Express does not display the track tag.) I don't have this reverse-ordering problem on my Sansa e2xx series players.

Since the Express appears to be discontinued and there have been no new firmware updates in several months, I doubt we will ever see a fix. Still I bought a bunch of Expresses for $10.99 apiece, and it's hard to go wrong at that price.

[darcyscarrot]

Whenever I've come across this problem it has actually been related to the id3 tags. (It was one of the first things I noticed when I first tried playing music on it)

I've discovered two causes of it which are:

1. The "Total Tracks" field in the id3v2 section contains information (yes that's right any figure). Depending what media player you use you can find this out quite easily. (e.g. in winamp, I think it says "3/12" for the third track on a twelve track album. I presume that certain tag editors will allow you to just clear the field on all tracks on a given album. Personally, I use foobar2000 and it allows me to do that. )
2. The id3v1 tag is empty or not activated.

I'm not sure if this is always true but I've certainly never come across an instance where checking the above didn't solve the problem.

[ALD]

Originally Posted by huxley

yep. This still happens and often with fw 1.01.12a2 from windows xp. It's a drag and it's incompetent programming on sansa's part. There is no excuse i can see for se not to order the files by tags. It's especally horrible for audiobooks.

Like others, the only fix i can find is using playlists. However, the good news is that you can avoid using the dreadful windows media player directly.

* install windows media player 11.
- this also updates windows explorer for more sophisticated mtphandling.
* attach se to your computers.
* drag'n'drop mp3s to se.
* now, in windows explorer, select a group of files (or even folders) on your sansa express, as you would for drag'n'drop, then right-click the selection.
- select "create playlist" in the right-click menu.
- double-click the playlist you just created.
- playlist dialog comes up.
- reorder the files in the order you wish them to play.
- click ok.
- rename the playlist file.
- you can move to playlist file to "playlists" but you don't have to.
* remove se from computer.
* play mp3s from "playlists" in music.

this fix worked for me.