Unofficial Tex Murphy

Okay, this question is a bit random, but I've posed it on the apple help forums and no one has been able to answer it. I figured we have some computer geniuses here, so maybe someone would know the answer.

Here's my situation:

I am using a PC and I run iTunes (the latest version, although this issue has come up on past versions too) and use an iPod to take music with me. I own a number of songs that are on CD which I have ripped and transferred into iTunes. Within iTunes these songs are organized in their albums in the order in which they appear on the album (i.e., the first song is song #1 on an album, the second song is #2, etc.). So far, all is well.

When I sync my iPod, the songs will also be in the proper order. However, at some point in time, when syncing my iPod, the iPod decides to reorder songs on some albums. (Note, this is not when first adding an album to the iPod, but just happens at some point when I connect my iPod to my computer. It happens on albums already on the iPod and I have not made any changes to these albums.) This means that albums A, B, and C may be fine, but on album D all of a sudden the song order will go something like 1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. On iTunes the songs still show up in the correct order. When I go to "Get Info" everything seems to be correct. I have not noticed that the reordering of songs is tied to anything in particular like me playing the songs in iTunes or on my iPod. The only thing I've notice is that, generally, the reordering involves moving one or two of the last songs in an album to one of the first few song slots. A couple of times I have been able to fix this by going into "Get Info" for each song on the album (and not changing anything because everything is correct) and clicking "OK". However, this doesn't always work, and when it doesn't, the only solution I've found is to delete the entire CD from iTunes and then re-rip the songs from the CD. At this point, the songs will sync to my iPod in the correct order again.

Any tips? Or is my iPod just possessed?

I'm not much of a techy, but might it be because the tracks are 'sorted' on your computer in order of track number and not by anything else?

Or it might be the way the computer thinks its reading it. If that's the case I'm not sure how to fix it, but it seems to be sorting tracks by number, not numerical order. Ie, 1, 11, 12, 2, 20, 21, 3

Does that make sense? Ie it seems to be sorting the tracks by the first then second number rather than thinking 10 is ten, not one and zero.

Try and see how the tracks are sorted when you go into the album view. If you go into the album, rather than looking at all tracks at the same time, you might find that the albums which are fine are sorted one way, and this is sorted another.

I'll look again, but I think I may have checked that. The problem I have with that being the issue is that the sorting will be fine on the iPod for weeks and then suddenly one or two of my albums will reorder themselves on my iPod. Meanwhile, everything stays fine on iTunes.

There are some bugs with the iPod that haven't been fixed in years. One I have is where songs play fine on my computer in iTunes but on the iPod some songs only play for a short time (a few seconds usually) and then jump on to the next song.

It's a known bug and hasn't been fixed in years. You might have found another one.

Alright! I discovered a bug! Do I get a prize?

As someone who has a slight obsessive compulsive disorder, when I got my first iPod I was also disappointed with the fact that iTunes/iPod failed to order the albums and songs the way you want. I have found a resolution to this but it is tedious.

For albums, whenever adding them onto iTunes, make sure you prefix the album with the year.

For example:

Instead of "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?", change the album title to "1995- (What's the Story) Morning Glory?"

The iPod then lists the album in order of the date chronology you have created for yourself.


Meanwhile, for songs:

This is where it gets more tedious because you actually have to number each song. But, I guarantee, for every album and song I have, they are correctly ordered.

So instead of:

Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion

You physically need to number them so they read like this:

1. Back in the USSR
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion


I've found for both my iPod Classic and iPod Touch by doing the above, every album and song is in order complete with artwork so I basically have my entire music collection in my pocket. It requires a lot of time and patience to overcome the monotony of going through the "one by one" process, but if you are like me and need to have every facet of your lifestyle in a certain way, then this is the path to a happier iPod.

Yeah, I am pretty OCD about this and have definitely thought about doing the year thing for the albums. I've just been too lazy to do it thusfar. Maybe I will, though.