How to sort audiobook on iTunes?

Question

I have a question that might seem dumb, but I didn't find anything on Google.

How can I do to sort my audiobook tracks on iTunes?

I have books with 4 or 5 CDs and I'd like them to appear as one.

I set the meta correctly, track x on 10 and CD number y on 5.

When I setup 1 CD by album, I have no problem, but if I put them all within the same album, itunes put me all tracks 1 then all tracks 2 regardless of the disc number.

My guess is that it is a bug from iTunes, but still, do someone have an idea?

Solution

1. Select all of the Audiobook tracks in your library together
2. Right-click and choose Get Info
3. In the Info tab, set the Artist to be the author, the album to be the title, and the 2nd Disk Number box to be 5.
4. In the Options tab set the Media Kind to be Audiobook, set Remember Position to Yes, and Skip when shuffling to Yes, then click OK.
5. Navigate to the Books section of your library in List view and find the tracks.
6. For each disk, select that group and Get Info, then set each disk number to the proper disk number. Then set the 2nd track number to the number of tracks on that disk and press OK.
7. Get Info on each track individually and set the track number to the appropriate track number.

This is the "right way" which will set your metadata appropriately, but if it is too much of a hassle, just set the Media Kind to Audiobook and add them to a playlist and arrange the order manually.

Comments

[louis8831]

As I said, I already setup all the metadata, but still, itunes will not conside the disc number and put all the track1 cd 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then track2 cd 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc... I didn't think to use a playlist, good idea, but it still wierd that itunes does not handle this kind of thing, no?

[Ben Mordecai]

@louis8831 I haven't personally had the issue and I'm a fairly heavy user of audiobooks. Usually I find that I have missed something subtle in the metadata when something similar happens to me.