How do I create a flash drive with audiobook files in the same order as the CD on a Mac mini?

Question

How do I create a flash drive with audiobook files in the same order as the CD on a Mac mini?

I have a 2020 Mac Mini running Sonoma 14.6.1. My wife purchased a new car that does NOT have a CD player. I want to create a flash drive of some of her audiobooks so she can listen to them while driving. I have tried several tactics but no joy. I have tried renaming the converted files alphabetically, but Macos seems to not want to allow this process. I guess it's attempting to, more efficiently, store the data. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 14.6

Posted on Feb 24, 2025 11:58 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 24, 2025 01:19 PM in response to central_texan

You may run into the problem that the Finder creates a bunch of unwanted metadata files on the flash drive, e.g., if you have files like

CHAP_01.MP3

CHAP_02.MP3

the Finder may create

._CHAP_01.MP3

._CHAP_02.MP3

which are not audio files. A non-Mac system may be confused by the .MP3 extensions, try to play the extra files – and predictably discover that they are "corrupt."

You can use Script Editor (Applications > Utilities > Script Editor) to create a Dot_Clean application to help you clean off these pesky files. The idea is to drag-and-drop the USB flash drive icon on top of the Dot_Clean application one after you have finished preparing the drive, and then to immediately Eject the USB flash drive, before the Finder can write any more unwanted ._ files to it.

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Answer 2

Feb 24, 2025 01:10 PM in response to central_texan

If you imported these files from audio CDs, there shouldn't be any sort of DRM on them.

You should be able to drag-and-drop them from the Music library onto the Desktop or a flash drive to copy them, and then name the copies anything you want. (Don't mess around with the names of files stored inside the Music library.)

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Answer 3

Phil0124

Level 10

214,447 points

Feb 24, 2025 01:17 PM in response to central_texan

So what happens when you try to rename them exactly?

Once on the flash drive, clicking on an audiobook file and then hitting enter should let you rename the file to anything you want.

If you want to be specific about order, use a number at the beginning of the file name such as:

1_title_of_audio_book.ext

2_title_of_second_audio_book.ext

etc...

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