@Gerrywaz, I do not have an OB yet, but most portable audio players and car audio system play the files in the order in which they are stored on the disk.
Unfortunately, I do not know of any option in Windows that enables you to see the files unsorted, that is, in the order in which they are stored. Windows Explorer sorts files alphabetically, by modified date, by type (extension), or by size. Showing them unsorted would be faster, but it is not an option.
If you have Linux, you can list the files unsorted using "ls -f1 /path/to/directory/".
Strangely, the same command does not produce an unsorted listing in Cygwin or MacOS (I just tried), although they both provide a Unix like environment.
An internet search shows that there are a few Windows applications that do what I was describing in my initial post. That is, sort files in alphabetical order on a FAT file system without copying the files to a different disk and back. I've heard of cases where even copying the files to an empty drive, does not always copy them in alphabetical order.
You may try one of these two apps:
DriveSort, or
FAT Sorter.
The first one seems more complete, but I did not personally use either of them.
Still, let us know if you run into any issues or if it fixes your problem, in case that you try this. It may help other people.
Just got my new 2013 OB 3.6 Limited and I'm having trouble with playing music from a USB drive.
I can't make heads or tails of how it is determining what files to play inside a folder on a USB drive. It's not alphabetical and it's not by file date created or file date modified.
Any clues on how to get songs in a folder on a USB stick to play in the order that you wish in the OB?
In my 2010 OB this was by data created. The 2013 has me totally confused.
And my USB settings do not have random turned on.