Head unit sorts USB files wrong

Hello everyone -

I have been wrestling with what may seem like a small problem. It's not a show-stopper, but it sure is annoying! It makes one feature of the entertainment system useless to me. I have a 2013 Pro4x with the non-navigation head unit.

When I plug a USB stick in, the head unit sorts the files in what seems like a random order. The truck owner's manual says they are sorted in date sequence, but that is demonstrably not true. I wrote a bash script that sets the file dates to a known sequence, but the head unit STILL shows them in some other order.

For pop songs I guess this is not such a big deal. I like classical music, though. The movements of a symphony or piano sonata or opera MUST be played in the right sequence, else the music makes no sense at all. It's even worse if movement from several compositions get mixed up!

What's the deal here? Has anyone investigated this in detail? Does the head unit really sort by date, or is that just a typo in the manual?

What I would like is to have the files sorted by filename. The scheme I use for ripping files sets the track number as the first two characters of the filename, so sorting by filename automagically puts tracks in the right order.

I am also annoyed that the head unit only knows about mp3 and wav formats. Maybe I should just continue doing what I have been for the last four years ... plug my digital music player into the aux port. That works well but has an annoying number of wires to hook up. It also does not use the steering wheel controls.

Replacing the head unit is not an option for me. Too much money, too much work, and zero guarantee that it would do things any different.

Bill Gee