iRiver plays files in order they were saved

[chombee]

Here's a weird problem. I have an iRiver IFP-700 (mp3 & ogg player).
iRiver released an alternate firmware for these players that allows them
to be used as a standard USB device. You can browse and transfer files
in nautilus, just as if it were a USB thumb drive or something like
that. This is a *lot* more convenient than having to use special
software.

But the problem is that with this firmware the iRiver seems to play
files in a random order. There's no obvious way to send iRiver a support
request via their website. But in browsing their FAQ I discovered that
the iRiver devices play files "in the order that they were saved."

If I drag mp3's to the player one by one then, sure enough, it plays
them in the order that I transferred them. But if I drag an entire
folder, it will not play the files in that folder in any sensible order.
Nautilus actually appears to transfer the files in alphanumeric order of
filename, you can see the order it transfers them from the status text
in the 'Copying' window. But apparently something happens along the way
that messes up the transfer times of the files, making the order seem
random.

There appear to be no way to tell the device to play the files in order
of filename, or mp3 tag, it can only play them in the order they were
saved.

Is this a nautilus 'issue'? (nautilus is doing something random to the
mtimes when it finalises the transfer). Is there some way around this?
Perhaps other file browsers would behave differently.