Loading audio players on your Mac

Steps

1. Open the loader

   Double-click the downloaded .dmg file. A window opens showing the loader — the Load Audio Players.applescript launcher and the operator guide. (The one file that does the actual work, load_content.sh, is kept in a hidden .loader folder so there's nothing to click by mistake — the launcher finds it for you.) You can run it straight from this window, or drag the launcher to a folder on your Mac first if you'd rather keep it handy.

   Your audio content stays in its own folder, wherever you like — the one that holds your numbered sub-folders (001 …, 002 …). It does not need to be beside the loader: when you press Run, the loader asks you to point to it (step 4).

   🎯 Setting up your content folder for a specific player? Open the Player-Specific Setup tab (at the top of this page) for your device model — how to structure the folders, name the files, and which audio format and cable or card reader your player needs.

   

2. Plug in the devices

   Plug in the USB hub with the devices to be loaded. (A powered hub — one with its own wall plug — is best; a hub running only off the Mac's power rarely keeps many devices going at once.)

   Loading an SD or microSD card for a player that takes one? Cards work too — in your Mac's built-in card slot (with a microSD→SD adapter as needed) or in any USB card reader. Make sure the card's little lock slider is off — locked cards are skipped as write-protected.

   

3. Start the loader

   Double-click Load Audio Players.applescript — the launcher that came in the folder. It opens in Script Editor (a built-in Mac app). Click the Run button — the ► play-triangle near the top-right — or press Cmd + R.

   ℹ️ Says the file is “locked”? That's normal — just click Cancel. Because the launcher opens from the read-only disk image, Script Editor may show the notice below. You're only running the launcher, not editing it — so click Cancel, then press Run as usual. It may reappear now and then; just click Cancel each time — it never stops the loader. (To skip it entirely, drag the loader files out of the disk image into a folder on your Mac and run them from there.)

   

   

   A Terminal window opens and the loader starts asking its questions there — the first is which folder to load (next step). From here on you just follow the prompts. (You can close the Script Editor window.)

   ℹ️ First time only — click Allow. The first run, macOS asks whether Script Editor may control Terminal — click OK / Allow. The loader may also ask whether Terminal can reach your files or a removable disk — allow those too, or it can't see your devices. These appear once, then never again.
   Launcher won't open in Script Editor, or you'd rather use Terminal directly?

   You can always start the loader straight from Terminal — the manual way, which never depends on anything:

   1. Open Terminal: press Cmd + Space, type terminal, press Return.
   2. Type bash followed by one space (don't press Return yet).
   3. Drag load_content.sh from your content folder onto the Terminal window and drop it — its location appears after bash.
   4. Click the Terminal window and press Return.

   (If double-clicking the launcher opens it in a code editor like VS Code instead of Script Editor, right-click it → Open With → Script Editor — or just use the Terminal steps above.)

4. Choose your content folder

   A Choose Folder window opens (starting at your Desktop). Navigate to the folder that holds your numbered audio sub-folders (001 …, 002 …), select it, and click Choose. That folder — and only what's inside it — is what gets loaded onto the devices.

   

5. Choose a volume label

   A box asks for the volume label — the name the devices will have. Click OK for the default (PLAYER), or type your own (letters and numbers, up to 11).

   💡 Tip: use a new, unused name each batch — it makes the after-the-run device check (see Verify every device, below) reliable.

   

   A few more quick questions follow:

   • Names on the devices — keep your original folder and file names, or have every folder and audio file renamed to simple numbers (folders become 001, 002, …; files become 001.mp3, 002.mp3, …) in play order, restarting inside each folder. Files keep their extension, and your source folder is never touched. Choose Simple numbers if your player is picky about long names.

     

   • Which player? — pick your player model from a list. The loader then checks your content against that player's documented rules (folder depth, file types, naming) before anything is erased. Pick Other / not sure for generic checks only. If you pick a player this tool cannot load (an encrypted-only model like the MegaVoice Envision or Davar/Kivah Audibible), the loader explains why and stops safely — nothing gets erased.

     

   • Content check — the loader looks for things that often will not play: audio files sitting directly inside a top-level folder (many players need an album sub-folder), file types like .m4a that many players cannot decode, empty folders, and folders that mix numbered and un-numbered names. If it finds any, a caution box lists every offending file by name. The write-order preview also opens automatically, with each flagged item marked right where it sits in the tree — the reason written on the item, and every folder above it opened for you. Read it — then Load anyway, or Cancel and fix the folder first.
     💡 Files are written to the devices in filename order — add 001, 002… prefixes to set the play order. You can also open this preview yourself, any run, from the final confirmation's Preview order… button (step 10 below).

     

     

6. Confirm the device count

   A message tells you how many target disks were found (it counts your USB devices and SD cards), with buttons Cancel / Show in Finder / Choose disks…. "Show in Finder" opens the drives so you can peek at what's on them; the message then comes back. Click Choose disks… to continue.

   

7. Pick which disks to load

   A list appears. Each row is one DISK, shown with its size and the name(s) it shows up under in Finder. All disks start selected. If you see a disk you want to keep (for example a backup drive), hold Cmd and click that row to deselect it. Then click Continue….

   

8. Read and confirm

   A final message shows exactly which disks will be ERASED and which will be KEPT, and reminds you that files are written in filename order. Read it! Then click Erase & Load. Not ready yet? Preview order… opens the write-order preview in your browser first, and Back returns to the disk list with your choices kept. (Pressing Esc also goes back; the disk list's Cancel button stops the whole run.)

   Preview order… shows a collapsible folder tree of exactly what will be written, top to bottom in play order — original names alongside the renamed device names when Simple numbers is on. Expand or collapse any folder, or use the Expand all / Collapse all buttons. (It is the same page that opens automatically when the content check finds problems — and the preview and the copy are built from one and the same file list, so what you preview is exactly what is written.)

   

   

9. Wait

   A progress bar shows overall progress and time remaining. As each device finishes you'll see a line like:

     OK    disk5 loaded and ejected

   Leave everything plugged in until the run finishes. Mid-run you can't easily tell which physical device a line like disk5 is — so don't pull anything yet. The output is colour-coded — green for loaded, red for failures — but you don't need the colours: every line also starts with the word OK or REDO, so the words alone tell you which is which. (Ejected means the Mac has safely let go of a device — but leave it plugged in until the whole run finishes.) At the end you get a RESULTS summary grouped into GOOD CHECK REDO (see below), and a dialog asks Run again? Now the lights tell you which device is which: solid = loaded, blinking = failed, dark = dead battery. That's the moment to unplug and sort them. Click Run again to do the next batch (or redo failures), or Done to stop.

   ✅ Finished for good? After you click Done, the Terminal window shows [Process completed] — nothing is running any more. Quit both apps the easy way: press Cmd + Q in Terminal, and Cmd + Q in Script Editor. You will not be asked to “terminate a running process” — the loader has already finished cleanly.

   

   💡 The devices blink while they load — that's normal. Their lights flicker as data is written, and the tool deliberately makes a failed device keep blinking after the run ends so you can spot it. The light that matters is the one after the run finishes — see When some devices fail, below.

When some devices fail

This is normal with cheap USB devices. Bad cables, loose connectors, corrosion, or humidity make some devices fail — expect it. The RESULTS summary at the end sorts every device:

Easiest way to finish a batch: when the run ends, a dialog asks Run again? Unplug the finished devices and set them aside; leave the still-blinking failures plugged in (sorting details below). Add a fresh batch of devices too if you like, then click Run again. Because the finished devices have already ejected and detached, only the still-connected REDO failures — plus anything new you added — show up in the list, so it redoes just the failures. Repeat until nothing is left blinking. The same dialog appears after a successful run too — swap in the next batch and click Run again, or Done to stop.

Which physical device failed?

When the run finishes with failures, the script helps you find them two ways, automatically:

1. The still-blinking lights are the failures — so leave those plugged in. Take out everything else and sort it by its light:

• Steady / solid light — finished. These loaded and were ejected. Unplug them and set them aside as your done pile. (Still test them later — see Verify every device, below.)
• No light at all (dark) — dead battery. The device switched off or its battery died mid-copy, so it failed too. Unplug it and set it aside to charge fully before you reload it.
• Still blinking — failed; leave it connected. This is a REDO device and stays for the next round.

Then pick up at Easiest way to finish a batch, above — click Run again and repeat until nothing is left blinking.

2. It marks them in Finder — and macOS helps you avoid pulling the wrong one. The failed devices stay connected and visible in Finder and are renamed REDO. Open a Finder window and watch the list under your Mac's name (e.g. "Seth's MacBook Pro") as you unplug — the only USB volumes still shown there are the failed REDO ones.

• The finished devices were already ejected, so pulling one is silent — nothing complains.
• If you pull a device and macOS warns “Disk not ejected properly” (unsafe removal), you just took out a still-mounted REDO device — one you meant to leave connected. No harm done, but the warning tells you it belongs in the failures pile: put it back, or set it aside to redo.
• To pin down which physical device is which, unplug them one at a time and watch for a REDO to disappear from the Finder list.

Verify every device before handing it out

This tool cannot catch every failure. A device that fully disconnected or lost power partway through can still be reported as loaded, and a blank or half-written device is not always obvious. So test the devices — even when the run reports no failures:

1. Pull the failed (REDO) devices first (see above), so they're out of the way.
2. Unplug and re-plug the rest — or just re-plug the whole hub — and confirm each one shows up again in Finder with the name you chose (e.g. PLAYER).
3. One device at a time is the most reliable check.

Troubleshooting

Player-Specific Setup

The loader tool itself works the same for every brand of player. It wipes each device you select, gives it a fresh standard format (FAT32 — the format nearly every simple player reads), and copies your numbered folders onto it in play order. This tab is about matching your source folder and your hardware to your specific player — the folder layout, the filenames, the audio format, and the cable or card reader that particular family expects.

The author is actively expanding the list of tested players. Where a family below is marked not yet tested, that is an invitation to try it, not a verdict against it: it will very likely work as long as you set up the source folder structure, filenames, and audio format the way that player expects. As a rule of thumb, the author expects this tool to load essentially any device that GRN/MegaVoice's SaberCopy can load, given the right folder structure and format.

The loader itself uses this research: at the start of each run it asks which player you are loading and checks your content folder against that player's documented rules before anything is erased.

Will my player work?

Run your player through these four questions. If it clears all four, this tool can load it.

1. Does it expose removable storage? Either the player mounts as a USB drive when you plug it in, or it has a removable microSD/SD card you can pull and put in a card reader. The tool needs a volume it can write to.
2. Can it be formatted FAT32? Nearly all simple audio players read FAT32. The tool writes one clean full-size FAT32 volume.
3. Does it play plain, unencrypted audio files (normally MP3) that you drop into folders — rather than a locked or encrypted container built by the maker's own software?
4. Does it play in a predictable order — either by name-sort or by copy order — so that numbered folders and tracks come out in sequence?

Player families

KULUMI (Hope Tech Global)

Low-cost solar audio players — the family this tool's workflow is modeled on (Hope Tech Global's own HTGv4.CMD loader). Loading a KULUMI is a plain file copy in the right order onto a FAT32 volume.

• KULUMI X: ~8 GB fixed storage (the maker calls it internal memory; an independent SIL review calls it an enclosed microSD — either way it is not user-removable, so there is no card-reader fallback). It should present as a FAT32 drive over Hope Tech Global's data cable; confirm your first unit mounts writable on your Mac before a batch.
• KULUMI Mini: cards can be hardware write-locked as an anti-tamper measure. A locked card is read-only and this tool will skip it — use an unlocked card in the open slot.
• KULUMI Sheep: requires the special programming cable; a normal or charge-only cable exposes nothing. It has no removable card, so the cable is the only path. Confirm it mounts writable on your Mac with that cable before committing a batch.

Loading / programming documentation: kulumi.org/program (official loading guide, folder structure, FAT32 formatting), plus per-model pages Mini, X, Sheep.

MegaVoice

Solar/rechargeable audio-Bible players used widely in missions. Not yet tested with this tool, but expected to work. Connect MegaVoice's SLS data cable and — on the current-generation models (Envoy 2, Companion/Shield, Herald) — the player's storage (its internal memory, plus the microSD card too if one is inserted) mounts on the Mac as an ordinary writable USB drive; the per-model table below flags the legacy models that are documented only for SaberCopy loading. From there the mechanism is the same one SaberCopy uses: wipe the volume and write the files in the right order (which this tool does). SaberCopy is smarter, more customizable and friendlier, but the underlying principle is identical — so as long as you match MegaVoice's folder structure, filenames, and supported formats, this tool should load it. (The microSD is not the main path — the cable is — and where a card is used it follows the same strict structure rules as the internal memory.)

MegaVoice does not use one universal folder layout — the required structure differs by model, and every model plays files in name-sort order, so zero-padded numeric prefixes (001, 002…) are what guarantee correct playback for a copy-in-sorted-order tool. The table below summarizes each family; see the Loading docs links for the authoritative manufacturer PDF.

Loading / programming documentation (per model):

• Master loading guide — Using SaberCopy to program MegaVoice players (20200308-10)
• Envoy 2 S Series — Envoy 2 S Series User Guide (20191217-21)
• Envoy 2 E Series — Envoy 2 E Series User Guide (20220914-01)
• Companion & Shield — Companion and Shield User Guide (20191217-32)
• Herald — Herald User Guide (20180601-10)
• Envision — MegaVoice Envision User Guide (encrypted-media model)
• Envoy 3 (Equip Plus) — Envoy 3 Equip Plus User Manual
• LifeLight — LifeLight V2 User Manual
• Pathway — MegaVoice Pathway User Guide
• PocketVoice — PocketVoice User Manual

Renew World Outreach — The Torch

A solar audio-Bible player with flashlight, lantern, FM radio, and a phone-charging port. 8 GB internal flash only — no card slot. (Do not confuse it with Renew's Papyrus, a different Renew player that does have a microSD option.)

• Loads via: USB drive mode — it appears as a drive letter — but only over Renew's special proprietary USB cable. An ordinary or charge-only cable will not mount it, and it has no removable card, so there is no card-reader fallback.
• Cable / hardware: Renew's proprietary Torch loading cable (easily lost — the separate USB port on the device is a charge-out port for phones, not a loading port).
• Filesystem: not published — unverified. The Torch ships vendor-configured, so confirm the on-device filesystem with Renew before reformatting it, rather than assuming FAT32 (how to check its format on a Mac).
• Folder structure: folder-per-book, shallow (the firmware navigates chapter / book / collection). Exact naming and depth rules are not documented publicly — confirm with Renew.
• Audio format: MP3. Bitrate and any other-format support are unverified.
• Play order: not documented — unverified whether it is copy order or name-sort. Test one unit and listen before trusting a batch.

Loading / programming documentation: renewoutreach.org — Torch Audio Bible (detailed loading tutorials are behind a login; confirm the current procedure with Renew at info@renewoutreach.com). For Renew's microSD-based players, see renewoutreach.org — microSD — those load via the removable card in a reader (unlock the card's write-lock switch first).

Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) — Proclaimer, BibleStick, Micro Proclaimer

FCBH's Proclaimer family (S100 / S50 / S25 / E10), the BibleStick, and the Micro Proclaimer are factory-loaded by FCBH before shipment. Per FCBH and the independent SIL review, "you cannot change the content on the Proclaimer. It will only read memory cards that have been pre-loaded with audio Scriptures by FCBH."

• Removable storage: none exposed to you. The USB-C port charges only; any microSD slot reads only FCBH's own pre-loaded cards, not a card you write.
• What this means: no removable storage is exposed, so there is nothing for this tool to write to. Load these through FCBH's program — order them pre-loaded in the language you need.

Loading / programming documentation: No user loading guide exists — these are provisioned by Faith Comes By Hearing. See the FCBH partner resources to obtain pre-loaded devices, and confirm any specifics with FCBH directly.

GRN Saber (Global Recordings Network)

A hand-wind MP3 player with 1 GB internal memory plus an SD-card slot (SD up to 2 GB). GRN describes loading it as "simply connecting a USB cable to your computer and copying across MP3 files" — no proprietary cable indicated.

• Loads via: USB drive mode over a standard USB cable, or via the SD card in a reader.
• Filesystem: FAT (the small 1–2 GB media may format FAT16 rather than FAT32 — check the mounted volume before relying on it; how to check its format).
• Audio format: MP3 and WMA.
• Play order: order-sensitive (this is the player SaberCopy was named for); a sorted copy satisfies it.
• Verdict: Not yet tested — expected to work. Note GRN has discontinued the Saber, so you are unlikely to be provisioning new units; existing units should load fine over USB or via the SD card.

Loading / programming documentation: globalrecordings.net — Saber how to use and SaberCopy.

Kivah / Davar Audibible

Not supported by this tool. The Audibible plays a single encrypted bundle of MP3s and other content on its SD card, built by the manufacturer's software; its firmware will not play plain, individually-copied MP3 files. Because this tool writes ordinary files, the player won't read what it produces — load these with the maker's own tooling. (Listed here so it's clear why it's an exception, not an oversight.)

Generic FAT MP3 players, USB/SD radios & speakers

Cheap, locally-available players that read directly from a microSD card or a USB thumb drive you insert. This is the tool's sweet spot: any card or stick that mounts as a writable FAT32 volume loads cleanly.

• Loads via: the removable microSD in a USB reader, or the USB thumb drive itself.
• Filesystem: FAT32 is near-universal. Some large cards ship exFAT and a minimal player may reject it — the tool reformats to FAT32, which resolves that. If a card's format is unclear, check it first.
• Folder structure & filenames: firmware-dependent (often flat or shallow). Match your source tree to what your specific player expects; leading-zero numbering (001, 002…) is the safe cross-device convention.
• Audio format: usually MP3; codec support varies by chipset.
• Verdict: Not yet tested per unit — expected to work. Caveats: some players choke on deep nesting or on many files per folder, and full-size SD adapters have a write-lock switch that must be unlocked. Test one unit first.

Loading / programming documentation: No single official guide exists across generic players — consult the leaflet for your specific device, and see the SIL/Scripture-Engagement review "Which Audio Player?" (Margetts, 2024) for a broad comparison.

General guidance for any player

Whatever the family, the same source-folder discipline makes a player behave. When in doubt, follow these and test one device.

1. Number your top-level folders with leading zeros: 001 Genesis, 002 Exodus, 003 Leviticus… so 010 does not sort before 002.
2. Number the tracks inside each folder the same way, with leading zeros: 01, 02, … 10, 11.
3. Use one audio format your device supports — for almost every player that is MP3. Don't mix in formats the device may skip.
4. Keep the nesting shallow. Two or three levels is plenty; some players ignore or mishandle deep trees. Match the depth your specific family expects (KULUMI Sheep: 2 levels; KULUMI X/Mini and MegaVoice: 3–4).
5. Test one loaded device in the actual player before running a batch. Load a single unit, put it in the real player, and confirm the tracks play in the right order. Only then load the rest.