where in my Mac mini is the sorting information for a song to be found and after I find it how do I activate it. I have in the past sorted my entire catalogue of performers, composers, but after having to do an OS reinstall these are no longer being sorted eg: John Lennon should come up under "L" but it instead is appearing under "J"
thanks
Mac mini, macOS 10.13
That would explain it. None of the sort fields are captured in an AIFF tag. Apple Lossless would be a better format if you want lossless files with better metadata support. You would also get smaller files. Ideally you would have backed up the entire iTunes library before reinstalling the OS, so that on restoring it you got the library back in the same state, complete with playlists, ratings, play counts, sort information and so on. If you thought this is what you had done, but found the restored library empty, or only containing cloud links to your purchases, then see Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community in case the lost metadata can be restored from a previous copy of your iTunes database.
tt2
ed2345,
thanks. i understand what you have said is where the sorting info is entered but I am looking for where this info resides in the computer. i am trying to get the sorting i have done top turn back on.
Box,
It resides as metadata in the library. iTunes sorting is not something you can turn on and off; if a song has one or more of the sorting fields populated, iTunes will honor it.
After you moved the library, can you still see the sort fields populated on individual tracks?
once again, thanks for your reply ed2345. with help from an apple support tech we looked for the sorting as metadata in the individual song files, but there was nothing there. as I am typing this something just occurred to me. due the the large size of my music library ALL the songs are stored on external drives could this be why we are not able to find the sorting after I had to do reinstall of my OS?
What format are the files in? As ed has noted if the file has a metadata tag that should include the sorting information, however untagged files or files with multiple tags can behave differently. The physical location of the files isn't an issue, but sorting information might be lost if you reimport such tracks into a new library. Ideally you would backup and restore your library in a way that avoids reimporting media as this also loses any metadata that isn't stored in tags such as ratings, play counts, playlist membership and so on. Check in the Songs view of the library and enable the various sort fields to see what data you do have. If the data is missing you may find a script like Artist to Last-First useful.
tt2
Box 913,
Right-Ccick on the song, choose Song Info, and look on the Sorting tab.
tt2,
if I understand your question correctly, all my songs are imported into my Mac mini as AIFF files
sorting
