How do I change the sort order in iTunes?

turingtest2

I'm on Music 1.0.5.14.

But...I literally could not be more embarrassed right now.

Let me explain - I saw that the 'Sort by' fields in Get Info > Sorting were greyed out and I assumed that this meant I couldn't overwrite them.

I can.

I incorrectly assumed that they were static unchangeable fields. I've just successfully changed a track to by Bryan Adams to 'Bryan Adams', but sorted by 'Adams, Bryan'.

And it's sorting exactly correctly.

I apologise for wasting your time.

...and for owning a Bryan Adams track.

Cheers.

Thanks for your answer Jim...but the problem I have is that the sort by field is greyed out. I want to add David Bowie, but have the sorting be Bowie, David.

As it is, the 'sort by' field is greyed out, and if I add David Bowie, the sorting is by David, not Bowie.

Thanks turingtest2 - really appreciate your response.

I checked my iTunes folder and the permissions are correct.

I am the administrator of my Mac, so I have full r/w access. I've looked ant your second solution and am doubtful it could be an issue with ID3 tags, because the only bit of info I can't change its the sort order. Everything else is updatable.

turingtest2

Coincidentally, I had to do that just last night. I had an album which where one track in the library was displayed separately from the rest of the tracks in the album. I think it was because I'd bought that track first (from iTunes) and then a few days later, bought the rest of the album.

I fixed this by changing the album title to' <title> x', then back to '<title>'.

So yes - I can do that.

And this problem occurs on music bought from the iTunes store, music previously ripped from CDs and digital downloads from outside the iTunes Store.

I have a workaround but it's not great. I can add artists as 'surname, first name', and the sorting works fine.

The problem I'm trying to overcome is that when I ask Siri, "What's this song?" I'd like to get:

"This is Goldeneye by Tina Tuner", rather than "This is Goldeneye by Turner Tina".

Because tracks have been entered with the artist name as 'surname, first name', this is what Siri currently does.

😃