The alphabetical order of artists in my iTunes library has recently been
scrambled somehow. I have version 12.12.1.1 and it's on my PC Windows
10. Does anyone know how this could happen and how it can be fixed?
Windows, Windows 10
In the Songs view of the library sort the songs as Album by Artist and enable the Sort Artist and Sort Album Artist columns. See if values in those two columns help you understand why any particular artists might be in an unexpected location. See Grouping Tracks Into Albums for further advice.
tt2
In the Songs view of the library sort the songs as Album by Artist and enable the Sort Artist and Sort Album Artist columns. See if values in those two columns help you understand why any particular artists might be in an unexpected location. See Grouping Tracks Into Albums for further advice.
tt2
Do you use any other media software apart from iTunes? See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows - Apple Community for advice on items you cannot change. Note that iTunes will put in an autosort value for values that begin with an article (a/an/the) so, for example, The Beatles will get an autosort value of Beatles. and sort under B. If you want it to sort under T you can explicitly enter The Beatles in the sort field. If you delete what is there Beatles will pop back in again. Sort Album Artist and Album Artist trump Sort Artist and Artist when it comes to artist sorting.
tt2
Press and hold down ctrl+shift when you launch iTunes to open it in safe mode. This may potentially repair any internal lists. Failing that please post some specific details or a screenshot that illustrates what you see.
tt2
I did notice that I can change (most of) these anomalies under the Sorting tab in the Get Info box, but there are so many of them, and again, I have no idea how this could have happened -- it makes no sense to me!
Thank you for replying. My problem is not playing songs in a specific order, but ordering the artists in alphabetical order (to view or locate). This was never a problem until recently. For example, when I click on "Artist" the selections will be somewhat in alphabetical order (by artist) but there are many anomalies. In my library when I sort by artist, the Flamingos appears between Autry Inman and B.B. King, and there are many other such anomalies.
Thank you for replying, but unfortunately this didn't help. I see things that make no sense to me, and have no idea why they're like that, such as: in the Sort Artist and Sort Album Artist columns, many of the artists that are out of alphabetical sequence have other artists listed in those columns, but I have no clue why this is, as I've never inputted them, and I see no way to remove them.
I don't know if this is important, but many of my tunes are not from albums at all, and have no album or album artist listed in "Get Info".
Again this problem is something new -- it wasn't like this until about a week ago, and I've had iTunes for many years.
I'm very grateful for your assistance -- thank you!
Some of these can't be changed -- the incorrect artist name in the Sorting box can't be cut or deleted for some reason.
Hey artie1million,
If we understand correctly, the songs are no longer being sorted alphabetically. We would recommend you use this article to help troubleshoot the issue. Take a look at the "Play songs in a specific order" section of this article.
"Play songs in a specific order
on your PC, choose Music from the pop-up menu at the top left, then click Library.
A playlist is another way to play songs in a specific order. See Intro to playlists."
Please don't hesitate to let us know if you need additional assistance.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Have a good one.
The alphabetical order of artists in my iTunes library has recently been scrambled somehow. I have version 12.12.1.1 and it's on my PC Windows 10. Does anyone know how this could happen and how it can be fixed?
