Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

0 points

TV Show Sorting

Does anyone else have a problem with the new TV Show sorting? I have a bunch of TV shows in iTunes and my Apple TV is treating each individual season as a separate show (and then it doesn't even list them in order). I've had the 1st generation ATV forever and the sorting has always worked fine. Is this a bug, am I missing something, or is this just the new "organization" system?

Posted on Sep 30, 2010 10:21 AM

66 replies

Nov 22, 2010 2:28 AM in response to meganbtw

No it won't. The show will not be grouped on the top level. Instead the seasons are on the top level. And they are NOT sorted correctly. For Heroes I have this order.
Heroes Season 2
Heroes Season 3
Heroes Season 4
Heroes Season 1

mbaier

Level 1

0 points

Nov 22, 2010 5:32 AM in response to Fredrik Holmberg

same here. I got so fed up with the problems i'm having with my ATV2, i reconnected my old Apple TV and stashed the new one in a drawer until they release a software update. No more navigating to the stupid "computer" tab and no more looong lists of shows where each season is listed in a separate line.

Nov 22, 2010 7:15 AM in response to MDearworth

Yeah this is really a problem. Does anyone know if iOS 4.2.1 will fix the issue?

Nov 22, 2010 11:29 AM in response to Fredrik Holmberg

This is a result of the metadata - a few extra pieces of info will solve it. I had the same issue, it seems that Apple use different tags for sorting on different devices:

At the top level (per season) right click in iTunes and go to Get Info. Go to the Sorting tab and enter 'Sort Show' and 'Sort Album' as 'Show Name Season XX'
For correct sorting on the Apple TV you should enter season 1 as Season 01, unless it's a show like Heroes that was cancelled before a tenth season.
It seems that the season ID is used for display but not sorting purposes by the Apple TV.

It seems the primary sort is on Show, and then by Sort Show within that. This can be worth knowing for some shows - for example with Battlestar Galactica, I wanted to keep the mini-series and between-season specials separate from the main seasons, but in the correct order and with the correct season displaying for the main seasons. My solution? Add a space on the end of the show name for seasons after each of the specials - doesn't change the display name, avoids grouping mini-shows with main seasons and sorts properly.

At an episode level (Get Info in iTunes on each episode and go to the Info tab) you should set the Track Number to be equal to the episode ID - I did this to get sorting correct on my iPad, not sure if it is required for sorting on the Apple TV or if that sorts by episode number.

The one sort I haven't yet resolved is in the Remote App. I have a TV show with 10 seasons and despite in showing correctly in iTunes and Apple TV (and having entered sort show as 01, 02 etc) the display on the remote app shows Season 10 before Season 2. If anyone has solved that please let me know!

Nov 22, 2010 12:04 PM in response to MDearworth

All I just downloaded the AppleTV 4.1 update it corrects the sorting issues. Everything sorts perfectly now. To be honest I still very much miss the nesting of the tv show seasons but this solution is very workable. Even all the playlists are correct now both video and audio. Go forth and enjoy!

Glenn.p

Level 1

0 points

Nov 23, 2010 4:28 AM in response to jakehfred

I also upgraded the OS to 4.1 but I still have the problem where the TV shows do not sort alphabetical. It would be a PITA to have to go and update 1,500+ tv episodes to get the sort meta data correct if this is the only way to resolve it. It sorts OK in iTunes....

Jun 15, 2011 4:54 PM in response to pcx99

Still can't use the 'Show' entry in ITunes to sort on the new Apple TV as the old one did.

4.2.2 and this is still not sorted. I have 3TB of movies and this makes my list so long on the new Apple TV. On the old one I could just have 'Star Wars' with all 6 movies nicely tucked away. I have fired off several emails to Apple, please do the same!

Mar 9, 2012 5:13 AM in response to MDearworth

I think this is a problem yet again. Using ATV2, my movies work just fine but my TV shows seem to be a little screwed up. The TV shows seem to sort by date modified rather than by the show title. This is a new development and makes it much harder to find the shows I'm looking for. Last time I had this issue, it was just a matter of listing the show title as the "artist" of the show. Now I'm not sure!

Mar 9, 2012 6:25 AM in response to torourkeus

FWIW, this definitely seems to be an iTunes 10.6 problem rather than an Apple TV 5.0 issue.

I have three Apple TV devices, all of which were working fine on both 4.4.4 and 5.0 until I actually upgraded iTunes from 10.5.3 to 10.6. Following the update, all three Apple TVs began experiencing this problem -- even the one that was still on 4.4.4.

This at least means that Apple can presumably fix this with an iTunes update rather than an Apple TV update, which they usually seem to be quicker at getting out.

I have not found any useful workaround for this, and I'm not even convinced it's sorting entirely by modified date (or at least there's confusion as to which modified date it's sorting by, considering we're talking about multi-season entries).

The good news -- and only workaround I've found other than reverting back to iTunes 10.5.3 -- is that the iOS Remote app doesn't appear to be having the same problem, so you should be able to use that to navigate if you have an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. As an added bonus, you can search using the app as well, which I often find faster than scrolling through hundreds of TV show entries anyway 🙂

Mar 10, 2012 10:57 AM in response to MDearworth

With the latest Apple TV Update 5.0 Update released on March 7th, 2012, it appears that the sort order is again out of order with the shows no longer being sorted or grouped by show title when viewing TV Shows in the Computer Category on the Apple TV. This appears to be related to either the iTunes update to 10.6 or the Apple TV update 5.0 itself.

Mar 10, 2012 12:29 PM in response to MDearworth

Count me in with the show sorting. I have a lot of TV shows, it is NOT the metadata in the show files within itunes.

Someting is REALLY wrong with the show sorting, there is no logic to the way they are currently sorted.

The best I can do for now is sort by date and view the most recent episode.

On the ATV 1 the date sort was added to library. On ATV 2 it seems like it may be broadcast date.
not exactly sure of that.

This is bad.

Mar 11, 2012 6:29 AM in response to George Mcgee

If you check out the post before yours, I'm pretty sure it's 10.6 and not the TV update. 🙂

Mar 11, 2012 6:34 AM in response to torourkeus

It is a know issue with ITunes, several people like myself who have 10.6 but ATV is still on 4.4.x, don't have this problem. Report it to Applevia the feedback link

Mar 11, 2012 10:50 AM in response to Damian Smith1

Not disputing the fact it may be an iTunes issue, but the first generation ATV is still displaying TV Shows normally as well as grouping the seasons together under the show title as they should be.

Nils57

Level 1

4 points

Mar 11, 2012 12:41 PM in response to Damian Smith1

Seems like that would indicate the problem IS with the ATV 5 update and not iTunes 10.6?

TV Show Sorting