itunes 11 not sorting songs alphabetically

Reposted to fix broken images...

Unless there is something else I can't see from the second image I think perhaps there are two separate problems. Your listing appears to show tracks that have no proper track number, but have leading numbers in the textual name field. Note the difference in this listing:

See how the numbers appear with no leading zeros and in a different colour. In contrast your song names seem to read ##-<Name> instead of just <Name>. Are the track numbers filled in at all? I suspect not.

The second issue can be caused when the pattern of disc. numbers is inconsistent. If I deliberately alter three tracks like this:

Then it confuses the order when we go back to the album:

If the track numbers are already populated my script TrimName could be used to strip off the first three characters, otherwise I could write a script to copy the track numbers over first.

An early build of iTunes 10 (I think... actually might have been an iOS problem)) completely ignored disc numbers, randomly interleaving tracks from disc 1 and disc 2, but I wasn't affected as I routinely use absolute track numbers across the whole album.

tt2

Here's my issue which is i think the same as from the OP... I have some albums i put together myself, which are basically compilations of songs. Here's an example of the 80s album, where the songs of course don't have track numbers, but are instead "sorted" by iTunes completly randomly. I would so love it if i could sort them by artist in the album view, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen.

vsejasno:

You might have more success if you used a Playlist for these songs instead of trying to put them into one album.

With a Playlist, you can add songs from any album, in exactly the order you want them. You name the Playlist. On your iPod, you navigate to Playlists, find the one you want and they are - in the order you want them.

As fiend says. You could also sort them into the order you want and then step through using Next in the single track Get. Info box adding in your own track numbers to set the order if playing as an album.

tt2

You see, no. That would mean i'd need to have a playlist everytime i want to listen to some songs.

The album view is my favorite view, because i like to browse for songs visually, but it's kinda hard if they are not sorted alphabetically. Playlists are not the sollution in this case. They're a bad workaround for a problem that should not exist in the first place.

There needs to be an option in future versions to sort songs in album view aswell. And while they're at it, bring coverflow back.

Does anyone else have the same difficulty whereby a new playlist in the 'List' view is fine but when I switch to 'Grid' it starts with the final track, not the first, amongst other quirks. Any solutions folks?

I have to say that iTunes 11 was a classic case of 'if it aint broke, don't fix it' - why on earth does it import a folder in reverse track order - was this not actually trialled before being unleashed on an unsuspecting public?

Russ-Southend wrote:

Does anyone else have the same difficulty whereby a new playlist in the 'List' view is fine but when I switch to 'Grid' it starts with the final track, not the first, amongst other quirks. Any solutions folks?

In the List view do you have the sort tirangle pointed down instead of up? I've seen a similar quirk in Grid mode on previous versions of iTunes where the tracks are listed in one order but play in the reverse. Bug reports sent, dismissed as "correct" behaviour. 😕

tt2

Steve,

At which level does one become eligible to submit bug reports that are acknowledged by Apple?

Phil

Anyone can submit bug reports by signing up for a free Apple Developer Connect account and then signing in to Bug Reporter.

tt2

Thanks.

You're welcome. "Acknowledged" is perhaps putting it a bit strong. You may get a request for more information, or your report may get closed as a duplicate (sadly you can't research other reports to avoid wasting everyone's time), or you may be told that it is "correct behaviour", or just as here, it may be that some reports never seem to get any attention at all.

tt2

THANK YOU! That's what it was for me. Some tracks had disc 1 of 1 set, others did not. Grrr!

I have been reading through posts looking for an answer to a question, which I think, is the same question the original poster asked. Please bear with me, as I am very new to this. I (unusually, it would appear) don't care which album a song is from. I would like my song view to be sorted by artist, and then, alphabetically by title. For example, I want all my Billy Joel songs together, showing titles alphabetically from Allentown at the top to You May Be Right at the bottom. However, the default sort seems to be to group songs by album. Currently, since my songs come from different albums, You May Be Right appears above Allentown since it comes from the album "Glass Houses" whereas Allentown comes from the album "Greatest Hits Vol. 2". I tried hiding the Album column, but it doesn't seem to matter.

If the answer given by Schneipi is, in fact, correct, then I guess there is no way around this. After his/her post, the thread seemed to go in a different direction. Could anyone please shed some light on this?

Thank you!

Does this work for you?

tt2

Thank you, tt2. That will certainly work in a pinch. I hadn't yet figured out how to use the Column Browser, so your image sheds some light on that, as well.

Thank you for your help!