Sort albums by year of release on ipod / iphone / ipad device instead of alphabetically

One thing you can do (it is a trick) is to select each album, go to get info, go to sorting and on "Sort Album" write the year there. The album name will be displayed correctly, but the iPod/iPhone will use the information from the "Sorting" field to sort the items, therefore it will sort by the year.

I hope it helps!

Hello, I've been using ipodyearsort available from: http://www.pretentiousname.com/ipodyearsort/index.html

for several years.

I have used it with Windows 7 and 8 64 bit. Also with ipod 160gb and nano. I use a batch file to run it. The batch file looks like this: ipodyearsort /realwrite

Anyway, under Windows 8, I noticed it can only be run from the DOS style command prompt.

What this utility does is add the year in front of the album name in the sorting field, so it doesn't change the file name or the album name.

I've used this utility with many Windows versions of iTunes, including the most recent. Version 11.0.2.26

Hope this helps,

Nothing's perfect.

You can suggest an enhancement to the iPod here; http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html but be aware that you will not receive any feedback from Apple if you do. They do however, read and consider the feedback they receive, but - that does not mean that it will be implemented.

In the meantime, you'll simply have to figure out a workable method that does suit you.

Not as such, but you could create Smart Playlists that include every song from a year you specify. Then play from the Playlist. You can set up as many Smart Playlists as you want, one for each year.

The only snag that I can see is that the Smart Playlist may not have the songs from that album listed contiguously (together, next to each other). So the iPod might switch to a different album before playing every song on the first album.

But at least it would play only from the year you want, and if you use Shuffle mode, you may not find it an issue that it switches albums on you.

dantsatsan, iPodYearSort.exe doesn't work for me:

C:\Users\Yuri>ipodyearsort /pretendwrite

iPodYearSort (C)2007 Leo Davidson

http://www.PretentiousName.com

Interfacing with iTunes...

Calculating album years...

PRETENDING to update SortAlbum fields...

No suitable tracks were found. Do your music files have Year tags?

I sure have tracks with Year field specified in iTunes. I can tell that from "Get Info" dialog, for instance.

BrunoPhilipe, for some reason I can't change "Sort Album" field. And after I try this, an i-in-a-circle icon appears on the left of the track. Well, almost everything is disabled in "Get Info" dialog.

Well, not everything works well, it's like it caches album names. I upload mp3 from album "(0, 2) All About", but on ipod it's displayed as "(0, 02) All About" (I was experimenting with different ways to name tracks). Then I change album to "(0, 2f) All About" on computer and I see the same name on ipod, as expected. Then I change it back, and it again appears as "(0, 02) All About". Any thoughts?

Moreover, it changes its order in a weird way. I upload "(0, 1) Introduction Lesson" and "(0, 2) All About". They're displayed like this on ipod:

(0, 02) All About

(0, 01) Introduction Lesson

Then I change "(0, 2) All About" to "(0, 22) All About" on comupter and now it's like this:

(0, 01) Introduction Lesson

(0, 22) All About

Then I revert it back, "(0, 22) All About" to "(0, 2) All About", and that's what I see:

(0, 01) Introduction Lesson

(0, 02) All About

On a side note, what is a proper way of deleting a track? If I delete it on ipod it doesn't get deleted in itunes on a computer.

With iOS 5 and later just swipe the song left and right and tap the Delete/remove button that appears. Nothing gets deleted form computer.

Well, now I'm able to change "Sort Album" field after some syncing and restarting itunes, but it doesn't influence the order on ipod. Album "a Introduction" must go before "b All about", mustn't it?

At last, I figured it out. Albums are sorted as you say by Sort Album/Album field in the list of all the albums. But in the list of one certain artist's albums, they are sorted by Album field only.

But with other tracks I'm able to set desired album name this way. That is, by changing album name to some arbitrary name and then back.

The good news here is that this change-twice trick makes it list albums in desired order, though their names are still displayed incorrectly.