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iOS 7 Music App sorting issues

Hello there,


I'm starting this discussion to express my displeasure with some changes in the Music app that have removed some key functionalities that I had come to rely upon.


First of all, there are some artists in my library with many albums. In iOS 6, accessing those artist's albums was easy. You would click on the artist tab, go to the artist and it would show a list of the albums. Then, you could choose an album and go right to those songs. In iOS 7, this has completely changed. Now, there's no longer an albums view under artists. You have to scroll song by song to get to the newer releases.


For instance, I'm a huge fan of Pearl Jam and have 60 albums of theirs (9 studio, the rest all live records). Now, to get to the latest, I have to spend 30 seconds scrolling all the way down the list. That's not efficient at all. The way it was before — you get a list of albums once you click on the artist, then click on an album to get the songs — should never have been changed.


Second, I consider myself a power user and sort all my albums using the "sort album" tag in iTunes. Previously, that carried over both over syncing and iTunes Match. Now, it ignores it completely. Even my old, trusty iPod Classic still pays attention to this!


I understand that most people don't set their sort order, but for those of us who do — and have spent tons of time doing it — why is this no longer the case?


I spoke with a senior technician yesterday and let him know of these issues. He documented them and is sending them directly to a programming engineer at Apple. I have his name, phone number and contact info and intend to follow up.


He agreed that iOS 7 should be adding functionality — not taking it away! The other thing the senior technician said to me is that the more people call and complain about something, the greater the chance that it will be rectified.


I did so in a very calm, respectful manner and he was very receptive to my concerns. SO, is anyone else frustrated about this? IF so, please post here!


Also, my suggestion to anyone else who feels disappointed in this removed functionality is to call in to Apple Care support and express your concerns in much the same way i did.


That way, if we make our collective voices heard, they'll reintroduce the functionalities we had in the first place.

Posted on Sep 20, 2013 8:22 AM

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Posted on Sep 20, 2013 8:34 AM

I have scheduled a call with a technician for this afternoon, and will discuss my concerns as well. Let's hope that if enough people raise the issue, it will be addressed. I will post a follow up once I've spoken with Apple.

445 replies

Nov 4, 2013 1:22 PM in response to PFox78

I just upgraded and I could not believe it was as bad as my friends were saying, but it is, in fact, worse. It is fine for the casual music consumer, or one who does not buy albums but just buys tracks and always listens on shuffle. I listen on the subway or on the street in New York City. Siri is not an option there. I can't get Siri to work on the quietest street corner in my neighborhood.


I have filed a report under feedback and hope to continue adding my voice to this discussion. IN the meantime I have downloaded Picky and hope that it helps. HUGE Market opportunity for you here, people.

Nov 4, 2013 3:15 PM in response to PFox78

iOS really has been bad overall. It's slow, harder to read, stutters, has lower quality videos on youtube. But for me, the worst, is the loss of functionality in the music app. I should go back to iOS 6. Is that possible?


- I can no longer see the star ratings in a list for all songs in each album I'm playing. I do this to rate on the go and see the next song to play from an album.

- I can no longer see the albums for an artist sorted alphabetically. Componding the problem, the view by artist expands every album as you scroll through it. This slows the scrolling even further. This is absolutely unsusable for scrolling to a particular album for successful artists that have many albums and songs.


The new bad design may work for those who like one hit wonders and other shallow untalented modern acts, but not for those with serious music collections.

Nov 5, 2013 12:20 PM in response to PFox78

I also don't like the iOS 7 Music app. The Artists view needs to be reset to what it was in iOS 6. It is far from ideal right now.


Also, the Flat Flow (the new absolutely hideous CoverFlow they came up at Apple) does not sort as the CoverFlow did in iOS 6 and before.


CoverFlow sorted first by Artist (using the value in the Sort Artist field, as it was so nicely implemented in iOS 6) and then by Album Title (again using the value in the Sort Album field).


The new iOS 7 FlatFlow just sorts the albums by Album Name (it is using the Sort album field by the way). It does have the first sort by Artist and that is very poor.


Think about it this way: when you walk into Tower Records or HMV, don't they sort their CDs by Artist first? And then whatever sort they want? It is important that the sorting of the library is done first by Artist.


Also, CoverFlow should be re-instated no matter what Apple. Just bring it back. The Music app has caused enough confusion among your otherwise loyal client base, there is no need to stretch our patience too far.

Nov 6, 2013 4:16 AM in response to PFox78

The new Music app is terrible...just made it hard to find what I'm looking for! I listen at work alot and have repeat set all the time - used to repeat what ever I picked be it a list or album. Now you have to set the repeat depending on how you navigate to the track! Seriously? If you want an album to loop but pick it in the artist view it just chugs on the next one in the list...I'd kill to go back to IOS6 just for the music.

Nov 8, 2013 12:11 PM in response to PFox78

This is a serious user interface flaw in the music app. It's fine if you have a few albums by an artist, but if you're a collector of live music like me, it makes the app unusable. I have almost 100 Phish shows, each show has 15-20 songs, sometimes more. Trying to scroll down to a particular show while they're all expanded is REDICULOUS. Please Apple, change this.

Nov 8, 2013 1:38 PM in response to PFox78

I am also having issues with the new Music app from apple. In addition to all those issues you mentioned, even alternative 3rd party music player apps are having issues because of iOS 7.


I use a alternate music player called CarTunes. Now since iOS 7, it automatically displays all my non-downloaded music from the cloud within CarTunes, and get this, even with the iTunes & Appstore/Music setting to "show all music" disabled! And this is just not CarTunes, it is every app on my iphone in which I can access my music files, such as DJ apps, etc.. They all disobey that setting and continue to display my non-downloaded cloud music. This also glitches up the official Apple Music app by adding any cloud music songs (that you played via a 3rd party app) to the Apple Music app and then not allowing you to delete them. Keep in mind the setting to have music in the cloud from showing is still off. To now get rid of these tracks, I had to turn that setting back on, then click that "cloud" button to download the music in question to my device. Once they finish downloading, I then have the option to swipe and delete them. Very tedious...


I am actually on hold with an Apple representative about this as I am typing this. I am discussing this issue, and I will mention issues discussed here as well. So far they were telling me that it is the 3rd party app developers problem, but I keep pushing that it is an Apple problem since it is a iTunes & App Store setting to disable showing all my purchases from the cloud, and no 3rd party app should be able to bypass that option if I disabled it!


I will report any progress. So far nothing other then I submitted this complaint and suggested that this should be addressed in a later iOS 7 update.

Nov 8, 2013 2:51 PM in response to frank135

I had a very similar problem. The issue comes from IOS7 signing you into the Apple iTune store by default. All you need to do is sign out, and the songs in the "cloud" (really a server farm somewhere in Arizona) will not appear on your phone.


Good question, though, as to whether Apple is paying any attention to all these complaints. It would be nice to know if they hear us, or are we being ignored?

Nov 8, 2013 3:10 PM in response to PCH54

Your fix does work, but the only issue with it is if you want to update or install a new app or download some music you will have to type all your login information in again and then sign out again to prevent all the non-downloaded music in the cloud from appearing. A bit time consuming, but all in all it does fix the issue. Thanks for your response!

iOS 7 Music App sorting issues

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