IOS8 iPad Music App songs list sorted by artist is gone

Question

Level 1

8 points

IOS8 iPad Music App songs list sorted by artist is gone

I have two iPads, and have gone through iOS 6, 7, and now 8 with them. My songs list in the music app has always been sorted by artist, but after the iOS8 "upgrade" the songs list is sorted by song title.

Is there a way to get this sorting back? I seem to recall this being a setting within the app itself in iOS 6, and in iOS 7 I recall people complaining about the exact opposite - that the list was sorted by artist instead of song title.

And not to be snarky, but creating playlists to create custom sorting is not much of a solution, any more than saying backup and restore is a "fix" as so often gets thrown around on these forums. I think like many users that recall that these iDevices started as music players that the current effort Apple has been putting in the music app is pretty awful. I download from Match and would prefer not to have to use the music app's terrible playlist editing to add downloaded songs.

iPad, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 24, 2014 11:37 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 25, 2014 9:12 PM in response to Colarama

Colarama, I ran across your post here as I was looking for a solution for a similar problem. My smart playlists have always been sorted manually (and locked in using the Copy to Playlist Order feature in iTunes) on my iPhone. Now they are auto-sorted by Artist and I cannot seem to reverse or otherwise change that order. I've even deleted all of my playlists in iTunes and started over. To no avail. I'm looking forward to what others may post here.

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 25, 2014 9:55 PM in response to DATElliott

Well, as far as the issue of not being able to get the manual playlist order to transfer to the iPhone, I've seemingly found the cause. If you sort a music list by a column in iTunes, such a sort is handled as a manual sort and should be transferred to the iPhone playlist if you right click the playlist name in iTunes and select Copy to Playlist Order. However, for some unknown reason, sorting by the column "Purchase Date" is NOT treated as a manual sort for purposes of the playlists and such a sort won't transfer. Very strange.

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 3, 2014 5:01 AM in response to Colarama

I'm having this same sorting issue on my iPad 2 plus another issue. I don't have enough room on the iPad for my entire iTunes music library, so while in Devices section of iTunes, I have clicked on the Music tab, and only have checked Selected Playlists, Artists,Albums and Genres. I have one playlist checked that I wish to have synced to the iPad. However, when I sync, not only is the playlist put on to my iPad, but all those same songs are copied into the Music folder under my iPad in Devices. So, I have all the songs in duplicate on my iPad...in the Songs tab and in my Playlists on the iPad. Of course, I'd rather not take up iPad space like that.

Also, the songs show up in title order on my iPad, but in the Music and Playlist folders in iTunes Devices, they are sorted by Date Added, even though the source playlist is sorted by artist, which I prefer. Any solutions for these two problems? Thanks.

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 18, 2014 10:03 AM in response to Colarama

Thank goodness it not just me then, this has been driving me crazy. The sort by purchase date doesn't appear in the smart playlist choices either which is weird.

What I see on the device and in iTunes is different in relation to sort order. I'm restoring now to see if it makes ant difference.

Reply

Answer 5

May 6, 2015 5:40 AM in response to Colarama

Ok, this is how it worked for me, I found the answer by looking up a bit more.

1. Select the playlist in which you want this sorting to work

2. On the right, where the songs are displayed, right click on the column header

3. Click the "Date Added" column to show that column in the playlist

4. Click on the "Date Added" column which you just added, to sort the songs according to their date added (which more or less is same as the purchase date)

Sync the iPhone with iTunes, you will now see the songs in this playlist have been sorted by the date added. They now show up on your iPhone exactly the way they show in the iTunes.

The original link from where I figured out this fix.

http://www.postseek.com/meta/4049229b7084fec214f8200bf0a15317

Reply