How do I rearrange song order in iTunes library?

Question

How do I rearrange song order in iTunes library?

I'm re-importing all of my CDs in Apple Lossless format (so I never have to do this again). All was going well until I got to my London-label collection of Beethoven's nine symphonies. I accidentally imported discs 4-6 before discs 1-3. I wouldn't think this would be a problem (iTunes normally figures out correctly the track order), but I noticed that the tracks in the library were ordered strangely. What order they are in matters not. What does matter is that I can't figure out how to rearrange them to the correct order.

I selected all the tracks from all six discs and used "Get Info" to edit all the Album Titles, Album Artwork, total number of discs, and anything else that should be the same across all tracks. I checked every individual track to make sure "Track X of X" was correct and they were all as they should be.

If I have to, I'll re-import all six discs, but that shouldn't be necessary. I searched here and across the web for info on how to permanently rearrange tracks, but could find only how to rearrange the order in a playlist, but that's not what I want to do. I need to get them correctly ordered in the main iTunes library.

iTunes for Mac v12.0.1.26

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), 27" iMac Core i7 Quad 12GB

Posted on Jan 28, 2015 7:41 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 19, 2017 7:21 PM in response to Phillip Breske

Hi. I dont know if you are still stuck but I have good news...as i also had the same issue and figured it out. I'm using latest version of itunes (12.5.4)

1. Go to each track on the album in your library.

2. Click on options on the right of each track ( ... ) 3 dots are the options for each track...or right click

3. choose "get info"

4. In the "details" menu, look for "track" toward bottom (followed by a box with secondary box.)

5. in first box Type in the official track number of song from the album -- (important)

6. in second box type total number of tracks from the album

7. Click "ok" on bottom

8, As you do each track, they will start to change order, when all done you will have the correct order of tracks.

****Happy Organizing*****

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

428,465 points

Jan 28, 2015 8:30 AM in response to Phillip Breske

Sorting will, of course, primarily be a function of which column you use as your sort column. If you wish to sort by order added then select a date added column (you may need to set it to show in views).

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Answer 3

Jan 28, 2015 9:10 AM in response to Limnos

But I don't want to order by "Date Added," I want to re-order the songs as they are on the CDs and I want that order to "stick" so they will play back in the correct order without me having to resort to a playlist that has been manually re-ordered.

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Answer 4

Limnos

Level 10

428,465 points

Jan 28, 2015 9:20 AM in response to Phillip Breske

It sounds like you are doing the correct labeling but that is the only way to change the display order in iTunes in the general library. Remember all the album names will have to have the identical name in order for the disc number to have an effect. Even tiny differences can be big, and album labels coming from Gracenote can be inconsistent. Make sure you don't have something like "No. 1" and No 2"

I have never had this issue with ripped CDs but have had other tracks which were problematic.

Check this Aug. 2008 post by turingtest2 about temporarily changing labels - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1670662?answerId=7904806022#7904806022 - This often works but I have had cases where tracks grouped when a letter was added but ungrouped when it was removed again.

If they are mp3 files try changing the ID3 tag version which may cause iTunes to re-write the tags and clear up inconsistencies. I use iTunes 7.5 (yes, from 2007) so I can't tell you where this is in later versions.

I had one case of really stubborn grouping. The tracks would re-group in ways that didn't make sense when I changed metadata. Without going into detail, I deleted the tracks completely from iTunes, then re-added the files and they all grouped correctly.

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Answer 5

Jan 28, 2015 9:59 AM in response to Limnos

Well, the August 2008 suggestion didn't work for me, possibly due to a later version of iTunes.

I went ahead and re-imported all the discs and they are now in the correct order and then deleted the previous versions. I didn't use the "Replace existing versions" option on import because I didn't want the new ones to adopt the crazy ordering of the old ones.

I'm going to leave this thread unanswered for now in hopes that someone comes up with a current solution.

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Answer 6

Feb 3, 2015 3:52 PM in response to Phillip Breske

You've asked a question that appears to have vexed "classical music loving" cohort of iTunes/Mac users for years and years (and Tim Cook is a patron of the arts, too!).

How hard can it possibly be to have a box that one could check when ripping a CD to iTunes which says: Import in EXACTLY the order tracks appear on the original CD?

Drives me NUTS!

Along with -- I know I'm off topic -- the disappearance of "save as" which makes Pages and Numbers less than useful for serious writing and editing.

I'll keep watching, and waiting, and hoping...

MPS

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Answer 7

Jan 19, 2017 7:53 PM in response to Phillip Breske

I re-read your OP and realized you already tried the "track number out of total number of tracks solution." It should have worked for you. I'm glad re-importing worked.

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