Problems sorting by composer

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Problems sorting by composer

I'm running iTunes 12 but have been having this problem since 11. My library is having a hard time sorting my classical music by composer. Up until around H in the alphabet, everything is perfect. However, after that I start to see things like this:

This music started out tagged "Luigi Boccherini" and was hence after Lu in the list. But when I changed it to "Boccherini, Luigi (1743-1805)" it never joined the rest of the Boccherini near the top. You can also see that one piece even got placed in Lu's spot and Lu's music is in the composer above him. After 'H' somewhere in the list, music starts to get lumped in with the previous composer in the list, like this Sibelius that gets sorted under Shostakovich:

Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Feb 8, 2016 3:14 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Alan Gringley

Level 1

4 points

Feb 5, 2017 8:49 AM in response to Cory N.

I have had exactly the same irritating issue for about a year in a 16,000 Songs file, about 75% Classical. I found this helpful thread. It didn't solve the problem itself, but it gave me the clue to try again to resolve it. I compared All Songs View sorted by Composer, with the Composer View but with the Songs underneath, in a side by side manner. The problem soon became apparent in the Songs sorted by Composer listing, where there appeared a blank Composer at the point whereever a discontinuity began In the Composer View. This Song somehow was not being sorted to the bottom of the list with all the other blank Composers, mainly pop music. Merely blanking the Composer in this field, or in the Composer field on the Sort By tab, did NOT remove the problem. So instead I altered the blank Composer to ZZZ to send it to the bottom of the list of All Songs sorted by Composer. I followed this through for the dozens of other similar items, and the misalignment was gradually removed step by step from the Composer View. I could probably have done this as a batch operation using Get Info (I'm a Mac User) but preferred to see it through Composer by Composer to be sure of my diagnosis.

The only common denominator I have found in these Songs with a blank Composer, now all ZZZ, were that they were all recent Downloads within the past couple of years, but not all recent Downloads seem to have behaved in the same way! If further analysis on the origin reveals more, I shall post it here.

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Answer 2

ed2345

Level 9

62,516 points

Feb 8, 2016 6:35 PM in response to Cory N.

When you edit the Composer on the Details tab in Get Info , you also need to go to the Sorting tab and edit (or remove) the "Sort Composer."

If the Sort Composer is populated, it will override the Composer for sorting purposes.

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Answer 3

Cory N. Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 8, 2016 6:38 PM in response to ed2345

That helped the Boccherini issue, but the other issue persists. That Sibelius that is displayed under Shostakovitch has Sibelius as the composer in the details screen and in the "sort as" box on the sorting screen. The same issue with dozens, if not hundreds of other pieces. The first few peices from any composer are lumped in at the end of the list for the previous composer. 😟

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Answer 4

ed2345

Level 9

62,516 points

Feb 8, 2016 7:21 PM in response to Cory N.

Cory,

Go to the top right, and choose "Songs" view. Make sure that Composer is one of the visible columns, then click the column heading to sort by Composer. Do they now sort correctly?

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