Improper alphabetisation in iTunes 7.3

[Brize]

Previously, iTunes would order titles beginning with 'A' at the beginning of a selection, as would be expected. Since iTunes 7.3, however, the 'A' is disregarded when titles are sorted alphabetically, in much the same way as 'The'.

I can't understand how this came about: there's no precedent to disregard the 'A', and it's simply incorrect to do so. Is anyone else frustrated by this?

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Numbers are also being put at the bottom of the list, while they used to be at the top. Strange...

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Numbers are also being put at the bottom of the list, while they used to be at the top. Strange...

Yeah, I noticed this one. It confused me for a minute.

 

[vandlism]

I can't understand how this came about: there's no precedent to disregard the 'A', and it's simply incorrect to do so. Is anyone else frustrated by this?

Frustrating indeed. I think it can be fixed though by going into the songs' Sorting tab and in the right column somewhere will be the name with the 'A' ommitted. Put the A back in and I would believe it would work fine.

 

[steamboat26]

Yeah, i noticed that numbers come at the bottom now, it's annoying. Any way to revert it?

 

[kuebby]

I don't like the new numbers thing either. I'm just used to the other way, plus it's incorrect.

 

[Brize]

Numbers are also being put at the bottom of the list, while they used to be at the top. Strange...

Yep, that's another annoyance - symbols and numerals should always precede letters when sorting alphabetically.

Frustrating indeed. I think it can be fixed though by going into the songs' Sorting tab and in the right column somewhere will be the name with the 'A' ommitted. Put the A back in and I would believe it would work fine.

Thanks for the tip. That would be a viable solution if you could change the Sort Album field on multiple items, but the sorting options have to be edited on a song-by-song basis.

As an aside, I've always wanted to order my albums chronologically, as they are on my shelf, and the Sort Album field would facilitate that. Again, though, having to make the change to each song, rather than each album, makes that a non-starter.

 

[ste6168]

As an aside, I've always wanted to order my albums chronologically, as they are on my shelf, and the Sort Album field would facilitate that. Again, though, having to make the change to each song, rather than each album, makes that a non-starter.

One way you could get away with that is put the years in for all of your albums and then sort by year, instead of artist, album, etc...

 

[Brize]

One way you could get away with that is put the years in for all of your albums and then sort by year, instead of artist, album, etc...

That wouldn't work in the browser, unfortunately. What I really need is a script that would transfer the data in the Year field to the Sort Album field.

 

[vandlism]

I'm not at my iTunes library at the moment, but I seem to remember Album by Year being the third or so choice when clicking on the Album column heading.

 

[Brize]

I'm not at my iTunes library at the moment, but I seem to remember Album by Year being the third or so choice when clicking on the Album column heading.

Yep, but it still doesn't change the way that albums are ordered in the right-hand browser window.

 

[Le Big Mac]

Frustrating indeed. I think it can be fixed though by going into the songs' Sorting tab and in the right column somewhere will be the name with the 'A' ommitted. Put the A back in and I would believe it would work fine.

You could use the shadow sort name in the info dialog to make changes to specific albums.

 

[Brize]

You could use the shadow sort name in the info dialog to make changes to specific albums.

Could you elaborate on that?

 

[Loge]

Long shot maybe, but anyone checked if they fixed this in the new 7.3.2 update?

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Long shot maybe, but anyone checked if they fixed this in the new 7.3.2 update?

nah, 1200 Techniques are still at the bottom, and A Perfect Circle are still above Pink Floyd.

EDIT: On my 1st Gen iPod, Les Claypool's Frog Brigade is among the 'C's, while on iTunes and my 5th Gen, it's in the 'L's. Hrmm...

 

[Le Big Mac]

nah, 1200 Techniques are still at the bottom, and A Perfect Circle are still above Pink Floyd.

EDIT: On my 1st Gen iPod, Les Claypool's Frog Brigade is among the 'C's, while on iTunes and my 5th Gen, it's in the 'L's. Hrmm...

Why would "perfect circle" not come before "pink floyd", whether or not the "A" is used for alphabetization? Or should Pink Floyd be under the Fs? (And Meat Loaf under the Ls)

By the way, Les is french for "the" so it may be assuming the name of the band is french for "The claypools' frog brigade"

 

[Le Big Mac]

Could you elaborate on that?

select info on a track, then "sorting". You'll see a place where you can change the name itunes uses to sort the track, without changing the artist's name. (if i recall, you can do this for the album, track name, artist name, and some other info)


Start here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306001

 

[Howard Brazee]

It's funny to see "The 59th Street Bridge Song" at the bottom of my list.

 

[Brize]

select info on a track, then "sorting". You'll see a place where you can change the name itunes uses to sort the track, without changing the artist's name. (if i recall, you can do this for the album, track name, artist name, and some other info)

Thanks for that. Unfortunately, that change would still need to be made on a song-by-song basis, or else by changing one song and then using the Apply Sort Field command to change the rest of the songs on the album. That's a lot of clicks over 1000+ albums.

Long shot maybe, but anyone checked if they fixed this in the new 7.3.2 update?

Disappointingly, Apple seem to regard the new sorting order as a feature, rather than a bug.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Why would "perfect circle" not come before "pink floyd", whether or not the "A" is used for alphabetization? Or should Pink Floyd be under the Fs? (And Meat Loaf under the Ls)

i meant A Perfect Circle is higher in the list than Pink Floyd ie you scroll down from APC to see Pink Floyd

 

[dingmah]

Number artists being sorted at the END of the alphabet is annoying. The rest of OS X & XP sorts numbers before the alphabet, so I have no idea why they would randomly change it in the latest iTunes update.

If anyone finds a way to revert the artist sorting back to like it was before, please post!

 

[bousozoku]

Numbers are also being put at the bottom of the list, while they used to be at the top. Strange...

They're giving everyone a taste of EBCDIC encoding rather than the tradition desktop ASCII encoding. I think they must have changed the development language from Objective-C to Objective-COBOL.