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Is there any way to sort the order songs by the same artist appear in the Music App

3

31rhcp

macrumors member
Original poster
May 18, 2010
73
0
iOS 7.1 iPhone 4.

Is there a way to sort how albums are grouped by the same artist. In early version s of iOS 7, my phone listed the oldest album by any artist first. While this was a change from what it was previously (alphabetically by album, I believe), I actually really grew to like this. The thing is, now it is sorting by most recent album (so backwards). I really dislike this way of sorting is there a way to change it.

Apple sure likes changing things on you and leaving you with either no way of changing it back or at least no obvious way of changing it back.
 
You can affect the sorting of albums by modifying the "Sort Album" field in iTunes before syncing with your iOS device.
 
For whatever reason, if you access your artists by search (open Music app, go to Artists, enter the artist in the search box at top, select artist), that will bring the order back to oldest albums first.
 
GGJstudios said:
You can affect the sorting of albums by modifying the "Sort Album" field in iTunes before syncing with your iOS device.
Click to expand...

For most of my songs the Sort Album field is blank. I have over 5700 songs. It's not really practical for me to fill them in. How does it use Sort Album to sort the albums? Is it alphabetical?

JPM42 said:
For whatever reason, if you access your artists by search (open Music app, go to Artists, enter the artist in the search box at top, select artist), that will bring the order back to oldest albums first.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I don't see me doing this on a regular basis.
 
31rhcp said:
For most of my songs the Sort Album field is blank. I have over 5700 songs. It's not really practical for me to fill them in. How does it use Sort Album to sort the albums? Is it alphabetical?
Click to expand...
If the Sort Album field is empty, albums are sorted alphabetically by the Album name. The Sort Album field is used to override that sorting in certain cases, such as ignoring certain leading words like "The" or "A". There are scripts you can use to populate fields for a large number of songs at once.

Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes is a great resource for managing your iTunes tags and files. Here are a few scripts that I've found particularly useful:
 
31rhcp said:
iOS 7.1 iPhone 4.

Is there a way to sort how albums are grouped by the same artist. In early version s of iOS 7, my phone listed the oldest album by any artist first. While this was a change from what it was previously (alphabetically by album, I believe), I actually really grew to like this. The thing is, now it is sorting by most recent album (so backwards). I really dislike this way of sorting is there a way to change it.

Apple sure likes changing things on you and leaving you with either no way of changing it back or at least no obvious way of changing it back.
Click to expand...

Well, I still have my albums alphabetical... I don't have any sort field.. when u are in the artist section and view the albums by it, they show it alphabetically... what I have done is, in iTunes, I have arranged my music as per the album names(I hope u know how to do that) ..so slbum name starting from "A" is first and the going on that order.. The artists of those May not be the same ...
 
Apple blogger said:
Well, I still have my albums alphabetical... I don't have any sort field.. when u are in the artist section and view the albums by it, they show it alphabetically... what I have done is, in iTunes, I have arranged my music as per the album names(I hope u know how to do that) ..so slbum name starting from "A" is first and the going on that order.. The artists of those May not be the same ...
Click to expand...

How do you list the albums alphabetically and where is the sort album field - is it the Sorting tab under Get Info?
I am also looking for a way to list albums, songs alphabetically under Artist. Listing by year looks like a random order. When I want to browse and select a song, the year doesn't matter - whether a particular song was released in 1999 or 2009, most of the time I don't even know the year and doesn't help to quickly find that song.

But anyway, if you know a way to sort alphabetically, please tell us.
 
You can create Smart playlist that will put your albums in by year. iTunes is very customizable.
 
gaanee said:
How do you list the albums alphabetically and where is the sort album field - is it the Sorting tab under Get Info?
I am also looking for a way to list albums, songs alphabetically under Artist. Listing by year looks like a random order. When I want to browse and select a song, the year doesn't matter - whether a particular song was released in 1999 or 2009, most of the time I don't even know the year and doesn't help to quickly find that song.

But anyway, if you know a way to sort alphabetically, please tell us.
Click to expand...

You don't need to actually go into the info part.. Open iTunes .. U will see different tabs above ur first song (name, album, artist, year, time,rating, etc.) which ever way u want u click the tab... If you want name wise order(A-Z) click the name tab.. If u want it Z-A click it again(the small arrow in the tab will change accordingly).. U will notice a colour different on the tab u changed with other tabs... Now u want it album wise.. Do the same thing.. Click the album tab.. The album will be A-Z... If You want it Z-A click it again and it will become Z-A...
This will arrange your iTunes library in your order.. Well that's all I've done, and then I sync my phone, and I get the albums in alphabetical order when I check it through artists..

See if it helps otherwise I'll see if there is any other solution
 
GGJstudios said:
If the Sort Album field is empty, albums are sorted alphabetically by the Album name. The Sort Album field is used to override that sorting in certain cases, such as ignoring certain leading words like "The" or "A". There are scripts you can use to populate fields for a large number of songs at once.

Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes is a great resource for managing your iTunes tags and files. Here are a few scripts that I've found particularly useful:
Click to expand...

I'll have to give these a try. Thanks for posting.

mofunj said:
You can create Smart playlist that will put your albums in by year. iTunes is very customizable.
Click to expand...

True, Smart Playlists can be quite useful. But in this case I'm talking about my whole library under Artist view. Not only would a Smart Playlist with all my songs be impractically large, but I would have to view all the artists together rather than individually.
 
Apple blogger said:
You don't need to actually go into the info part.. Open iTunes .. U will see different tabs above ur first song (name, album, artist, year, time,rating, etc.) which ever way u want u click the tab... If you want name wise order(A-Z) click the name tab.. If u want it Z-A click it again(the small arrow in the tab will change accordingly).. U will notice a colour different on the tab u changed with other tabs... Now u want it album wise.. Do the same thing.. Click the album tab.. The album will be A-Z... If You want it Z-A click it again and it will become Z-A...
This will arrange your iTunes library in your order.. Well that's all I've done, and then I sync my phone, and I get the albums in alphabetical order when I check it through artists..

See if it helps otherwise I'll see if there is any other solution
Click to expand...

Well.. that's what I have in iTunes - albums sorted alphabetically, but on the iphone under Artist tag it still shows Albums chronologically instead of alphabetically.
 
gaanee said:
Well.. that's what I have in iTunes - albums sorted alphabetically, but on the iphone under Artist tag it still shows Albums chronologically instead of alphabetically.
Click to expand...

Hmmm I think .. Try removing the songs and resyncing.. And post screenshot for better understanding ..
 
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