Sorting by album and then track number in "all songs by artist" or playlist

[Gwinbar]

Hi everyone,

I have a question. I know that when looking at songs by album or by artist or whatever, you can choose the sort mode. For example, you can sort the songs by track # or name or whatever you want, and the same goes for albums and artists.

But when looking at all songs by some artist I'd like to sort them by album first and then track number, and I don't see any way of doing that. If I sort by track number then I get all the first tracks, and then all the second tracks, and so on: the albums are mixed up. Meanwhile, if I sort by album then inside each album the tracks are alphabetical. I'd like for them to be sorted by album, and inside each album by track number.

 

I want to do this because this is the order that gets used if I put everything by an artist inside a playlist, so currently my playlists are all scrambled. Thanks!

[andrewilley]

View the library in 'Artist' mode, and set the top (artist) level List Options to "By Name". Then drill down into one artist and you'll see their albums (sort that level by name too). Then drill down into one of those albums and you'll see all the songs, set the sort order there to "Track #".

Andre

[Gwinbar]

Thank you, I've done that, but it didn't help. When I open an artist and go into the list of all songs, the albums are still scrambled. I know that if I play an album it'll automatically go into the next one when it finishes, but that's not what I want to do.

[andrewilley]

So what do you want to do? "All Songs" is just a list of available songs, with just a single sort setting. If you want to view by Artist > Albums > Tracks  then you need "Artists' mode and drill down accordingly.

Andre

[Gwinbar]

Let me explain. I want to add all songs by an artist to a playlist, by long-pressing on an artist and adding to a playlist. If I do this the songs end up in the playlist on the order I chose in the song view.

Again, if for example I open some album and go List Options and sort by track number, after adding the artist to the playlist the songs are ordered by track number first and album later, which is the opposite of what I want. I can't figure out how to get them ordered by album first and then track number.

Thanks again for your help!

[andrewilley]

Ah, I see what you mean. No, the All Songs item within the Artist view is designed to allow you to quickly view all of that artist's work in one long list, for example everything ordered by filename or title or year. There is only one sorting level for that single long list though, as other ordering formats are available via the drill-down Artist>Album>Song method. However the Add to Playlist feature for adding an entire Artist will use the current All Songs sorting method to insert the songs.

For the very specific function you describe, you could use Folders mode (in Hierarchy view), assuming your folders and files are named correctly. e.g. one folder per artist, and then subfolders for each album, and the songs level can then be sorted by filename if you have included the track numbers at the start if the filenames, or by Track# otherwise. Doing an Add to Playlist by long-pressing on the artist's folder would then result in the ordering you want. I almost always use Folder mode in Poweramp as I can fine-tweak the ordering much more precisely by the way I name my folders and files. 

Andre

[Gwinbar]

All right, that worked! Thanks! It seems a little weird, though, that such a flexible player can't do this from the library view, which frankly every other music application does. Still, it works.

[wrbird]

Hello Gwinbar, this is what I do and it's about as straightforward as possible and I believe it gets what you're asking for. 

Enter Library, select Artists and ensure the list options are sorted by name. 

Then tap on the artist that you want to create your playlist. The first item on the list is All Artists Songs, and the number of songs. DO NOT select this item. Below this is the list of all the albums. Ensure this list is sorted by name. 

Now enter the menu at this level, i.e. where all the albums are listed. Select Add to Playlist. On the bottom of the screen there's Select All,  Add, and Cancel. Tap on Select All if you want all the albums in the list to be added to the playlist. Otherwise tap on the individual albums to be added. When this is done you'll see the Add button with parentheses around the number of albums that will be added.

Now tap on Add and a window will pop up with a plus sign and Create New Playlist. Tap on this and you'll get a new window to name your playlist. Name your playlist and select OK. 

Now back out to the beginning of the Library. Select Playlist and you'll see the playlist that you just created. Select that playlist and you'll see all the songs in your playlist sorted by album, then by track. I believe this is what you're asking for. 

Let me know if you have any questions.

Wayne 

Wa

[andrewilley]

Thanks @wrbird , that would do exactly what the OP wanted, allowing both the album level and song level sort orders to be respected.

Andre 

[RobM]

Maybe it's me but that seems like a lot of unnecessary gymnastucs to do what should be natural. 

I am evaluating this player to determine if it works the way I would use it. I, too, want to play full albums and the songs in album order. To make a playlist for every artist seems like a burdensome extra step. 

I don't want to make a playlist, I simply want to select an artist and have the player play the first album by that artist, in the proper track order, then move to the next album and do the same, and continue through to the end. And if I have selected continuous play it should start back at the beginning of the first album and start over. My previous music player did this flawlessly (in fact, every player I have ever had did this) but I changed over to flac format and that player doesn't currently handle that format. 

Is this player capable of doing this? If not, my search for a new player will have to continue. Thanks. 

[andrewilley]

Absolutely, that's the normal way it works, this thread was more about controlling the specific ordering when adding multiple songs at once to playlists.

Normally, just go into Library view and select 'Artists' as your preferred view. Then you'll see a full list of artists and you can drill down to see their albums and then the songs inside those albums. Start playback with any of those songs (by tapping on the title) and that will become the current Playback mode. Or you can just start playback directly from the Artist or Album level if you long-press on any of the titles and tap 'Play'.

The default sort ordering is as you wanted, i.e. for Artists and then Album Titles to be sorted alphabetically and then the individual songs to be ordered by track number, but each level can be configured separately to your own preferences using Menu > List Options in each view if you want.

To continue automatically on to the next album after you've finished listening to the previous one, leave Repeat mode set to the default 'Advance List' setting, but you can also choose to stop at the end, repeat the album, repeat the current song, etc. This is adjusted using the icon in the lower-left of the cover art area.

You should also leave Shuffle set to the default 'Off' unless you want to mix things up a bit and perhaps choose albums at random but still play back the songs in track order. This is adjusted using the icon in the lower-right of the cover art area.

In short, there's a lot of flexibility if you play around with the options, but to start with the defaults should do exactly what you initially asked.

Andre

[RBEmerson]

This seems to be turning into a feature request: adding a tool to sort Artists by field1 by field2 by fieldn and then drill down to sort Albums by field1 by field2 by fieldn. In short, avoid the dancing around in folders or playlists and just use the existing meta-data.

[flyingdutchman]

My app New Playlist Manager has a "smart playlists" feature which allows you to sort in any way you like using the mp3 tags. It also allows you to backup and restore your pa ratings.