Songs in alphabetic order, not track order

[billrosenblatt]

Hi there,

For some reason, Poweramp has started listing album tracks in alphabetical order instead of track order, despite the fact that the filenames begin with sequential numbers. In other words, it is ignoring the sequential numbers. It used to treat track order properly, but now it doesn't. It could possibly be that this started when I upgraded Poweramp to the latest version (1.2 Build 330), but I'm not really sure.

Device: Motorola Droid 2 Global

OS: Android 2.2

File format: MP4 AAC, 192 kbps

I got Poweramp in the first place (in part) because the default Android music player has a bug that forces alphabetical track order for MP4 AAC files, so this problem is especially annoying. I double-checked Settings to ensure that the Sorting, Album/Artist Songs Sorting setting is set to "By track number, title."

Any ideas as to what's wrong and how to fix it? Thanks!!

- bill.

[admin]

Hi.

PowerAMP uses track number from files in Folder/Files lists and track # tag in library lists - are you sure you're looking into right list?

Thanks!

[billrosenblatt]

Yes, I'm looking at the library list, not the folder list.

I can't find a way to read the track number metadata to see if it got corrupted or something. When I connect my Droid to my PC via USB, I can look at the files in Windows Explorer but it doesn't list the track numbers.

It looks like Poweramp is stripping the initial numbers from the filenames (including any hyphens and spaces) and then displaying them in "proper" alphabetical order. For example, if a title begins with "The", it ignores the "The" and alphabetizes by what comes after.

It did not used to do this. Very, very strange.

- bill.

[admin]

Basically, for library, PowerAMP uses the android system media database. If android system media scanner failed to recognize track # and put it into the database, PowerAMP won't sort them accurately (as this important track # info is missing) despite PowerAMP info screen shows the track # tag is there.

This can be solved only by custom media scanner and media library. PowerAMP v2.0 is going to have this implemented.

Thanks!

[mrfr0gz]

I just had this happen as well, after adding new music-

Finally I gave up and deleted the errant albums, albumart, and program data to force a

re-initialization.

I reloaded all my music folders, and started PA.

Had to set all my parameters again, but at least my sort is back by track, as I had directed it to be.

[maxmp]

Assuming you're on PowerAMP v1.4, its track based sorting is based on android system library, thus, if system library scanner failed to recognize track # tag, PowerAMP won't be able to sort by track # properly.

Thanks!

[The_FNG]

I've been looking for information on the "sorting" phenomenon for quite awhile. Some new update to Poweramp stopped me from using the old DOS Hierarchical method of sorting files, in this case - music. My entire library is built this way, with over 350 albums. I've always used the "Folders" line of sorting as I'm not impressed with Android's "Library" capabilities. I create my own FLAC files from WAV sources.

Former behavior:

Genre (a parent Directory>

>Album (sorted alpha as there are no leading numbers on the album titles - essentially a child-directory)>

>multiple tracks (music files in FLAC format, sorted by Track #)

Now when I go to folder view, no matter what sort settings I use, a list of every album comes up, no longer is Genre Groups (Directories). When I select any album from this mish-mash list, the track numbers are ignored, and the music is sorted by alpha.

I just want the old functionality back Please.

Sincerely:

Steve

Addendum - It's amazing what you find when you dig into the UI in unconventional ways. I found the setting for displaying in Hierarchical view, and made sure that the selections were to be sorted by Track #, but that setting is still being ignored.

steve

[The_FNG]

Hmmm. The ID3 data on several albums seems to have shifted "fields". So the ID3 data was reporting "Track 0" for all tracks, and it resorted to Alpha sorting. What I don't understand is that the Filenames themselves didn't change and are all prefixed with (#) matching Track numbers. In earlier versions, the "sort by filename" feature worked properly and played tracks in order. This sort choice no longer works.

Steve