Option to browse by filenames instead of tags

[Nazo]

I actually like to sort my files my own way, so use file and folder sorting rather than sorting by things like albums or artists (this is, in no small part, due to the fact that I generally only listen to one or two tracks from an album.) Poweramp has always been good about this, but, in a recent update it seems to have started showing ID tags even in the folder view even though I've tried every setting I could to try to keep it from doing this. This means it has to scan the files now and it also takes longer to show the folder view this way. It also means files are no longer sorted the same way since they sort by tags (so now two things I'm used to being right next to each other may, in fact, be completely separated.) It's also kind of annoying if you listen to music from other languages and use tags from those languages, then basically romanized filenames to make actually finding things a lot easier. Since the tags aren't romanized (I like to use MusicBrainz in particular for mass album tagging as I've found it to be the most accurate and reliable database so far) I end up getting presented with a lot of characters that, to be perfectly honest, I don't really understand. I don't really want to "break" the tags by romanizing them all (and thus making them no longer correct by the database in particular) as up until now the filenames alone were sufficient. Besides, folder view should really be a folder view without using tags IMO.

Of course, all of this could be entirely optional. There's no reason why anyone who actually WANTS to browse by tags shouldn't be allowed to if they really want to. Those of us who like seeing the filenames could get the benefits of it not having to scan the filesystem for changes all the time and sorting by filenames too however. A simple option to this effect should be sufficient and then file browsing doesn't have to do anything special beyond what it already did before: just presenting files and folders with the same basic options if you tap and hold (like enqueue -- I've always loved how Poweramp handles queues and hope it never changes.)

[andrewilley]

Sorting by folders and files still works just fine. Choose 'Folders' mode, and then use Menu>ListOptions to set the sort order. There is a separate sort order used for files within folders by the way, so make sure you select an option for both to sort exactly how you want.

Andre

[Nazo]

Ah, I see what you mean. I didn't expect to have to look there.

Still, I cared less about the sorting and more about the actual browsing itself. I never did like browsing by tags -- you almost might just as well not even use folder mode at all when you're using tags IMO.

EDIT: Oops, either it was added in an update since I posted this or there has always been an option hidden right there in that same settings menu to browse folders by filename.

In that case, I guess my suggestion is only that when browsing by filename, it shouldn't rely on scanning. After all, all it has to do is a simple file list. I noticed that it still requires this even because I had just added a few files and it didn't see them even when set to browse by filename instead of tag until I manually initiated a scan from the main settings menu.