Wierd file sorting in Media Player (latest beta)

mackeev · Post by *mackeev » 2016-07-30, 06:42 UTC

Player in the latest beta (2.80 beta 3) sorts playlists differently than 2.72 does (see attached screenshots). I don't like it, but I can't find any way to change this.
Screenshots

2.72:
Image: http://bsca.com.ua/272.jpg

2.80 beta 3:
Image: http://bsca.com.ua/280.jpg

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2016-08-02, 09:35 UTC

Yes, it sorts by the track number stored in the ID3 tags (if there is any). Why is this bad?

mackeev · Post by *mackeev » 2016-08-03, 05:40 UTC

Eh, this is not necessarily bad... It means that one needs to place each and every album in a separate directory. And I prefer to have them all in one folder (artist) and sorted by filename.
Is it possible to allow one to choose file sorting?

Added.

Now I see that this is bad. Really bad. I placed each album in its separate folder. And here is the result (Image: http://bsca.com.ua/screen.png). Why is it doing what it's doing? I have no idea. This means I need to redo all the tags. Please bring back sorting by filename!

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2016-08-03, 16:13 UTC

Looks like your files are incorrectly tagged - the artist seems to be missing completely, but the track name and number is apparently set.

mackeev · Post by *mackeev » 2016-08-04, 04:21 UTC

Never mind the artist (I know who he is and the field is empty on purpose). If they are tagged (and it apparently looks so), why then is track 7 placed right after 5 in one album and after 3 in the other? Why then is the rest of them misplaced? My point being they are always tagged incorrectly and we need an option to rearrange playlists according to our tastes (or just by plain filenames: files on playlists can be renamed in batch mode easily).

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2016-08-05, 09:58 UTC

You can disable loading of tags in the player settings, then they will be sorted by name - but then TC will not display tags either.

mackeev · Post by *mackeev » 2016-08-05, 10:23 UTC

I know about this option, but it doesn't seem reasonable, given I DO have the tracks tagged. Maybe you could put in a checkbox "Sort by filename" in Player's options. Why did you forgo the old sorting pattern (v. 2.72 and earlier) in the first place?

elevengu · Post by *elevengu » 2016-09-07, 20:28 UTC

Have you tried the latest beta? I had the same issue as you (seen in this thread), and previously even disabling the tags didn't change the sorting behavior. This fixed it for me without having to set any options! But my use case might not be the same as yours...

mackeev · Post by *mackeev » 2016-09-08, 08:54 UTC

Dear elevengu,
I wish I could share your excitement. But no. I'm still getting playlists sorted by tag numbers. All I wish is them sorted by filename.
A typical example (several albums in one dir):
Image: http://i65.tinypic.com/ak8ztt.png
One album per dir, played from parent dir:
Image: http://i68.tinypic.com/2v8fgug.png
Nothing's changed for me whatsoever.

Dear Christian,

What exactly has been fixed with "track numbers in media player"?

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2016-09-08, 18:25 UTC

Beta 4 uses the numbers from the file names if all files in a specific directory have a number. If not, it uses the track numbers from the tags. The track number is expected at the begining of the file, and it must not be 0. Your tracks do not have a number at the beginning, so TC uses the track number from the ID3 tag, because normally named tracks are in a completely wrong order.

You either need to rename your tracks to 1 something.mp3, 2 somethingelse.mp3, or fix the track numbers in the tags, or put albums in differet subdirectories.

mackeev · Post by *mackeev » 2016-09-09, 04:36 UTC

Thank you. That's what I suspected. Jesus, that's plenty of work, but at least I can do it in batch rename.

mackeev · Post by *mackeev » 2016-09-10, 06:08 UTC

On a second thought... the best way is to remove track numbers from ALL songs. I know a program (tagscanner) that can do it in a jiffy.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2016-09-12, 09:52 UTC

Why not just disable the display of tags? Then they are added as you want. Now save them to a play list and re-enable the tags.

mackeev · Post by *mackeev » 2016-09-12, 11:56 UTC

This is an option, of course.
But this means I need to keep a list of playlists. This is a matter of predilection. I prefer to long-tap on a folder and select Play.
Anyway, I'm glad I ran through tags one more time. Cleaned some junk out.
Thank you for fixing track numbering.

cowboy · Post by *cowboy » 2016-10-01, 00:45 UTC

I'd like to see something in TC media player settings that would let me specify ID3 tag items to be displayed in which order (which would also control sort order).

Something like a popup box where I could enter something like:
%title%-%artist%

Duplcates could be resolved on a first-come first-served basis, or if necessary by TC adding aa numeric suffix.

I didnt't come up with this syntaxx; it's often used by software that permits renaming files based on tag info.