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Topic: Playlist sort order - ignoring sort incoming files (Read 2315 times) previous topic - next topic
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Playlist sort order - ignoring sort incoming files


[SOLVED; PEBKAC]

Hi folks - been using foobar for about three years here, but not particularly knowledgeable about configuration issues, so please bear with me.

In short, I have just reinstalled foobar on a fresh Windows 8 installation, and something odd appears to be going on with the order in which foobar sorts tracks in playlists. When I create a new playlist, the tracks appear ordered in random order, and not by track number, as had always previously been the case in all the foobar re/installations I've done over the years. I can click on the Track# column to sort by track number correctly, or use the 'Edit > Sort by...' option, but both these are only temporary fixes and do not 'stick' when I click off that playlist.



Some Googling and forum searching has revealed that this is usually remedied by altering the 'Preferences > Shell Integration > Sort incoming files by' setting to some variant of %tracknumber%. I have accordingly changed this field (it was formerly on %path_sort%), however this appears to have done nothing to fix the issue - foobar behaviour is unchanged, even after restarting the program and deleting and re-importing my entire media library, and even after uninstalling and reinstalling foobar twice (obviously making the appropriate changes upon reinstallation).



This behaviour appears even using the latest v1.25 build, and the only non-core component I have installed is WASAPI support.

halp?

Playlist sort order - ignoring sort incoming files

Reply #1 –
Shell integrations options are used when adding tracks from Windows Explorer.

You need to include %tracknumber% in your album list pattern, see the default ones for reference.

Playlist sort order - ignoring sort incoming files

Reply #2 –
Album list order is undefined for files it doesn't show. To make it work as you expect you need to modify the view string to include individual files. Adding something like "|[[%discnumber%.]%tracknumber%. ]%title%" to the end will fix it.
I also recommend changing the sort incoming files string to include more than just %tracknumber%. As it is, if you were to load multiple albums from Explorer into foobar at once you'd see a mess sorted only by individual numbers. Default %path_sort% works for correctly named files, but if you prefer relying on tags, use something like %album artist%|%album%|%discnumber%.%tracknumber%.|%path_sort%.

Playlist sort order - ignoring sort incoming files

Reply #3 –
Ahhah. Yes, that's the problem; changing to one of the default album list views fixes the sorting issue. In my attempts to create something which enumerates first by artist then by album chronologically I cobbled together some sort of monstrosity out of creative copy-pasting some years ago and copy-pasted it into subsequent installs, but lost my reference string upon this reinstall and appear to have broken something when attempting to recreate.

I feel somewhat like a monkey hitting things with a wrench until it goes 'clonk' satisfactorily (I really don't understand what I'm doing here) - current list pattern is
Code: [Select]
%<artist>%|%date% - %album%|[[%discnumber%.]%tracknumber%
- can someone tell me where I'm going wrong?

Playlist sort order - ignoring sort incoming files

Reply #4 –
maybe the extra, unneeded un closed bracket
Quote
[[%discnumber%
 

Playlist sort order - ignoring sort incoming files

Reply #5 –
 

That'd do it. Thanks all, once again, for putting up with what must seem like really stupid questions.