# iTunes sorting

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-sorting/457495>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 23, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-sorting/457495 "2008-07-23T16:33:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-sorting/457495/1 "2008-07-23T16:33:35Z")

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Okay, I’ve been using iTunes for years. I loved its use of the ID3 tags and other metadata, so I didn’t have to maintain a directory structure by hand like I used to back in college. But I’ve run into a problem.

I’ve gotten ahold of a turntable so I can finally rip all this old vinyl that I’ve had sitting around forever (and listen to it again!) But some of these bands were more prolific than those I’ve been listening to recently, and it’s throwing off the sorts. Specifically, I love the Album By Year sort, which puts artists into alphabetical order, and albums into chronological order within a given artist – sort of.

See, Yes released _The Yes Album_ early in 1971, and _Fragile_ late in 1971. So they’re both under “Yes”, and both under “1971” within that. But then “Fragile” comes before “Yes Album, The” in the alphabet, so the sort places them in reverse order. A couple years later, the same thing happens between _Yessongs_ and _Tales From Topographic Oceans_. And I can already see that when I get to the Beatles the same thing will happen between _Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_ and _Magical Mystery Tour_.

So here’s the question: is there a way (or a hack) to tweak the chronological order? A hidden “release month” field somewhere? Or do I just have to remember that these albums are out of order?

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**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-sorting/457495/2 "2008-07-23T16:46:15Z")

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What I’ve been doing for these scenarios is prefacing the album title with an _a-_ or _b-_ to keep them in the correct order. It’s not the cleanest solution but I’ve learned to ignore the prefixes in the few places I have them, whereas it bugs me when the discography is out of order. Hopefully they’ll tweak the sort options soon although it has gotten better with the last few versions.