# Why do iTunes and iPod alphabetize differently? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 11, 2008, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-itunes-and-ipod-alphabetize-differently/441017 "2008-03-11T20:50:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-itunes-and-ipod-alphabetize-differently/441017/1 "2008-03-11T20:50:47Z")
On iTunes, a podcast I get called “The Ben & Dave Show” is alphabetized by “B” ignoring the leading article. On my iPod it’s alphabetized by “T” using the leading article. Why the difference? ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-itunes-and-ipod-alphabetize-differently/441017/2 "2008-03-11T21:46:21Z")
iTunes has a custom sorting feature, but it’s a fairly recent addition. How old’s your iPod? The custom sorting works on my 5.5G (the Video from before the recent “Classic” update). ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-itunes-and-ipod-alphabetize-differently/441017/3 "2008-03-11T21:55:59Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] How old’s your iPod? [/QUOTE] Video iPod purchased December 2006. ---
**Author:** ![flex727](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@flex727](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flex727)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-itunes-and-ipod-alphabetize-differently/441017/4 "2008-03-11T22:02:20Z")
Are you talking about a Playlist or the music Library? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-itunes-and-ipod-alphabetize-differently/441017/5 "2008-03-11T22:44:46Z")
[QUOTE=flex727] Are you talking about a Playlist or the music Library? [/QUOTE] I’m talking about the list of audio and video podcasts to which I subscribe. Music –\> Podcasts to reach the list, which is alphabetized using the article where the same podcasts in the iTunes library do not alphabetize by the article. Similarly Videos –\> Podcasts alphabetizes using the article on the iPod but not in the library. Let’s see what else… Artists: Article ignored on both iPod and iTunes Albums: Alphabetized by article on iPod, article ignored in iTunes Songs: Alphabetized by article on iPod, article ignored in iTunes (and songs starting with numbers are in order by the entire number, not a digit-by-digit basis) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-itunes-and-ipod-alphabetize-differently/441017/6 "2008-03-11T23:02:00Z")
Actual technical details are hard to come by for the iPod, however: “The 80 GB iPod secretly contains 1 MB ROM and 64 MB of RAM.” The unit supports 21+ languages. I expect they had to deal with severe space limitations when writing their sorting algorithms. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-itunes-and-ipod-alphabetize-differently/441017/7 "2008-03-11T23:10:23Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] iTunes has a custom sorting feature, but it’s a fairly recent addition. How old’s your iPod? The custom sorting works on my 5.5G (the Video from before the recent “Classic” update). [/QUOTE] Even my 3G iPod (four-and-a-half years old and the original battery still works!) ignores leading articles in the artist list–The Beatles, The Bangles, and The Byrds all appear in the Bs. Titles, however, get alphabetized by the article.