Listing music sorted alphabetically by file name
#1
I'm using Kodi 17 with the EstuaryPlus skin under Win10, although I think my issue is independent of the skin or the OS.

I select the music I want to listen to thru folders on the Favorites tab. When I navigate to the folder (album) that I want I find that the tracks are listed alphabetically by the track name which I believe comes from the ID tags inside the mp3 files. I can't argue that this is a poor default as it does make sense. However I happen to like to sort alphabetically by the file names since I am meticulous about the way I choose file names. Of course I can go to "Options" and select how I want the tracks sorted. Kodi remembers my choice for each folder which on first thought may seem like a kindness. However actually it makes the choice worthless to me. The reason is that I have over 10 thousand albums in my collection so clearly it would be nearly impossible to go thru each of the 10,000 folders one at a time just to tell Kodi I want them sorted by file name. So the sorting choice is only useful if there is a way to change the default or to change all the folders in my collection in one command. I failed to find a way to do either of those things so I'm hoping someone can suggest a way to solve this little issue.

Perhaps this would not be an issue if I used libraries. I don't know since I haven't used libraries much because I have found that, for me, using favorites was the most natural way to select the music I want to listen to or the videos that I want to watch.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.

~Paul
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#2
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#3
(2017-08-06, 23:59)pmennen Wrote: Perhaps this would not be an issue if I used libraries. I don't know since I haven't used libraries much because I have found that, for me, using favorites was the most natural way to select the music I want to listen to or the videos that I want to watch.
Go on give the music library a try Smile
However with 10k albums, so maybe > 100k of songs I suggest you avoid the songs node unfiltered.

I'm reasonably sure that in file view the sort order is all folder specific, with no way to change the default, sorry.
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#4
going through the same issue rn. too much overlapping and i feel overwhelmed with it. i'm not sure renaming them would help because again, it's really a daunting thing to rename hundreds, if not thousands of folders or worse files.
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#5
You have 10,000 albums and your using file mode? lol

Seriously... use the library mode. That's the reason we have a database so we can easily navigate music Wink

You can even do cool stuff like A-Z nodes once your library is scanned in

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=278794

Or even jump with SMS style keyboard numbers.
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#6
(2017-08-16, 12:51)docwra Wrote: You have 10,000 albums and your using file mode? lol

I'm not sure why you are maligning file mode. I think it works great. I can find what I'm looking for in a heartbeat. I have my albums arranged into 7 favorites folders (Popular, Classical, Jazz, World, SpokenWord, SoundTracks, and Misc). Popular is the largest folder with 26 subfolders one for each letter of the alphabet, according to the first letter of the artist's first name. (Yes using the first name is quirky but it works far better for me.) I've been building this collection for 15 years (long before Kodi) so I've had a long time to hone my organization.

I admit that I haven't used libraries in Kodi, but I have used libraries in other similar programs and with a collection as large as mine it has always created a huge mess and forced me into searching and accessing the collection in ways I did not want. Granted Kodi might be better, but I haven't found a good description of how it works that might make me think it is worth the effort. Also I haven't found anything lacking in the favorites method of access except perhaps for the issue that caused me to start this thread. However that issue is really quite minor in the grand scheme of things.

~Paul
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#7
I just couldn't imagine not being able to navigate by artist >> album, genre or year. That's just the basics of the library. Its far more powerful than that with all the artwork available and smart playlists.
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