Sorting by Date Added

[noorhassan]

Hello,

I am trying to sort by "Date Added" in Albums and Tracks view so that I can see my library with the most recently added tracks first at the top. I believe it was working the way I wanted it to initially but I just noticed that if I add a new track to an album that existed before (other tracks were added before), the whole album appears at the top, even though the "Date Added" of only one of the tracks is recent enough to be at the top.

I've been trying to get it to appear the way I want it to for hours, but can't seem to make it happen. Is there seriously no way to do this?

I don't want to do it in simple Track Detail View because I like the visual appeal of the Albums and Tracks view, and I do want tracks to be grouped by album when those tracks were added consecutively (Date Added sorts them together so they can and should be grouped together), but if I add a new track to an album that existed previously, I want that track to appear individually at the top without the other tracks from the album.

[Pingaware]

I'm afraid I don't know of a way to do this with Date Added or Date Modified. I don't think it can be done in Album and Tracks view.

[dtb300]

I have done this with Albums by using the COMMENTS field (and custom field can also be used) and adding a date there: 2015-05-11 for example.  I use "comments" as I can do large changes with MP3Tag.

For large number of files to start, you can either copy the "date added" field using the Move/Copy Tag plugin (do a search), or use something like MP3Tag (can see/use the Comments Field).

Later on, just add the date to your field of choice when you add a file.   Not sure if this will work in the view you are talking about but thought I would share my Album level special sorting to see new albums added.

[Zak]

mp3Tag will let you edit/update any custom tag using its own name - you don't have to use the comments tag or any other "standard" tag.

-edit-
Okay, you did mention that. Sorry, I missed it the first time.

[noorhassan]

So if I just add the date using this mp3tag thing and sort them according to this new custom tag, it won't insist on grouping albums together?

I'm willing to give it a shot but I don't see how/why that would work.

I'm talking about doing this in the Album and Tracks view by the way.

[Steven]

the behaviour you describe in your first post is as designed - it keeps the tracks in the album together.
I guess there is an argument it should use the earliest date rather than the latest date added but i am not in a position at the moment to consider any changes to v2.5

[redwing]

I'd suggest the OP to post a wishlist item for this (a view settings option to override album grouping when manually sorting by a field in Album & Tracks view) so that Steven could consider it when he has time a few months later. I too will give my support to the wish.

[noorhassan]

Will definitely do that.

Honestly, I'm surprised it doesn't exist already. I love MusicBee and it's amazing and perfect at so many things that I thought this must be a bug or I screwed up some settings that a sorting order that appeared quite intuitive to me wasn't available. But anyways, not complaining because I realize there are development constraints etc! But really hope to see it ASAP!

I think there should be an option for "Sorting OR Grouping" in this view instead of "Sorting AND Grouping". That is, we should have the option to just sort without grouping tracks in an album together. I know that's already an option in the Track Details view but that makes my whole library seem really boring and there is no visual appeal (the artwork is not visible) and the information can't be gleaned at a glance like it's tidily stacked together next to the artwork in this view.

If someone could tell me how to tweak the Track Detail view to be more visual like this one, that'd be perfect... because I didn't really try to tweak around in it too much.

[redwing]

If someone could tell me how to tweak the Track Detail view to be more visual like this one, that'd be perfect... because I didn't really try to tweak around in it too much.

You could add artwork field to Track Details view. It's a small picture, but better than nothing if you want it to be more visual.

As for the setting, it would remain only as a wish until you (and others) will succeed to persuade Steven. Look at what he said above, The idea of offering the setting is not in his mind at this point as he believes, I think, grouping by album should always be maintained in that view.