Set Default Sort Order for Auto Playlists

[Koolstr]

Why when I pick a sort order in an auto playlist, leave that playlist, and then return to it, the sort order reverts back to the original sort of the order in which the songs were added? I don't want that, I want to be able to have it sort by artist, descending, always. Instead every time I go to it I have to manually re-set the sort order.

[CritterMan]

Try this:

Get the playlist organized by columns as you want it, right-click the playlist, select List, and then click Update Play Order.

[Koolstr]

Sounds like that would be the solution, but the 'Update Play Order' option is grayed out.

What are the possible reasons behind that?

[phred]

Sounds like that would be the solution, but the 'Update Play Order' option is grayed out.
What are the possible reasons behind that?

Update Play Order is only available for -static- playlists. It's grayed-out for auto-playlists.

[Koolstr]

So then how am I supposed to choose the default sort of an auto playlist? Are you saying it is impossible?

[phred]

So then how am I supposed to choose the default sort of an auto playlist? Are you saying it is impossible?

As far as I recall, you can't.
I do recall a discussion or two about this not too long ago (within the past year?) but I don't reremember what the end result was. You might want to search the forum.

[Koolstr]

That surprises me, and that kinda sucks. I did try searching before making this thread, but I couldn't find anything.

[theta_wave]

Is setting up a custom view, setting its sorting criteria and using said custom view in subsequent autoplaylists not enough?



My "AT_Default" custom view uses the "Albums and Tracks" layout and has a sort order of Album Artist > Year > Month.Date > Album > Track#.  And it stays that way unless I elect to change the sort order for some reason otherwise it pretty much is "set it and forget it."

Here's an automatically generated custom view's innards (mediafield: displays which fields you want to view and their width when displayed; SortOverride: userset custom sorting criteria):

Code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ApplicationSettings xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<PanelLayout>1</PanelLayout>
<Fields>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>40</Code>
  <Width>233</Width>
 </MediaField>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>20</Code>
  <Width>216</Width>
 </MediaField>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>78</Code>
  <Width>0</Width>
 </MediaField>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>116</Code>
  <Width>30</Width>
 </MediaField>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>76</Code>
  <Width>51</Width>
 </MediaField>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>86</Code>
  <Width>48</Width>
 </MediaField>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>65</Code>
  <Width>410</Width>
 </MediaField>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>75</Code>
  <Width>94</Width>
 </MediaField>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>14</Code>
  <Width>44</Width>
 </MediaField>
 <MediaField>
  <Code>16</Code>
  <Width>70</Width>
 </MediaField>
</Fields>
<SortOverride>6</SortOverride>
<Grouping>0</Grouping>
<ConsolidateAlbums>false</ConsolidateAlbums>
<AlbumLayoutGroupingD>true</AlbumLayoutGroupingD>
<AlbumLayoutGroupingP>true</AlbumLayoutGroupingP>
<NavigatorAlbumHeader>0</NavigatorAlbumHeader>
<AlbumLayoutHeaderContrast>0</AlbumLayoutHeaderContrast>
<NavigatorAlbumHeader1>0</NavigatorAlbumHeader1>
<AlbumLayoutHeaderContrast1>0</AlbumLayoutHeaderContrast1>
<NavigatorAlbumListField0>123</NavigatorAlbumListField0>
<NavigatorAlbumListField1>139</NavigatorAlbumListField1>
<NavigatorAlbumListField2>35</NavigatorAlbumListField2>
<NavigatorAlbumListField3>0</NavigatorAlbumListField3>
<NavigatorAlbumListField4>0</NavigatorAlbumListField4>
<NavigatorAlbumListField5>0</NavigatorAlbumListField5>
<NavigatorAlbumListField6>0</NavigatorAlbumListField6>
<AlbumTextOnRight>true</AlbumTextOnRight>
<AlbumCompressTracks>true</AlbumCompressTracks>
<AlbumCompressTracksP>true</AlbumCompressTracksP>
<AlbumLayoutMinTracks>0</AlbumLayoutMinTracks>
<AlbumLayoutPadSubHeader>false</AlbumLayoutPadSubHeader>
</ApplicationSettings>

[Koolstr]

It looks like that approach can be a workable solution! So how do you create a custom view in MusicBee? Where do you go and what do you change?

[theta_wave]

1) Organize the main panel based on your preferences (views, which fields to display, width of the columns, sorting order, etc)
Views and custom sort order are located in the panel's drop menu (see red arrow in screenshot below)
Views can be either tracks, album covers and tracks, album covers or artist pic
Sort order can be customized by "Define Custom Sorting..."

2) Click the area pointed out by the red arrow in the screenshot below to bring up the drop menu again and, as highlighted in the screenshot, select "Copy Current View Settings To..." and name it.

3) Now, whenever you create your autoplaylist, you can use that view as your default, as highlighted in the screenshot I posted in my earlier response.

TIP: If you already made a huge number of autoplaylists and do not feel like opening every single one of them to choose your customized default view, you can use something like Notepad++ to open up all of your autoplaylists at once (location: My Music\MusicBee\Playlists), search in every document for CustomSettingsName="whatever is the default name", and "replace all in all opened document" with CustomSettingsName="My new default name".  Then File > Save All

[psychoadept]

Also, if you're making a custom view that you don't want to use for the rest of your library, you might want to do "copy current view settings to..." FIRST and then make modifications.  Otherwise, you will have to unmodify your default view.

[Koolstr]

This worked!!! Thank you so much for the ingenious method!! I appreciate your help a ton! I am much happier with my setup now that I know that I can use those custom sorting and layouts to bend the program to my will. Oh I am so happy!!   

[theta_wave]

I'm glad that worked out for you.  It is a really nice system since I like to have different views or column widths when viewing different genres like classical music, soundtracks versus everything else and I hate changing such settings on the fly.  I like being lazy and tailoring a few different custom views to set and use suits me perfectly  .

[Koolstr]

I feel you on that perfectly lol

I wonder how many people are out there that are like us?

[theta_wave]

Oh yeah, somewhat similar to what psycho posted, I almost forgot to add that if you want to create a new custom view off of one you are currently using, it is best to create the new custom view first before fiddling around with the layout.  The reason why is that I believe your custom view will store any subsequent changes made to it (e.g. changing the width of a column, sort order, etc).  Thus, after you create a new custom view, any changes will be reflected on the new custom view rather than the one you were using earlier.

After setting up all of your custom views and making sure they are to your exact specifications, be sure to back them up so that you can replace them if anything goes wrong or if you want to copy your layouts to another computer.

They are stored in the following directory (just copy and paste the following in file explorer): %AppData%\MusicBee\Saved Settings\Views