Artist Sort Problem

[richard127gm]

Hi. During one of the most recent updates, MB has started sorting artists as <Surname, First Name> instead of my preferred <First Name Last Name> (i.e. Zappa, Frank, instead of Frank Zappa). I use MP3 Tag to tag my files before adding to MB. When I recently ripped a pile of Frank Zappa CD's, both "Artist" and "Album Artist" were originally tagged as "Frank Zappa". When I look at the sort field in the tag editor, this has been set as "Zappa, Frank". I have unticked "Enable custom sort values" and depopulated the Artist and Composer Name Sorting list. If I re-tick that list, the list repopulates picking seemingly random artists. I've given up trying to depopulate the list again, but have unticked the "Enable Custom Sort box" again. I'm still getting <Surname, First Name> for all new artists though.
Probably me being dumb, but does anyone have any ideas? This only started happening recently.

[psychoadept]

With "enable custom sorting", if even one track has a sort tag set it can end up affecting all tracks with that artist/composer. As long as the files are the same format, you can use the Tag Inspector to select all affected files and make sure that those fields are cleared out (otherwise you can do the same thing, just for one format at a time).

For custom sorting, you can also update just one file and it should correct the rest, but if the tag is still in the file it may be scanned in again later. I've wrestled with this a lot because I want composer to be Last, First but NOT the artist/album artist.

Once you're sure the files themselves are all correct, you might try tagging just one file with MP3tag and use Tag Inspector to check the results.

[richard127gm]

Thanks for your reply. The thing is, the custom sort list repopulated even after the "Enable" box was unticked. That is, the list was blank but the artists were still showing in the Album Artist view as Bowie, David, instead of David Bowie. I did however resolve this by going to each affected artist, outside of the settings menu and made sure their tags were edited per artist, using the sorting tab in the edit menu. It seems to be sticking now. There must have been some sort of change, I assume, as this never happened before and it was happening on old albums I'd had for years. I guess there was probably something wrong with the tags on the artists that were affected. Anyway, all's well that ends well. Thanks again for your help.