Sorting for auto-exported playlists?

[toomanynights]

Hello there! 

Been using auto-export for quite some time, works without issue for me. But I'd like to know is there an option that I don't see, that allows to define how the songs are sorted in those exported .m3u playlists?
As I see now, they seem to sort by adding time (from oldest to newest). I'd like it to be sorted by other fields. In a Playlist view the songs are sorted the way I need them, but upon automatic export, MusicBee seems to use some other sorting default.
Funny thing is, if I manually export that same playlist with "Export" function, the sorting I have in a view is preserved.

Will appreciate any advice!

PS Tried to look for this here on the forum, only found this thread, but there's no answer there.

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

Hello there!  

Been using auto-export for quite some time, works without issue for me. But I'd like to know is there an option that I don't see, that allows to define how the songs are sorted in those exported .m3u playlists?
As I see now, they seem to sort by adding time (from oldest to newest). I'd like it to be sorted by other fields. In a Playlist view the songs are sorted the way I need them, but upon automatic export, MusicBee seems to use some other sorting default.
Funny thing is, if I manually export that same playlist with "Export" function, the sorting I have in a view is preserved.

Will appreciate any advice!

PS Tried to look for this here on the forum, only found this thread, but there's no answer there.

I believe sorting for exported auto-playlists is handled by the "Sort By" selection when you right-click the header bar in the Main Panel.

[toomanynights]

Hi The Incredible Boom Boom, thanks for the tip!
I've just checked and this option seems to sort only in the interface. When exported, the songs keep the order they had before.
However, these experiments had helped me to realize what that order was. It seems to be "Manual Sorting", which is effectively date of adding the song into the playlist (not the library as I first thought), in ascending order.
That happens to be almost what I need, one thing I need changed is to have it in descending order (so the most recently added song would be on top). Do you know if it's possible? Doesn't seem to be, but with the tool as customizable as MusicBee, you never know!

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

That happens to be almost what I need, one thing I need changed is to have it in descending order (so the most recently added song would be on top). Do you know if it's possible? Doesn't seem to be, but with the tool as customizable as MusicBee, you never know!

In MusicBee, you have the sorting displayed in Descending order, but it's still exporting as Ascending?
If so, I would assume this is an error and @Steven would have to address it.

[toomanynights]

Not exactly. The sorting in MusicBee (in the interface) works exactly as intended. What I'm interested in is how to reverse the order in which the playlists are auto-exported. Right now it's Manual order, which is a date of adding the song to the playlist in ascending order (the oldest is on top). The option I'm looking for is to have them reversed, so the most recently added song would show up on top. I'd like to do that so I could first listed to the songs that were most recently added to the playlist.

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

Can't you add "Date Added" to Custom Sort and then display it as descending? Then export it from there? You don't have to use Manual Order.

[toomanynights]

I can, but there are two problems with that. First: "Date added" is a date when the song had been added to the library. What I need to sort by is a date the song has been added to the playlist. Second: whatever sorting I use in "Custom sort", doesn't apply when the playlist is automatically exported. While my issue is with automatic playlist export.

[tjinc]

As you are interested in date added to the playlist, I will assume you are referring to a static playlist as opposed to an auto-playlist (as I don't think that date added to auto-playlist means much). I may be wrong.

Unfortunately MusicBee does not log date added to playlist so you won't be able to do this automatically but I think you can maintain this with a bit of care.

First, I advise making a duplicate of your current playlist in case it gets messed up when testing (right click on playlist name - Duplicate).
Second, display the playlist number field (field '#') which will let you see the manual sorting order (which is the order in which the playlist is automatically exported as you have noticed).

Make sure the playlist sorting is set to 'Manual Order'. You should now be able to drag tracks into the required order in the playlist and the manual sorting order should update automatically.
You can also sort by clicking on a field header or using a custom sort but after that you will have to update the play order (right-click on playlist name - List - Update Play Order).

When you add a new track you will have to drag it to the top of the playlist to make it play first in the auto-export.

Hope this works for you.

[toomanynights]

Hi @tjinc, thanks for your recommendation!
I actually had no idea about "#" field, I'm sure it will prove useful more than once. The overall idea with putting "manual" into "manual order" could work, but unfortunately I have several dozens of playlists and I just can't maintain the order in each one manually.
But I really like it than now, with your advice, I will be able to sort a playlist by "#" in descending order and then export it manually - in some cases, when I know in advance what playlist I will need, it will work almost as good as automatic auto-export in the required order. So thanks!