Emby isn't sorting by Sort Title field correctly

[siredgar 6]

Don't know when it started, but Emby doesn't appear to be sorting by Sort Title properly. For instance, I have the Alien movies. I have the first movie "Alien" sort title set to sort title "Alien 1", the next movie "Aliens" set to "Alien 2", then Alien 3, Alien 4, the Prometheus movies in there as Alien 5, and Alien Covenant as Alien 6..

However, it's not sorting properly. Looking at what I have set for sort titles, it's got them sorted in this order (showing the "Sort Title" fields below):

• Alien 2
• Alien 3
• Alien 4
• Alien 5
• Alien 6
• Alien 1

I noticed it doing that on another series of movies as well. I've triple checked for funky characters, white space, etc. I've deleted, saved, and then re-added the sort title. I've double checked that it's supposed to be sorting by Title. I'm at a loss. Screen shots below:

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by siredgar
Clarity

[Happy2Play 9783]

Sorry but the last image does not show any media with A so we do not see how it is sorted.  Tested in beta without issue. @siredgar

[GrimReaper 4749]

Recreated OP Sort titles on 4.6.7.0, no issues observed:

[siredgar 6]

The first image shows the series of Alien movies in the wrong sort order. The second and third image show the "Sort Title" metadata fields. The fourth image was only to show that I had it set to sort by title. The fifth image shows my version #.

I'm sure it's an obscure error but it's one I'm having on more than one set of sort titles. Is there any log information or other data files I can share to show what's happening other than screen shots?

[siredgar 6]

Am I doing anything wrong in my metadata here?

 

 

[siredgar 6]

(Thank you for checking on it so quickly )

[siredgar 6]

(Not trying to beat the topic to death but I can reproduce this on my system repeatedly)

 

When I remove the Sort Title field on the Alien movie, it put it in its proper place before the other movies. When I put "Alien 1" back into the Sort Title, it put it at the end of the list of Alien movies again. Weird.

[siredgar 6]

Resolution: I deleted the Sort Title in every one of the Alien movies, then re-entered them as they were before. All titles sort properly now.

Is it possible some garbage got into the sort titles somehow that wasn't visible?

I had to do this resolution in two different sets of movies that weren't sorting by title properly. Some sort of corruption?

[GrimReaper 4749]

Why do you need that "1" anyway? Simply "Alien" should put it at the first place, in the lack of a better solution.

Moot now. Glad you sorted it.

Edited January 18, 2022 by GrimReaper
Cross-posted.

[Happy2Play 9783]

There are server versions in the past the SortName column in the database was not properly written but this was a while ago and/or changed over time.

[ebr 16190]

I was going to suggest being sure there wasn't a space after the "1".  I'm guessing that is what it was.

[siredgar 6]

I did check for space or other non-showing characters after the 1, that wasn't it. I deleted and completely readded the field being careful not to have any extraneous characters and the behavior stayed the same. It was only after I removed and re-added the sort title to all 6 Alien movies that they sorted in the proper order. As I did each one, it would go to its proper place in line while the not-yet-edited-ones were in the wrong place. (The sequence as I edited them in order started at 23456-1, then 3456-12, 456-123, 56-1234, 6-12345, 123456)

It really appeared as if there was some garbage somewhere in the field but not something that was obvious to see nor any white-space characters that could be found in the web interface.

I still have other sorted titles that are doing the same thing I haven't fixed yet if there are any database files or other files useful (and wanted) for someone to look at - otherwise I'll just fix them as I come to them.