Additional folder sorting property - sort to end vs. beginning

[mrmixed 77]

Although there are currently bigger issues in Folder View to tackle, one common use case I have has to do with the sorting and placement of multi-title "container" type folders.  I get that the typical Windows/filesystem convention is to always display folders at the top of any list of content, and that's fine as a default option and in most cases.  But fairly often, I find I am creating subfolders to store miscellaneous content that is not really the focus of a particular category of content.  Things like more general documentary/featurette videos that don't really slot in under a particular title (although I do create single-title-folders and slot in extras/featurettes underneath them whenever possible).

For example, in the collection below (screenshot is based on a 4.8 database from back when single-title-folders were sortable in Folder View by the title metadata), the "Educational" and "Documentary" folders are always at the top of the list.  But I really only have these in my library for completeness in digitizing my DVD collection, I don't expect anyone is going to watch them and I certainly don't need them taking focus at the top of the list.  The only time they get sorted is when I sort by some of the few metadata fields that a folder has, such as "Sort Title".  But for this set of files, sorting by Title is not particular useful.  So when sorting by Release Date, the folders appear at the beginning of the list, because they don't have that metadata.

It would be helpful to have a single toggle option in the folder metadata which would allow me to choose whether each folder displays at the top of the list, or the end of the list, in the event that the sort display is set to a field that the folder does not implement.  This way the most useful folders can display by default at the top of the list where most people expect them, but less important content can be toggled to display at the end of the list for people that are really going deep and looking for more content. 

I realize that this likely does not align with where you are currently trying to take Folder View, but I'm still hoping to convince you to give us a setting to restore the 4.8 Folder View or create a "Filesystem View" instead if you really want to replace folder images with big folder icons.  Or give us a new "Content View" to replace the old Folder View.  Because some of us really like organizing this way!

[Luke 42077]

Hi, how does it compare if you sort by release date descending?

[mrmixed 77]

13 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, how does it compare if you sort by release date descending?

Thanks for the response!  Release Date descending will put the folders at the end.  But I'd still like to be able to have a toggle to park them at the end regardless of the sort selection--at least in cases where the metadata for the sort selection is null.

But again, this is a low priority sort of request.  Most of my folder views I leave sorted by Title, and I appreciate that I have a lot of flexibility to customize things exactly how I want with the Sort Title metadata field.  For a handful of folders like this one, it's preferable to sort by Release Date and it would be nice to have some control over the folders (by which I mean multi-title folders.  Single-title folders would still be much nicer if they acted like titles in the 4.8 style..).