Photos - Sort by title not working?

[happpyg 20]

Hi,

I am almost positive this used to work previously but I'm finding my photos when sorting by title are not sorting correctly - well not sorting as I remember and how Windows sorts them.

I name all my photos in this format yyyymmdd-hhmm-<original_photo_name> so that when I view them no matter what the date created/taken etc is or if I combine photos from multiple sources I know if I arrange by name/title they will be in the correct order. 

I've tried in Emby Web and Android clients, they are all consistent but not in the same order I remember and the correct order windows shows them in.

Am I missing something or is Emby somehow sorting by another method or is sort by title broken somehow?

Copy of samples attached, they display 1-5 in windows but not in Emby.

Emby

Windows

Thanks!

Sample_photos.zip

[Luke 42077]

HI, i would use the metadata editor to check the sort title of each one. If you've customized the sort title, try blanking it out and then clicking save.

[happpyg 20]

15 hours ago, Luke said:

HI, i would use the metadata editor to check the sort title of each one. If you've customized the sort title, try blanking it out and then clicking save.

Thanks Luke, Sort title is already blank.  I have over 80,000 photos and I don't use custom sort titles on any of them.  This test was 5 new .jpg's and I just used the names from other photos that weren't in the right order and added them to the library so see if that worked which produced the results above.

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

I just added the samples above to my 4.5.4.0 and 4.6.0.26 Windows test servers and both appear in correct order.

[happpyg 20]

1 hour ago, Happy2Play said:

I just added the samples above to my 4.5.4.0 and 4.6.0.26 Windows test servers and both appear in correct order.

I just tried the same and you are right.  What could I be missing on my install/config, why the difference?  You can see from my original screenshot it is definitely set to sort by title yet with the same test media I get different results?

Thanks for testing!

[Luke 42077]

I'm not sure. I would suggest trying again with the next release of the server. thanks.

[Carlo 4560]

On 2/22/2021 at 5:58 AM, happpyg said:

Thanks Luke, Sort title is already blank.  I have over 80,000 photos and I don't use custom sort titles on any of them.  This test was 5 new .jpg's and I just used the names from other photos that weren't in the right order and added them to the library so see if that worked which produced the results above.

 

Try typing something in for sort title on items 1 & 2 and save them both.  Then completely erase what you typed and save.
Does it work correct after that?

[happpyg 20]

10 hours ago, cayars said:

Try typing something in for sort title on items 1 & 2 and save them both.  Then completely erase what you typed and save.
Does it work correct after that?

Entering a sort title and saving did work but when I erased the sort title again it went back to how it was before.  

Does that shed some light on what might be happening?

Thanks!

[Carlo 4560]

Nope.

Can you take a screen shot of the files on disc?  I really want to see the file dates.

[happpyg 20]

9 hours ago, cayars said:

Nope.

Can you take a screen shot of the files on disc?  I really want to see the file dates.

Thanks, is this what you are after?

[Carlo 4560]

What do you have set for Library->Advanced Tab->Date added behavior for new content: ?

[happpyg 20]

11 hours ago, cayars said:

What do you have set for Library->Advanced Tab->Date added behavior for new content: ?

Currently set to "Use file creation date".

Thanks for your help!

[Happy2Play 9780]

11 hours ago, cayars said:

What do you have set for Library->Advanced Tab->Date added behavior for new content: ?

But that should be irrelevant unless sorting by Dateadded.

But those files sort by dataadded properly for me also.

I guess if you created a new test library and placed these items in it do you get the same results? @happpyg

[happpyg 20]

19 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

But that should be irrelevant unless sorting by Dateadded.

But those files sort by dataadded properly for me also.

I guess if you created a new test library and placed these items in it do you get the same results? @happpyg

Thanks Happy2Play, this is the bit that is confusing.

The exact same test media above in a new/clean install of 4.5.4 works perfectly yet in my existing 4.5.4 install the same test files don't sort correctly, make a new folder drop them in, let the library scan/add and they are not sorted correctly, weird?

[Happy2Play 9780]

11 minutes ago, happpyg said:

Thanks Happy2Play, this is the bit that is confusing.

The exact same test media above in a new/clean install of 4.5.4 works perfectly yet in my existing 4.5.4 install the same test files don't sort correctly, make a new folder drop them in, let the library scan/add and they are not sorted correctly, weird?

 One thing you could check is if there is a difference in the library option.xml.  Maybe the system.xml also.

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\"your library name"

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\config

Only other thing I can suggest is making a copy of your library.db and look at that copy in a db viewer and look at the sortname listed for those items as I know there use to be bug here.

presorted to these items via the Path column in Metaitems table

Edited February 26, 2021 by Happy2Play

[happpyg 20]

20 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

 One thing you could check is if there is a difference in the library option.xml.  Maybe the system.xml also.

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\root\default\"your library name"

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\config

Only other thing I can suggest is making a copy of your library.db and look at that copy in a db viewer and look at the sortname listed for those items as I know there use to be bug here.

presorted to these items via the Path column in Metaitems table

Thanks.

Cant see anything out of the ordinary here?

 

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

Not sure as your sortnames are slightly different.

Was thinking difference in stable vs beta, but I get the same results on both.

Not sure if @Luke has any other ideas why the difference in name and sortname compared to mine.

[Luke 42077]

Can you reproduce on a fresh portable install?

[Happy2Play 9780]

 

11 minutes ago, Luke said:

Can you reproduce on a fresh portable install?

 

3 hours ago, happpyg said:

The exact same test media above in a new/clean install of 4.5.4 works

Where the database entries the same in the new install?  Wasn't sure what the entries above were for old or new.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Happy2Play

[Luke 42077]

In your server config system.xml file, is EnableV2SortTitles set to false? In newer installations the sorting has gotten better, but it's not easily possible to apply the improvements to older installations, so that's why that hidden config switch was introduced.

Please note, I'm just asking what the value is. I'm not suggesting that you change it because that will probably cause a lot of content to be sorted incorrectly and will require manual refreshes of metadata to correct.

[happpyg 20]

10 minutes ago, Luke said:

In your server config system.xml file, is EnableV2SortTitles set to false? In newer installations the sorting has gotten better, but it's not easily possible to apply the improvements to older installations, so that's why that hidden config switch was introduced.

Please note, I'm just asking what the value is. I'm not suggesting that you change it because that will probably cause a lot of content to be sorted incorrectly and will require manual refreshes of metadata to correct.

Thanks Luke, yes that item is currently set to false.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Most of my test systems no longer have that setting, and one that I found it is set to true.  Now as Luke mentions this is a destructive setting if it were to be changed.  If I remember correctly it would purge all item and re-add them.  So for anyone that does not save images and metadata with media this could be catastrophic rebuild.

[Carlo 4560]

Do we have a fix for the wrong sorting?

[Luke 42077]

The fix is for new installations only. 

[happpyg 20]

11 hours ago, Luke said:

The fix is for new installations only. 

Is there anything we can do Luke for existing installs to fix without major rebuilds?