Properly sort 'Album by Year' in iTunes and devices

Mar 31, '10 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: le_nombril

I use iTunes in list view, and also use the column browser (at the top) in order to quickly jump to the music I want to hear. My music albums are sorted by Album by Year (click the Album column header), like most people with many albums, I guess.

Here's my problem: When I jump to Cover Flow view mode, and when using the column browser, albums are sorted alphabetically. I have the same problem on my iPhone. I found out how to override that strange behaviour: I simply copied album's release year into the Sort Album field of the sorting tab.

With this value set, the albums sort properly in all view modes, and in the column browser. Unfortunately, doing this by hand is tedious; any script solutions in the comments are appreciated!

[robg adds: I tested this, and it works as described, though I'm not sure if there are downsides to storing the Year value in the Album sort field. A starting point for a script solution might be Doug Adams' This Tag, That Tag Scripts 2.0, though it's not a perfect fit out of the box.]

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