The ability to sort iTunes Store search results seems to have vanished in iTunes 11. For example, sorting by popularity, release date, or song title. Sorting is integral to searching. What am I missing? If it’s gone in v11, that’s a major step backward for me.
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david
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How Do I Sort iTunes Store Search Results?
Comments: 8 Responses to “How Do I Sort iTunes Store Search Results?”
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There are lots of ways to sort lists of songs in iTunes 11 in the Store. You just have to take the time to play around with the interface and try things.
For instance, if you want to sort by popularity, then click on Music at the top to go to the main Music page. Then look for the list of Top Songs on the right. Click on "TOP SONGS" and you get a list. That list can be sorted by rank, name, artist, album, etc. Just click on the column heading at the top.
For new releases, just click on Music at the top and select Recent Releases from the drop-down menu. Then you can see the new releases sorted by date. Inside of each week you can sort by Featured, Name or Release Date. But you can also click the See All links at the right to dig down further.
Another way to see recent releases is to go to the main Music page again, click on Recent Releases in the middle. Then See All to the right of it. The resulting list shows album artwork and lets you sort by Featured, Release Date and Bestsellers.
It wouldn't make sense to have a list of all music sorted by song title -- that would be a massive list. But you can get sub-lists to sort many ways.
And of course any search you do will give you a list that you can sort by clicking on the column headings. You just have to click the See All next to Songs or Albums to get to the list. You can even search by genre by entering in "blues" or "jazz."
You also have the Column Browser that you can bring up with Command+B. That is the same as in previous releases of iTunes.
Thanks for the quick response, Gary. But, I still can't sort the search results list. For example, searching for "YMCA" and selecting All Songs results in more than 1,400 possibilities in the list. The column headings are clearly labeled, but ARE NOT sort enabled for me. iTunes v11.0.1 on an iMac with OS 10.8.2
Try this: Search for YMCA. Then on the right you'll see "Artists and More." Click on Village People. Then in the results you can click on See All and get a list that does sort.
Yes, that works but it only creates a sortable list for the Village People. (Which, when you think about it, is all anyone really needs....) But if you're looking for YMCA by other artists, sorted by popularity, or duration, or album, you are out of luck unless you scan all 1400+ listings manually.
Fortunately, it's not the biggest problem facing me today.
Once again, you have a great site, expert advice, and informative videos. Thanks for all you do!
I have iTunes 11 and the Store will NOT sort songs by a particular artist by popularity, even when I click on the Popularity column. I never had this problem with the old version, and it's really annoying. Any ideas? FYI, I search for an artist, then Show All songs, then click the Popularity column....still nada.
Search for an artist. If you then hit "See All" you are then looking at the search results for songs with that artist's name. You will even get songs not by that artist, but that have the artist name in the song title. Like "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroons 5, in addition to songs by Mick Jagger. You can't sort the list here (I guess because it is a search result, not a list of songs by that artist). So instead of clicking "See All" on the initial search results screen, click the name of the artist on the right under "Artists and More." This will take you to a screen for that artist. Then click "See All" to the right of songs. Now you can click on a column title to sort.
It's just stupid and frustrating! Apple is supposed to be famous for making things SO easy to use, but they really dropped the ball this time.
If a Mac user told a Windows user something they didn't like about PCs and the Windows user replied "You just have to take the time to play around with the interface and try things," that answer would not be acceptable. And it's not acceptable here either.
iTunes just needs to give us back that functionality!
iTunes have it wrong with version 11. Give us back the sort function by clicking on the column heading after the initial search.