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Grid View. Sort in FileName Seq is not working.

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Gnits

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Mar 21, 2015
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Unable to sort a grid in filename sequence. Tried reverse (ie z-a as well as a-z). Tried changing to a different sequence and then back to filename seq. Still displayed in the wrong sequence.

Any ideas.

I have optimising the catelog but still no joy.
 
Do the filenames have the same length? Sorting can be unexpected if there are differences in length. For example: 22, 25, 27 will always sort correctly, but 223, 25, 27 may sort in this order (if the system sorts it as letters) but obviously also as 25, 27, 223 (if the system sorts it as numbers).
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

The files which are out of sequence do have a different length, following a round trip to Photoshop and "edit" added to the filename.

Very disappointing that I cannot depend on a simple Alpha Sort. if I import the filenames as a list into Excel and sort by Filename, I get the correct sequence.

Is this a bug or the way Lightroom has always worked.
 
The problem is what people expect. You would expect 25, 27, 223, but at the same time you would expect 'aa', 'aab', 'bb', and not 'aa', 'bb', aab'. But if these are hexadecimal numbers, that is how they should sort...
 
For reference ... here is an actual example.

Correct Sort based on Filename
MoB_00804_e008453.cr2
MoB_00804_e008453_Ps.psd
MoB_00804_e008454.cr2
MoB_00804_e008455.cr2
MoB_00804_e008456.cr2
MoB_00804_e008457.cr2
MoB_00804_e008458.cr2
MoB_00804_e008458_Ps.psd
MoB_00804_e008459.cr2

Lightroom Sort based on Filename
MoB_00804_e008453.cr2
MoB_00804_e008458_Ps.psd
MoB_00804_e008458.cr2
MoB_00804_e008453_Ps.psd
MoB_00804_e008454.cr2
MoB_00804_e008455.cr2
MoB_00804_e008456.cr2
MoB_00804_e008457.cr2
MoB_00804_e008459.cr2
 
The problem is what people expect. You would expect 25, 27, 223, but at the same time you would expect 'aa', 'aab', 'bb', and not 'aa', 'bb', aab'. But if these are hexadecimal numbers, that is how they should sort...
I think there is no excuse for not sorting in alpha correctly, especially filenames, which are mostly alphanumeric because of the file extension and full stop. Depressing.
 
For reference ... here is an actual example.

Correct Sort based on Filename
MoB_00804_e008453.cr2
MoB_00804_e008453_Ps.psd
MoB_00804_e008454.cr2
MoB_00804_e008455.cr2
MoB_00804_e008456.cr2
MoB_00804_e008457.cr2
MoB_00804_e008458.cr2
MoB_00804_e008458_Ps.psd
MoB_00804_e008459.cr2

Lightroom Sort based on Filename
MoB_00804_e008453.cr2
MoB_00804_e008458_Ps.psd
MoB_00804_e008458.cr2
MoB_00804_e008453_Ps.psd
MoB_00804_e008454.cr2
MoB_00804_e008455.cr2
MoB_00804_e008456.cr2
MoB_00804_e008457.cr2
MoB_00804_e008459.cr2

If that is really the order you get, something else must be going on. "MoB_00804_e008458.cr2" should still come after "MoB_00804_e008454.cr2" through "MoB_00804_e008457.cr2", because these file names do have the same length.
 
Is this a bug or the way Lightroom has always worked.
It is the way ALL computer programs work. The sort function is part of the Operating system API. An Alpha sort uses the first character in each file name and then the next in sequence until a different is found and the orders alphanumerically by that difference. If you want to sort on a file name, then you need to rename your files to create a pattern to sort the way you want. Once you understand how alphanumeric sorting works, you can use it to your advantage.

This is not a bug and don't be surprised if your bug report is ignored or curtly answered and closed.
 
I am attaching a screen dump.

1. Sort Seq.
2. A-Z
3. Fault 1
4. Fault 2
 

Attachments

  • LightroomFaultyFileNameSort2016-06-16_13h49_56.jpg
    LightroomFaultyFileNameSort2016-06-16_13h49_56.jpg
    166 KB · Views: 331
It is the way ALL computer programs work. The sort function is part of the Operating system API. An Alpha sort uses the first character in each file name and then the next in sequence until a different is found and the orders alphanumerically by that difference. If you want to sort on a file name, then you need to rename your files to create a pattern to sort the way you want. Once you understand how alphanumeric sorting works, you can use it to your advantage.

This is not a bug and don't be surprised if your bug report is ignored or curtly answered and closed.

I understand how sort works, both alpha and numeric and the problems in expectations when they get mixed up. This is a pure alpha sort sequence. Please explain why the second file in the lower list is out of sequence.
 
I am attaching a screen dump.

1. Sort Seq.
2. A-Z
3. Fault 1
4. Fault 2

Solved! This is because you have stacked the first three files... In that case the first image in the stack determines where the stack ends up.
 
Well done.

I unstacked and sort is now correct.

I do not understand how they got stacked. I did two round trips to Ps. (ie Edit in PS). Personally I do not use stacked images .... will check if there is an auto stack setting somewhere. I can understand stacking of the raw and related Psd by Lr/Ps but cannot understand how a non related 3rd image got stacked into the pair of raw and psd files.

Maybe it was finger trouble ... will watch for a repeat.

Thanks for your perception and quick response.
 
I cannot eliminate finger trouble ... will examine my workflow for round trips to Ps. I had no reason to select the 3 images and they were separated at either end of the timeline. I was entering metadata with 2 images selected and got the message "did I want to apply to all selected".

Thanks for the insight. I will remember for any future odd behaviour.
 
In LR Preferences on the "External Editing" tab, uncheck the checkbox labeled "Stack with Original".

That's probably not the issue. The images were stacked with an unrelated raw file, and another psd file is not stacked, so most likely this was a keyboard mistake.
 
I am delighted to get the solution. I can only assume finger trouble until I can prove otherwise. I will be more observant of the behaviour in relation to stacked images.



Ps. The sort by filename is important to me because I have gone to a lot of trouble to design the structure of my filenames and have developed my own version of the Lightroom import (card to disk) to streamline my workflow. My filenames (eg MoB_00804_e008453_Ps.psd are structured as follows ...

MoB My initials so I can recognise my files.
00804 The project number (in this case Fernhill Stepaside)
e This tells me what camera I used, allowing me to have multiple cameras on the same project in the same folder and no fear of duplicate file names. In most cases I pick this up automatically from the metadata.
008453 This is a unique number related to the original raw file. I can search Lightroom with this text to find all children and grandchildren of the original raw image
Ps This tells me that the image has been edited in Photoshop. If the file terminated with a PS_400x266mm_S.psd then the image has been sharpened and sized to that specific size.

I have been using this for a long time, so I was able to spot so quickly my sequence problem. I have fairly deep Lr skills, never had this sequence problem before, but never thought of stacking as the solution.

Thanks again.
 
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