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[markf2748]

I use the field [Last Played (album)] as a custom sort in my Recently Played tab library view.
It works well except when two different albums have the same name.

Examples:
Dialogues by Jim Hall
Dialogues by Charlie Haden

Blue by Joni Mitchell
Blue by Terje Rypdal

In these cases, the two identically named albums get sorted into a single group, even when their last played dates are very different.  Consequently they are not positioned correctly in the list of all other sorted albums.
The same problem occurs for a sort based on [Last Played].

I really don't want to rename the albums.  Is there a work-around or fix so these albums are separated (not grouped) into their correct last played order along with the rest of my albums?

MC 30.0.31   Windows 11 Pro 22H2

[markf2748]

My library view is defined with:

Type:  Expression
Expression to group by: [album]

Is the "Expression to group by" the source of this issue?
Is there a better expression to use here that will display all albums individually, properly sorted, without grouping together albums of the same name?

[zybex]

Might be, try grouping by [Album Artist (auto)] which differentiates between albums with same name but from different Artist.

[markf2748]

Might be, try grouping by [Album Artist (auto)] which differentiates between albums with same name but from different Artist.

Thanks, but that does not do it.  The albums get grouped by Artist, which messes up my sort by [Last Played (album)].

But I am thinking "Expression to group by" is the root of the problem.  I just want to display albums "ungrouped", all individual thumbnails displayed in rows according to the sort.  If I leave the expression blank, then everything just appears in a single big group, no rows.

Maybe this amounts to a feature request??

[zybex]

I agree, I think the problem is that the [Last Played (album)] is a relational field with only 1 value per [Album]. It should actually be "1 value per [Artist - Album (Year)]", which MC does not support.

[markf2748]

Simple Solution

Create a custom view with a single category.

View As:  Categories
Add...
Type: Library field
Select Field:  Last Played (album)
(Grouping appears greyed out un-selected)

Select view tab > hover menu > Sort By > Custom > Add... > Descending (Z-A) >  Last Played (album)

[markf2748]

I agree, I think the problem is that the [Last Played (album)] is a relational field with only 1 value per [Album]. It should actually be "1 value per [Artist - Album (Year)]", which MC does not support.

@zybex I think you are correct (as usual ) and this should be fixed if possible.

While the "Simple Solution" described in previous Post #5 works for my Audio View, where this field always seems to retain unique values, I was surprised that it does not fix the problem for the same field in my Image View.  For a duplicate album name, only one value of [Last Played (album)] gets retained for images associated with the different albums, therefore messing up the image view sort.  Even if I copy the correct date values manually into this field in the image view, both duplicate album name images only retain the single most-recently entered value.

With duplicate album names present, this behavior defeats the purpose of my original request for this field:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,129719.msg899956.html#msg899956

I will submit a Feature Request.
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,134499.0.html