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[jeffstatt]

Can someone explain this oddity to me?  Why is it that sometimes a playlist gives you a "group by" option, and sometimes it doesn't?

For instance, I've created a playlist called "Top 100".  You can see from the playlist menu that I've selected "Group By | None"



Then I created a second playlist called "Settlers of the Mind", and it automatically started grouping by artist/album and I can't get rid of this grouping.  You can see from my menu that the "group by" option isn't available.

[jeffstatt]

Shoot!  I knew that would happen! 

After maybe 4-5 hours researching I found the answer 2 seconds after posting to the forum!! 

What I didn't realize I was doing: For "Top 100" I was selecting a playlist group.  For "Settlers of the mind" I was creating a playlist.  When selecting the GROUP I get the menu that allows for a group by option.

Is this Media Center's intended behavior?  Seems odd!  Isn't the whole point of a playlist that we can play the songs in the order we specify?  Also, man! That group by artist option takes up TONS of vertical real estate.  I'm at 1920x1080 resolution and at most I can see only 4 song titles in the view. 

Maybe I'm still missing something. 

[Matt]

Grouping is not possible in a view where order is important (like a playlist, Playing Now, etc.).

This is because grouping takes over the sorting, and would make order-based actions impossible.  I mean, what would happen if you drop a song from a different album into the middle of a different album?

Instead, you could try library views (with a playlist group category if you like).

[jeffstatt]

Hi Matt! Thanks so much for a speedy reply

Do you mind if I ask a follow-up question with respect to your quote above?  

Grouping is not possible in a view where order is important (like a playlist, Playing Now, etc.).

If I understand you correctly, you say grouping is not possible on a playlist, because order is important.  This makes sense to me.  However, my problem is that every new playlist I create is automatically grouping - which seems to conflict with your statement.

(sample playlist from my library.  I can't get rid of this grouping)
  


I'd really like to remove the grouping!  Did I accidently select an option somewhere that is causing this?


EDIT: Note to mod: maybe we should rename the thread "How can I remove grouping from playlist?".

[Matt]

Playlists inherit view settings from their parent group.

So once you configure the group, this means any playlist you create under it will use those settings until you customize them.

This can be a handy thing in some cases, but it can also be a little mysterious (as you've seen).

[jeffstatt]

Thanks.  Good explanation.  With this info, I changed the "group by" setting on my playlist group and added a *new* playlist.  I copied all my songs from the "bad" playlist to the "new" playlist and now it is sorted correctly.  Great!  Agree it's a very handy feature now that I understand it. 

Perhaps there is an argument to be made to update the "group by" settings in the child playlists when a playlist group's view is modified, but I suppose that is a matter for another thread. 

Thanks again for your help!