How to Make Your Songs Play in the Right Order

Why aren't my songs playing in alphabetical order?

By
Mark Harris
Mark Harris
Writer
  • University of Wolverhampton
Mark Harris is a former writer for Lifewire who wrote about the digital music scene and streaming music services in an easy to understand, no-nonsense manner.
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Updated on January 26, 2022
Reviewed by
Jessica Kormos
Jessica Kormos
Reviewed by Jessica Kormos
  • Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
Jessica Kormos is a writer and editor with 15 years' experience writing articles, copy, and UX content for Tecca.com, Rosenfeld Media, and many others.
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What to Know

  • Download and open mp3DirSorter. Drag audio files from the storage device onto mp3DirSorter to sort alphabetically.
  • Alternatively, rename files to be listed numerically, adding 01 at the beginning and repeating with 02, 03, and so on.

This article will teach you how to use mp3DirSorter to sort your music library alphabetically. Instructions apply to devices running Windows 10.

How to Reorder a List of Songs

Follow these instructions to reorder your songs. This method uses a third-party program called mp3DirSorter.

  1. If you're using Windows, download and open mp3DirSorter. Since it's portable and doesn't need to be installed, you can use it from any location, including a flash drive. In fact, the program notifies you that it's intended for use on non-internal drives like SD cards and USB devices.

  2. Make sure Windows can access the files on your storage device by inserting the device into your card reader or a spare USB port. Once found, the storage device will display in File/Windows Explorer with other local hard drives.

  3. Drag the folder containing the audio files directly onto the mp3DirSorter program window to instantly have them sorted alphabetically. To sort the contents of entire drives, select and drag the drive letter to the program like you would drag a folder.

  4. There are only two options for this program. Put a check next to one or both of these settings, depending on what you want to have done: Sort folders alphabetically and Sort files alphabetically.

To check that your albums and songs are in the correct order, play the device's contents again. You should now find that everything plays in alphabetical order.

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A Second Solution

If mp3DirSorter didn't reorder the songs correctly, you can go the manual route by renaming all the files numerically. For example, rename the first song you want to list with 01 at the beginning, and then repeat with each subsequent song, continuing with 02, 03, etc.

The manual technique won't be practical if you have a ton of music on your computer. If that's the case, you can use Windows 10 to batch-rename your song library.

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