Play order of music files

[PhilMcF]

I have just set up a Synology DS418Play NAS and installed MinimServer2 with full licence.
I access my music through a Primare Pre-35 using the Primare Prisma Ios app.
I scan my music to FLAC using dBpoweramp CD Ripper with dynamic naming set as
[GRAB]1,1,[Album artist][]\[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][album artist][][]\[YEAR] - [album]\[ARTIST] - [ALBUM] - [track] - [title]
All works beautifully.

However, I like to create playlists by copying a set of music files into a separate Playlist/List folder and then, using the folder view in MinimServer2, having them play in my desired order.
This all works well except that, try as I might, I cannot get the tracks to play in my desired order.
I have edited the FLAC metadata in the files so that the track numbers are in the order I want - but this seems to make no difference.
Could you let me know what I should do to get the ordering I want?
Thank you.

[simoncn]

Do you see the tracks in your desired play order when you view the playlist folder using [folder view]?

Is the play order that you are getting the same as the order that you see in [folder view]?

If the play order that you are getting is not the same as the order that you see in [folder view], can you post an example showing the differences?

[PhilMcF]

Thanks for the rapid response.
No, I do not see the tracks in my desired play order when I view the play list folder using [folderview].
Yes, the play order that I get is the same as the order that I see in [folderview].

[simoncn]

Thanks for this. By default, [folder view] shows files sorted into albums by album name (if the folder contains tracks from more than one album) and then sorted by track number within each album.

If you want to change this sort order, you can use the folder.sortTags option of the tagOptions property (see the description of sortTags in this section). What is your desired sort order?

[PhilMcF]

Thanks Simon.
I can probably work with that.
I'll get back to you after I have tried getting that to work.
Critical Information is album name first then track number within that album.

[simoncn]

Album name first then track within the album is the default order. The track number is taken from the TRACKNUMBER tag, not from the filename. What order are you actually seeing?

[PhilMcF]

Great.
I now have it working exactly as I wanted.
Many thanks for that.

[GuardDog.2020]

re: Sort Order

I have same issue with Classical Albums which are meant to be played in either Tracknumber OR Filename sequence (e.g,: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons). When playing such Albums with Media Players in Windows, there's no problem, since the proper Tracknumber sequence (from Tag Tracknumber Information or Filename Information can be selected and Classical Albums play music in proper sequence.

I also play many Classical Albums over local WiFi network (or remotely in car via cellular Internet) using Media Play apps on iPhone. One good example for iPhone is EverMusic Pro, which plays Media Library selections from DLNA UPnP servers, or WebDAV or SMB, or Cloud Servers, etc.

For certain Albums to Play properly on iPhone, I needed to rename filenames representing proper playing sequence (01 - file#1, 02 - file#2, etc.). I've done this with several hundred files and, although it was tedious, the music always plays in proper sequence with Windows Media Players or iPhone Media Apps.

When I select "folder view" in Asset UPnP on iPhone, it displays Filenames and Album songs play in their proper sequence. However, even though I select "folder view" in Minim 2.0, I would expect albums to display and play in proper Filename (or Trackname) sequence. However, the files instead display in alphanumerical sequence of Title Names from Tags (not Filenames)

As such, I'm limited to using Asset UPnP to play Classical Music at the moment. I prefer Minim 2.0 as it seems faster than other DLNA Servers I've tried. However, despite tinkering with Folder View in Minim 2.0, I cannot get Classical Albums to play in proper sequence on iPhone. These albums play properly with Asset UPnP or by directly accessing files from shared Windows Folders on networks.

Is there any way to get Minim 2.0 to display and play Albums in proper song sequence wth iPhone Apps? iPhone apps seem to rely on Filename (or Titlename Tag) for sorting and sequencing songs (i.e., they ignore Tracknumber tags). Thanks.

[GuardDog.2020]

Note: I've looked at the SortTags link for a solution, but the Boolean Logic involved became overwhelming for me. I'm a healthcare professional not a mathematician or digital engineer .

[simoncn]

You have two options:

1) Add TrackNumber tags to your files. This will make your files play in the correct order on MinimServer without any adverse effects when using other players or servers.

2) Set aliasTags to 'Title:nil'. This causes MinimServer to ignore all Title tags in your files and use the filename as the Title tag.