Tagging Sort Artist for iPod? [#9064][#2915]

[tppytel]

I'm not sure this is a MM issue per se, but I'm not sure where else to ask...

When I used iTunes to manage my music library, I could set a "Sort Artist" field to sort "Bob Dylan" as "Dylan, Bob" while retaining the display name of "Bob Dylan". But after repopulating my iPod via MM sync, everything just sorts as "Bob Dylan" (i.e. via the ARTIST or ALBUMARTIST tags). I tried using mp3tag to write "Dylan, Bob" to the ARTISTSORT fields, but it doesn't have any effect on the iPod's sorting. Is there some way (in MM, in mp3tag, or elsewhere) to implement that sorting functionality?

[nohitter151]

No, this feature has yet to be implemented in MM.

[tppytel]

OK, thanks. I'll have to go back and retag all my artist names back to the "Dylan, Bob" style, but I can live with that.

Can you (or anyone else) elaborate on why exactly this doesn't work? Unlike album art, I thought iTunes actually did write this information in the ID3 tag. Is it a different tag than the one that mp3tag writes? Or is that tag info getting lost in the sync to the device? I've tried to Google up technical details of how the sorting works, but just get buried in forums for Apple-centric people that don't go any deeper than "click the magic buttons in iTunes".

[nohitter151]

OK, thanks. I'll have to go back and retag all my artist names back to the "Dylan, Bob" style, but I can live with that.

Can you (or anyone else) elaborate on why exactly this doesn't work? Unlike album art, I thought iTunes actually did write this information in the ID3 tag. Is it a different tag than the one that mp3tag writes? Or is that tag info getting lost in the sync to the device? I've tried to Google up technical details of how the sorting works, but just get buried in forums for Apple-centric people that don't go any deeper than "click the magic buttons in iTunes".

The iPod does not read tags. During the sync process iTunes (and MM, and other apps that sync to iPods) create a database that the iPod uses to identify tracks.

Since MM doesn't support this field, it's not included in the database that is created during the sync process.

[tppytel]

I see. Thanks for the explanation!

[Lowlander]

It's being tracked here: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=9064