How to fix VLC sorting playlist wrongly?

Question

Scenario: VLC 3.08, the playlist have more than 20 tracks and is sorted as follow

1. VideoA
2. VideoB
(...)
11.VideoX
12.VideoY
(...)
20.Video Z
(...)

Problem: The sorting by title ends up like this

1. VideoA
11.VideoX
12.VideoY
(...)
2. VideoB
20.Video Z
(...)

How to sort by title properly without having to drag and drop every time I play a new playlist?

Answer 1

Folder listing test files

Media -> Open Folder -> testing

View upon opening folder, notice it follows Windows file order

Clicking on the title bar causes the problem you see, both when ascending and descending

Metadata

Using the opposite of the file naming scheme above produces much better results when using the title bar, both ascending and descending

Solution?

Always start with letters and end with numbers when naming files in the future, your much less likely to run into sorting problems, I do remember you said you have bunch of stuff using the naming scheme already though, so for those just make sure you open the folder in VLC, instead of say for example highlighting the files in file explorer and right clicking add file to VLC, if you do that you'll encounter the sorting problem again. Even better would be to add metadata as well instead of relying on the file names, a number of plugins for VLC can add metadata automatically without you needing to do it by hand (VLC extensions). You can also, if you decide you want to rename those files still, use a batch renamer, it makes the process much faster and easier (perhaps F2 Utility, note I don't use a Mac myself, so I got it from this list of suggestions here: alternatives, apparently the Mac OS already has a basic bulk renamer as well, CNET).

Hope that solves your problem, I know Macs might handle this stuff differently so let me know if this didn't help.

Answer 2

The thing about the VLC playlist order (be it by name or path) is that it takes the bits values of the individual numbers as references for the order instead of properly converting the number into an actual number (also known as an "integer" or "int" in programs).

VLC doesn't read "numbers" as we do and use the same method to order numbers as it does with letters or other symbols.

So, from VLC view as an app, that 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. is not a number, but a symbol and number symbols seems to have a priority over other symbols, hence the order will place, first, all file with a name/path that starts with 0, them 1. then 2 and so on. If 2 file has the same value, it check the 2nd symbol and order from that up until all file have been compiled in the order.

The order in priority, in bits, is usually numbers, then universal symbols, then letters, then other symbols and letters depending on the system base language.