[Feature]: Sorting for albums

[bo0tzz]

Feature detail

It would be nice to have a sort option for the albums view. Google Photos currently provides three such options:

• Most recent photo - Album with the newest photo first
• Last modified - Most recently modified album first
• Album title - Alphabetical

It would also be nice to have similar sorting options inside of albums (and possibly on the main photos feed) - things like:

• Age (oldest/newest first)
• Most recently added first
• Type (photos or videos first)

Platform

Web

[matthinc]

First album sorting options will be included in one of the next mobile releases.

[alextran1502]

I think this is done, correct?

[scottrbaxter]

Can you better explain what you mean by done? Running server v1.92.1 with iOS v1.92.0 - If i open any album, i see no sorting options on mobile or in the webapp. Photos themselves appear to be automatically sorted newest to oldest. For albums, this really doesn't make sense. All of my albums are meant to be shared sequentially, (my typical album is several hundred photos over a single day), and I simply cannot find a way to sort "oldest to newest" with Immich. I've looked through github issues and also some of the code base, it seems there was a time when sorting was "oldest to newest" to some degree, but was changed a while back, correct? Then there appeared to be a code refactor, and I haven't back tracked exactly where that setting went, or how it's been refactored.

Given all of the amazing features already provided in this photo solution, I have a tough time believing that sorting photos "oldest to newest" in albums does not exist, but I simply cannot find the setting to do so... or better yet, include a setting for the "default sort method", for media in all albums.

[Parsiuk]

Manual photos order would be nice to have as well.

[x42x64]

I second that. Do we need to create a separate feature request for that?

[waclaw66]

A bug on mobile. While adding photos to the album the order of albums is from oldest to the recent one (at the end). Shared photos dropdown above shows them correctly.

[malconsei]

When ordering albums by "Most recent photo", web app 1.75.1 seems to sort by lastModifiedAssetTimestamp which in turn may come from the db field assets.fileModifiedAt - or anyway, today I geotagged and uploaded some very old pictures and their albums are right on top.

I think the common expectation is to sort by file creation date. Would it be possible to change the feature this way?

[malconsei]

@klejejs I believe you developed the feature, could you chip in?

[klejejs]

Yes, that is the case. For the web, I copied the options from GPhotos - "last modified" and "album title" come from album data, but "most recent photo" checks assets in the album from DB and sorts albums by asset date.

[klejejs]

There is actually a PR for mobile already, but there is no progress on it :(
#3804

[malconsei]

Sorry for disappearing, I had put my experiments with immich on hold. I still think that the "most recent photo" should refer to the date it was taken and not modified/postprocessed.
I temporarily mitigated the problem for my collection with an update assets set "fileModifiedAt" = "fileCreatedAt"; in the db, though I expect some jobs to overwrite it at some point. (For other users: Please don't try unless you know what you're doing, and backup your db first :) )

[chk86]

@bo0tzz just closed #4735 as a duplicate of this feature request, so I want to clarify: is adding sorting options inside individual albums still planned? Otherwise, I will create a separate request so this doesn't get lost.

[bo0tzz]

Yes, sorting inside albums is also covered by this request.

[scottrbaxter]

@bo0tzz For the time being, any chance there's an easy way to invert the current sorting method so that albums can be viewed by "oldest to newest" date? looking back through the project's history and I believe this used to be the default, but was changed to be more consistent elsewhere. I've tried to follow through where this is being set, but with refactoring over time it seems that the corresponding files have been heavily modified. A sorting solution (and the option to choose a default sorting method) would be great at some point, but right now I simply need photos in albums to be sorted ascending/sequentially by date. So far (I'm fairly new) Immich seems absolutely wonderful... thanks to all the devs who've put in work, it's really a great photo/video solution!

[Salindris]

Seeing as this is open since 2022, would it be possible to add a small workaround until this feature is implemented: just invert the current sort order, doesn't have to be configurable or anything. Albums will be viewed from oldest to newest photo 99.9% of the time so it would essentially solve most people's issue without having to code a configuration mechanism or anything.

[roserez]

I need this badly to. Just a reverse sort order. I'll hard code it for now if possible. I just need photos to display in forward chronological order. Reverse is worthless to me and confuses people. Does anyone have a patch?

[scottrbaxter]

I'm in the same situation. This software looks incredible and I can't wait to use it, but photos within albums having no way to be displayed in sequential order really is a deal breaker for all of my use cases. i'm hoping someone with a bit more context can recommend a solution, even as a temporary fix, until this feature can be fully implemented as intended.

[lobotomm]

I am one more user who hopes that the album sort order gets reverted: oldest to newest seems to be right for 99,9%!

[Pazu5512]

Agreed, as a photo album tells a story, I think the default sorting option should be from oldest to newest.

With the holy grail being this, ordering photos however we want
Ordering.webm

While it's mostly the case, a story is not always told from oldest to newest. Sometimes a photo you took a few minutes later is better appearing first. Maybe because the one you originally took had other people on it, or the light wasn't the best, and 10 minutes later, the conditions were better and thus you went back and took a new pic. For which a simple "older to newer" sort option wouldn't be sufficient to cover this case, and thus ruin the story you wanted to tell.

[aviv926]

Feature detail

It would be nice to have a sort option for the albums view. Google Photos currently provides three such options:

• Most recent photo - Album with the newest photo first
• Last modified - Most recently modified album first
• Album title - Alphabetical

Added to Immich.

It would also be nice to have similar sorting options inside of albums (and possibly on the main photos feed) - things like:

• Age (oldest/newest first)

Added with #7819.

• Most recently added first
• Type (photos or videos first)

[roserez]

Thank you!!!!

[aviv926]

Thank you!!!!

The thanks are not to me, but to the development team ✌️

[lobotomm]

The new sorting album function seems only to work in the web view. Album order in app persists newest to oldest, no matter what I do in the web view.

[aviv926]

Yes, as stated in the new release 1.99 it currently supports the WEB version only.

[lobotomm]

I understand. I thought I can set the order in the web view and it stays that way in the app.

[chris114782]

I've just tried this for the first time, and the changes to ordering don't persist to shared links to the album.

If I set the order from oldest to newest, when I open the shared link to the album the web UI shows it in newest to oldest still.

[ok1ok1]

Please include a timeline view for albums on mobile. This will be especially beneficial if the upcoming automation features allow for "smart" albums.

[jstebenne]

Would this include ordering the pictures within an album using the original file names?

I am scanning a bunch of old photos and can easily order them with their file name while I am scanning. When I import those photos in Immich, the order currently seems random.

[bkiscool]

I would also like to see sorting by file names.

I have an album where photos are intended to be sorted by file name, but they are out of order because I can only change the display order by date created.

[Soukyuu]

As @bkiscool says, I have a lot of albums in an external library which are basically trip reports. Sometimes I keep the jpg that comes out of the camera which then has a correct date taken, sometimes I have to process the raw file to get a better result. This however changes the "date taken", breaking the sorting. Sometimes also the EXIF data is missing completely (Yi 4k Camera).

What I do is rename the files with a numeric prefix to "fix" the display order instead of manually copying the date taken.

So the easiest sorting way for me would be "by filename". Though manual sorting by drag&drop would also be nice.