Hello, how is working Custom sort collection ? not implemented yet?
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Was wondering the same thing. Option is there but it didn’t seem to do anything.
I was also wondering if any change you make to a collection, including the sort order is visible to all other accounts including friends you share with?
Yes. Within the video side of Plex the only thing that doesn’t is Playlists. Collections are just like any other type of metadata in your library. And that all “syncs”.
Here is what I did:
My goal was to keep my Cinema library intact (Alphabetical) but in my collections have the movies in chronological order.
I started with the Marvel Universe. I created a collection called “Marvel Universe” then I added all the movies to the collection. In the “advanced” options for the collection I chose:
Collection Mode > Show this collection and its items
Collection Order > Release Date
This setup puts all the movies in the collection in the order that they were released but if you change the year to when the movie takes place, they will appear in chronological order.
The next issue is for the movies that take place in the same year. Easy: change the month number to reflect the proper order.
Please note: I’m pretty staunch about metadata and I DO NOT like changing it at all but in the interest of this I’m willing to make the change. Some of the dates in the Marvel Universe didn’t need to be changed as they in the correct order but most did.
That is the workaround I found even though Plex has added a “custom” option under the collection order but I couldn’t figure out how to order the movies.
What I would like to be able to do is not only have it auto-sort by release date or title as you already can, but lets say using the MCU as an example, be able to put them in any order you please by simply clicking and dragging them in one collection (Storyline Order) and still have a second collection (Release Order) without having to change the tags for them.
I second this. We need a drag and drop collection sorting style.
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I see there is now a custom order option for collections but I don’t understand what exactly it does. I’d also like to add my support for this option to be implemented but it seems like it’s at least being worked on now?
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I’m hoping that option means they are in the process of implementing it.
I’d just like to add that I really hope when this is implemented that they allow the end-user to view the other sort orders. IE. If I as the admin choose to sort Star Wars using the Machete Order, I’d like my family members to be at least able to view release order. Ideally if they switched to another order it would reset back to what the admin has set on exiting that screen.
Custom sort order opens up a world of possibilities for library management, but there’s also the temptation to start making collections of the same content with different sort orders. For a collection like the IMDB Top 250, as it’s a ranked list defaulting to a custom order makes sense. But having the option to also see those same films in release order would be valuable.
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not sure how to work with it either +1
I’d like to use this too. Can someone at Plex comment on the status of this feature? How do we use it?
I’ve read through this entire thread, and yes there are many workarounds. But seriously… I fail to grasp why anyone needs to have their titles displayed in a particular order, and insist that Plex does as they wish… that’s like asking Hollywood to never create anything out of order, and never make any prequels after the fact lol. You don’t make demands on them, so why do the same with Plex? It’s not right, not logical and nowhere near even reasonable. Think about it.
Before you all jump on me, I have over 2500 movies. So YES, I know all to well about wanting to know what the best order is to watch (or re-watch) a series. But I just GOOGLE that info, and select the next movie to watch in plex. Easy-peasy.
Why is it so easy?
- Seriously, you’re not really going to watch all Marvel movies straight through, back to back, are you?
- same for LOTR, Star Wars, F&F, Star Trek, etc.
2.1) I know you love movies just as much as I do, but you’ve got problems if you have enough time to watch everything in order, straight through lol - If you insist on a particular order, does that mean you can never view any subsequent episodes until you watch their prequels?
- I use the internet to verify and see what order options are available, then I pick and choose which movie to view… Plex is about managing your files, and like any other file-management system you must tweak how you label things if you want to go off-roading
MY suggestion for Plex (if they even want to entertain this sorting idea), without adding much overhead or changing much code, is to adopt something like what Netflix does for a DVD queue… have a field with a simple number in it, called “WATCH ORDER”. So in a collection… you can specify your preferred “watch order” which is a field displayed alongside the movie name, and you can change that number as you see fit. Or people can ignore your suggestion, and watch in release order. This is for those who just can’t bear to use google and look up the order 
I mean how many times are you going to watch that Marvel series anyway??? Does it really hurt that much to have to use google to remember the desired order? No, it does not.
As a paying member, I don’t want Plex to waste my money on frivolous development that serves no useful function… or does not enhance the app interface
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Would love this too to get ranked lists in the correct order, like IMDb Top 250. Star Wars is trivial with sort order field per movie but this does not work on a ranked collection.
I like the Watch Order idea. Seems simple enough. 
TMC, currently the playlists allow us to move the movies up and down the list in any order we wish, and that’s all we’re asking. Seems like a simple thing to add for Collections.
Also, your point about not watching all the Marvel movies in one sitting is EXACTLY why we want to be able to sort the order as we see fit. It would be nice not to have to google the chronological order before watching any of the movies, and just have to do it once to set them up. Then we can come back at our leisure and pick up where we left off without doing the research every time. Granted spending 5 minutes once a week to look it up may not be a big deal, but if it’s easy to implement something in Collections that’s already possible in playlists, and if a LOT of people want it, then it seems like something that would not be a waste of time for the Plex developers.
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Please add this feature! Was just looking for a way to custom sort the Star Wars and MCU movies. And the convenience to pick up where you left off would be very nice, yes, but mainly it just helps organize our collections and keeps them neat. With over 2500 movies, I would think that you can understand the importance of keeping and organized library and the pride of displaying it in a neat and orderly fashion. This would go a long way to enhance level of our collections.
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They “have” this feature but if you try to enable it, it will just break your collection and they don’t bother to respond on the forums.
You don’t need to insult people to say you won’t use this feature.
If someone wants to sit down and watch three movies in a row that doesn’t mean they have problems. Sort order isn’t just wanted for marathon watching sessions either. In 2021 with the amount of metadata Plex has access to, we shouldn’t need to go to Google or IMDB to find out which movie comes next if there’s an alternate watching order to the date they were released.
This is, or should be a modern media player, it shouldn’t just be a dumb player. It should allow things like custom sort order for Collections. It should also take advantage of more of the metadata it collects and stores so we don’t have to go to Google as often (like being able to search for more than just title, actor, and director).
Again, if you’re not going to use it, fine. You don’t need to come in here insulting those that want it.
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+1 for me. Custom sort order for Collections would be great.
The problem with that is that it also changes the sort order in the library itself. Then you also have to remember what you manually typed in for sorting everything, because you won’t find it in a list in any sensical way, otherwise (unless you just straight up type in the title in the search field). Not a big deal for Star Wars, because there’s only 9 movies (plus a small handful of spin offs). But it could turn into a mess real fast with bigger collections.
It also doesn’t help if movies don’t already have titles that lend themselves well to changing the sort order. For example, what if I want to manually sort my James Bond movies so that all the Sean Connery ones are together? (In case you aren’t aware, he took a break from the character but came back after somebody else had played 007). Better yet, what if you want MCU films sorted chronologically? Things get even worse if you’ve got a movie that appears in 2 or more collections.
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