Hello - hopefully a Plex admin will see this. I asked it before but got no satisfying answer. Problem description:
Plex puts names of pictures (by numbers) most of the time in the proper order - however sometimes without any obvious reason - the order is not correct. Example: The order in the Windows explorer is …Nick12-27, Nick12-28, Nick12-29, Nick12-30, Nick12-31, Nick12-32. In Plex I find Nick12-27, Nick12-28, Nick12-29, Nick12-30, Nick12-32, Nick12-31. Plex just refuses to put the pictures in the proper order and I have no clue why this happens. Unfortunately this happens all the time - but not always! (Screenshots available.)The idea to put “000” up front has no effect on this. With my 10.000 pictures I really need a reliable and correct order. What is wrong with Plex? Would really appreciate help to use Plex as I need it.
Is there any metadata attached to those pictures that are out of order?
There are no metadata to be found. All pictures derive from the same scanner and are saved as *.jpg.
When uploading them to my “Web.de” cloud I can stream the same pictures in the exact correct order. They are sorted by names and numbers. Perhaps Plex “sees” no numbers but only some hidden information? It happens in almost every stack (32 there are) of pictures. Would be great to send them to someone who can find out what is going on inside of Plex.
I have the same problem but also with photos from my camera containing Exif information. In addition, if other jpeg files w/o Exif info are included among the photos (scanned images for example), they appear at random places in the list.
Something is broken in the sorting algorithm. Googling show that we are not the first confirming that this is a problem. Unfortunately, this makes Plex useless for me since I rely on file names for sorting 
IN case it helps, I use a tool called exiv2 to rename pictures based on the exif information. This helps me sorting pictures from different sources with different syntax rules.
Sorry for responding late, but since Plex does not work for me I don’t read these threads that often. And it seems that no admin is listening either
Anyway, using exiv2 does not help. It is a bug in the sorting algorithm and changing Exif info does not change the sort order if alphabetical is selected. A typical use case is a series of photos from a journey. Some pictures are rearranged (i.e. renamed) to make the story more logical. Maybe an overview picture taken at a later time over a city makes a good intro to the coming pictures. Or a scanned picture of some tickets, etc.
But since Plex has its own, sometimes random, sorting order even if a plain alphabetical order is selected, I cannot use it! Other programs work, but I like Plex thumbnails which are miniature images displayed on e.g. Android deveices. Other programs require the full picture to be downloaded before a thumbnail is shown, which takes time. But if anyone has a suggestion for a good program, I am listening!
For me, Plex shows the pictures according to the date they were taken, which is not what I want when I browse by name. I use folders in which I want photo’s to be displayed in alphabetical order, as I reorder photos to get a nice sequence (and slideshow) that actually tells a story. It is very likely that we are running into the same problem and that you get the strange ordering because you rearranged photos in an order different than the one they are taken at. All cameras will put the date and time into the EXIF information which Plex than searches and indexes.
It may be the same bug, although for me sorting in alphabetical order works for 95% of the pictures. Best example of failure is pictures w.o. exif info which are moved to the end regardless of their names.
Is there some way to report bugs in Plex? Somewhere where someone is listening? I get frequent emails about nice new features in Plex, but they should really try to fix the bugs!!
@tomas111 said:
Is there some way to report bugs in Plex? Somewhere where someone is listening? I get frequent emails about nice new features in Plex, but they should really try to fix the bugs!!
You have found Plex’s only support. The forums are all you get.
As far as someone listening goes - Plex is a lot like God all prayers are heard and answered but sometimes the answer is obscure or simply no.
I had that problem and in the top left the setting was on time line. I then changed it to photos and they reordered themselves into the right numerical order. I check this each time and they appear as they do in my windows file.
