# Remote: Sorting with "The ..." and "A ..."

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/remote-sorting-with-the-and-a/724592>\
**Category:** Plex Media Server\
**Tags:** server-windows, server-linux\
**Created:** [June 25, 2021, 11:01am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/remote-sorting-with-the-and-a/724592 "2021-06-25T11:01:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cilvaring](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/cilvaring/32/230946_2.png) [@Cilvaring](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cilvaring)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2021, 11:01am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/remote-sorting-with-the-and-a/724592/1 "2021-06-25T11:01:46Z")

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Server Version#: 1.23.3.4707  
Player Version#: 4.57.4

Hi there,

I switched from Windows to Linux and I have a question about sorting.  
If I have a Movie/TV-Show that beginns with “The” f.e. “The Matrix” it will be sorted as “Matrix” and be found somewhere in the section of the letter “M”.  
That also happens for Movies/TV-Shows that beginn with an “A”. F.e. “A Million Ways to Die in the West” will be sorted as “Million Ways to Die in the West”.

It was like that on Windows too and I don’t want that. It’s confusing and doesn’t make any sense to me. I would like the Movie/TV-Show to be sorted as it’s name is and also appears, duh…

Is there any way to change that globally in Plex so I don’t have to do it manually for every Movie/TV-Show (again)??

Thanks in advance!

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**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2021, 11:37am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/remote-sorting-with-the-and-a/724592/2 "2021-06-25T11:37:54Z")

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Check out the support article on how to edit advanced/hidden server settings. There’s an option to define the article strings that Plex will ignore for sorting your library. Clearing that value should not apply this default behavior for new media (or when refreshing your library)

> **From [https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201105343-advanced-hidden-server-settings/)**
> 
> ## ArticleStrings
> 
> **Values:** string
> 
> **Description:** A comma-separated list of words considered to be grammatical articles, which are removed in sort titles.
> 
> **Example:** `the, das, der, a, an, el, la`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cilvaring](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/cilvaring/32/230946_2.png) [@Cilvaring](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cilvaring)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2021, 12:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/remote-sorting-with-the-and-a/724592/3 "2021-06-25T12:37:44Z")

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Thanks for the fast reply.

I checked my Preferences.xml but it’s not in there.  
So should I put in **ArticleStrings=""** to force it to take no article strings in that respect?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/remote-sorting-with-the-and-a/724592/4 "2021-06-25T15:58:39Z")

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Correct. Just add a dedicated configuration entry as described in the support article using an empty string as its value. Keep in mind that’ll result in ~70% of an average library to end up under “T” or “A” and make the index… less helpful 😉

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cilvaring](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/cilvaring/32/230946_2.png) [@Cilvaring](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cilvaring)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/remote-sorting-with-the-and-a/724592/5 "2021-06-25T18:25:23Z")

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Ok, got it.  
I “only” have close to 500 Movies and 60 TV-Shows, so the index is not really being used. Mostly the other users anyway use the search function. 😁

Thanks a lot !!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/remote-sorting-with-the-and-a/724592/6 "2021-09-23T18:25:43Z")

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