Windows file sorting puzzle

Si_Clist

Whilst moving stuff to a new Windows laptop, I've found a big folder of music files which are in sub-folders named according to the artist.  Which is all very well, but I can't search for a tune if I can't remember who the artist is!

Is there perhaps a way of copying all the individual files into a new folder with them sorted by title?  

flaneurs_lobster

I may be misunderstanding but if the tracks in the individual sub-folders have meaningful names (The Birdie Song.mp3 rather than Track001.mp3) then why would a normal search not find them?

Grumpy_chap

Create a folder, say "all music".
Go to each sub-folder, highlight all the files, CTRL-C
Go to the "all music" folder, CTRL-P
The files will copy across.
Repeat for each sub-folder.

flaneurs_lobster

Grumpy_chap said:

Create a folder, say "all music".
Go to each sub-folder, highlight all the files, CTRL-C
Go to the "all music" folder, CTRL-P
The files will copy across.
Repeat for each sub-folder.

Unless Windows has changed somewhat, CTRL-P means Print?

Grey_Critic

Reminds me od a student we had who had an interest in Tractors. He had around 500 pictures and when he showed us the folder the titles Started at Tractor Number one - Tractor Number two - Tractor Number three and so on

flaneurs_lobster

Grey_Critic said:

Reminds me od a student we had who had an interest in Tractors. He had around 500 pictures and when he showed us the folder the titles Started at Tractor Number one - Tractor Number two - Tractor Number three and so on

Terrifying, knowing that you had 499, 498, 497,..... to go.

wongataa

The sort order of files you see in the file browser is just a setting applied to that folder by the user.  It can be changed at any time without affecting anything.  It is not computer specific.  It is not operating system specific.  Just choose the sort order you want in Windows Explorer for those folders.

sausage_time

Not a Windows user, but every media player I have used lets you search by song title (in addition to artist, album, genre, etc).  As above, a search in the File Manager (Explorer these days?) will find by file name too.

Vitor

If you want to browse by track name, then in File Explorer goto the top-level music directory and search for *.mp3 (or *.flac etc) and sort the results by file name. Then from the '...' menu, select 'Pin to Quick Access'. 

The search will then always be available from Quick Access list and you can scroll up and down the track names.

Si_Clist

Thanks folks.  That's me sorted yet again thanks to the techie forum 

prowla

You may be able to do things in a command window.

There's a "find" command.

I did similar on a Linux box last week, but that has a much more powerful suite of commandline utilities.