Does anyone know how to have Itunes symbols and numbers first followed by letters in alphabetical order? All the artist like "!!!, 30 Seconds to Mars" are after the Z artist.
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No way to fix this. Apple changed this in iTunes recently (version 7.0 ?? - can't remember). Sucks, but can't be changed.
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There is a workaround -- use the Sort Option fields to change the default sorting. For songs, artists, etc. that begin with numbers or punctuation, edit the appropriate Sort Option field in the tag. Example: For the artist "10,000 Maniacs" you can enter "AA 10,000 Maniacs" in the Sort Artist field. Preceding the artist with "AA " will force them to the top of your library but still display them by their correct name. The same can be done for songs, album artist, and composer, if those matter to you.

The above works for iTunes and any iPod that supports the Sort Option fields. I think anything after the 5th gen video now supports it, but you have to re-sync (or reload) your iPod for the changes to take affect.
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About all you can do is edit the Sort Artist field, adding a leading "A ". (After doing one, you can then right-click on the track to apply that change to all similar tracks; not incredibly convenient, but not a total PITA ;-)
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With a library of almost 12 thousand songs it would be insane to edit each number & symbol artist. Thanks for the info I'll leave it for a rainy day lol
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For song names, yes you have to do it one by one. But for artist names you only need to do one song by the artist, then right-click on the song you updated and select "Apply Sort Field/ Same Artist", then all songs by the artist will get the Sort Artist field updated. The same shortcut can be done for Sort Album and Sort Album Artist.
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