How to force Win11 to sort files the way I want when opening directory?

LesFerch said:

Update: I just ran a test with a folder containing 7400 photos that all have the "Date taken" metadata. Sorting by "Date modified" or "Date created" is instantaneous. Sorting by "Date taken" takes about 4 seconds. Indexing the folder, unfortunately, made no difference.

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Weird. With me that takes way over 5 seconds. Is a mix of jpg png webp.

I use this sort setting , , ,



After re reading your message I understand this is what you explained. DATE MODIFIED or DATE TAKEN are ok. Just DATE is having the issue. Bummer :-(

GeneralLee01 said:

After re reading your message I understand this is what you explained. DATE MODIFIED or DATE TAKEN are ok. Just DATE is having the issue. Bummer :-(

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Date modified and Date created should be very fast. Date taken should take just as long as Date.

That's why I suggested copying the Date taken metadata property to the Date created file system property. Then you can sort on Date created and get the same order you would get by sorting on Date taken (or Date) with no delay.

Since a bunch of weeks I have been noticing the problem has disappeared.

Seems that the Win11 team fixed the bug.

Did anyone else notice ?

GeneralLee01 said:

Since a bunch of weeks I have been noticing the problem has disappeared.

Seems that the Win11 team fixed the bug.

Did anyone else notice ?

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Nope, but my test case of 7400 photos only took about 4 seconds to sort on Date taken, so I wouldn't expect it to get any better.

GeneralLee01 said:

Since a bunch of weeks I have been noticing the problem has disappeared.

Seems that the Win11 team fixed the bug.

Did anyone else notice ?

Click to expand...

What I have noticed in File Explorer is that persistence and having to continuously correct File Explorer to display folders the way I have set them, eventually sticks. I couldn’t tell you why but this has always been my experience.

But if you want an instant, permanent fix, I suggest any advice from @LesFerch

antspants said:

What I have noticed in File Explorer is that persistence and having to continuously correct File Explorer to display folders the way I have set them, eventually sticks. I couldn’t tell you why but this has always been my experience.

But if you want an instant, permanent fix, I suggest any advice from @LesFerch

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I think "the problem" @GeneralLee01 was referring to was the long wait for Explorer to sort his photos by Date taken, but I could be wrong.

LesFerch said:

I think "the problem" @GeneralLee01 was referring to was the long wait for Explorer to sort his photos by Date taken, but I could be wrong.

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Les you’re probably right. My comprehension level lately is shot.

I do experience this issue. But my image folders contain hundreds of images in each folder with an average size between 12 and 25MB
So I just expect the lag. Then again my PC is about 10 years old.

LesFerch said:

Nope, but my test case of 7400 photos only took about 4 seconds to sort on Date taken, so I wouldn't expect it to get any better.

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For background, everyone (OK, not including @LesFerch) should try to understand how Windows stores this information.

Normal folder or file timestamps are kept in the directory structure. It's very quick to access this, and sort the files.

Extended attributes, like Date Taken, are extracted from the source file and stored in a per-file data structure separate from the directory. If you have 7400 photos, then Explorer has to open 7400 individual files and check the extended attributes before returning back to you. This would be faster if the Explorer designers had decided to create a separate index cache where this data was collected in one place.

But it's not, so performance gets slower with the more files you have in a folder.