Windows 10 Picture Library - can only sort by folder

March 11, 2017 5:43 AM

Until a few weeks ago, I was able to use the Windows 10 Library function to sort my pictures by month/tag etc. Then one day, it simply refused to comply with any command except to sort by folder. It's the tiniest issue in the world and it's driving me up the wall. Any ideas for troubleshooting this would be most welcome!

Here's a screenshot of where in the file explorer I'm doing my sorting. I click any of the options except 'folder', and... nothing happens. I've tried searching the internet for help with this particular issue, but all that comes up is help for people trying to arrange by month in a picture folder rather than in the library. I believe I might simply have broken Windows 10 - my main D: drive picture folder is well over 300GB. Is there some way to reset this?

Things I've tried:
- Resetting the Picture Library folder to include nothing but a very small folder.
- Using the default C: path, putting a few pictures & folders in there for explorer to sort.
- Resetting the Picture Library folder to include no data at all.
- Restarting the computer.
- Doing a combination of the above over several weeks.
- Incoherent noises and fist-shaking.

While the Picture folder is large, I have over 500GB free on the drive it's on, and my laptop is only a couple of months old. And again - the sort by month/day/tag etc was working for me previously, and saved me an enormous amount of time when browsing for a particular motive without knowing exactly which year/month/day folder I might find it in.

posted by harujion to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

I think I understand what you mean... the upper right, at tiny, VERY HARD TO SEE drop-down arrow is how you "Expand the Ribbon." Click the VIEW tab in the ribbon- that's where the sort/group controls are, and the "Change folder and search options" control is. Here are some screenshots.

is that it?
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 6:18 AM on March 11, 2017

Response by poster: Sorry- I've had a look, and I don't think that's it. I believe your advice is about sorting? I'm after actually displaying the photos differently than in the file structure. This Microsoft help thread shows how to go from folder view to by month view. And that's what's stopped working for me.
posted by harujion at 7:56 AM on March 11, 2017

This question over on SuperUser might be helpful. (and if not you might have better luck with your question over there)

Are you able to use "Arrange By" for other libraries than the Pictures library?
posted by ropeladder at 6:19 AM on March 12, 2017