Windows 10: Windows Explorer sort function not working - I click a column to sort by and the "wait"...

I am using Windows 11 Home, Version 23H2, OS Build 22631.3155, I am using it on a Dell Inspiron, Intel Core i5-9400 CPU 2.90GHz. I have a lot of photos on my C drive ~56,000 in sllightly over 1,000 folders under my Pictures, that takes up 145 GB of HD space. I have plenty of available space on my HD more than half available. ANyway, I recently created a new subfolder under pictures and downloaded ~2,400 files to that folder. I wanted to sort the files by date, and when I click the corresponding column, I get the "wait" circle spinning in the upper right hand corner of the screen, adjace

:)

 

Sorting Explorer columns by multiple criteria

I also haven't seen the capability of multiple sort criteria in many versions of Windows Explorer or the later [in Win8/8.1/10] File Explorer. Each column visible can be sorted in ascending or descending order, clicking a different column changes the view strictly to that arrangement. Generally the columns are sorted alphabetically with Folders first. Compressed/zip files are usually between Folders and files except in Type where they will be at either end of the list.

 

Sorting Explorer columns by multiple criteria

I think you may want to press shift. This is sorted by date and default A --> Z order within that.





and then shift left click on Name to sort backwards by name Z --> A (within original sort by date - check 22-Jul-2017 17:16).





If that doesn't work you could select a date range and then sort within that perhaps

 

Cannot permanantly sort items in Windows Explorer

You're not alone; I'm seeing similar behavior. Music folders don't want to remember their sort preference if the sort property is "Contributing Artist".

I'm still probing & testing, but here's what I see so far:

• Other metadata sorts are remembered: Album, Album Artist, #, Title were the fields I tested. Would like to know if others see similar results.
• When you close a folder sorted on 'Contributing Artist' & then re-open, the background context menu reveals that sort has reverted to an "unspecifed" state (no property name bulleted).

If I sort on "Contributing Artists", close & re-open the folder, the sort is forgotten:




But other tags are remembered:





Will poke around more tomorrow. I'm truly curious as to the "why". If you're just annoyed & want something to work, I'd suggest using the "Album Artist" field, since that seems OK with being specifed as the sort field.