If you’ve populated your iOS device with televisions shows from sources outside of iTunes you may have noticed that many shows get sorted incorrectly. Fix the sort issue by amending the show’s metadata.
At GigaOM they noticed a peculiar problem with sorting on iOS devices. The shows could be perfectly labeled in iTunes but when on the device they sorted oddly. Some show listings, for example, would have multiple different shows scattered about inside. The solution they discovered involves editing the “Info” tab for the show in iTunes:
The solution is to go to the “Info” tab where the “Name” of the episode is found, and under “Artist” enter the show’s name. It makes no sense, but it works. As can be seen above, the episode number is also entered under “Track Number.” Previously, shows that were correctly grouped might have episodes listed alphabetically unless ordered with the Track Number. Apparently, that was fixed in iOS 4. Hopefully, the this bug will soon be fixed, too, but until then this workaround solves the problem of missorted television shows.
