# Retaining order of images on export from LR5



## redjut01 (Apr 3, 2015)

Hi,  My son has just returned from a trip to India, he used a camera and his iPhone to take pics.  I have merged all the pics in LR and have put them in the order that I want them to make a photo book for him.  When I export them into a folder on my Mac, the order is changing into 'file' number.  I have unchecked the box to rename on export.  There are over 600 photos and I really, really don't want to have to re-order them again.  All suggestions welcome.

Many thanks.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 3, 2015)

Hi, welcome to the forum.

This issue trips up quite a few people. You need to understand that when the files are created by exporting from Lightroom, where they are located on the disk is controlled by the Operating System's file system, e.g. Finder in you case. There is no physical "folder", the files may be (likely are) scattered around the hard drive, and it's only the file system which knows that these dispersed images belong together in a virtual folder. Finder (or Windows Explorer on a PC) is then able to list the files in the "folder" in a variety of different orders, depending on user choice. Although "File Name" is the most typical, you could change the order to something like "Date Created" which should then present them in the order in which they were exported. 

However, some display devices (e.g. a DVD player linked to a TV) might only use the default "File Name" order when showing the images. For this reason, the most common workaround is to rename the files on export, giving the exported files the same name but with the addition of a sequence number.....thus the "file name" order would be the same as your carefully organised Lightroom export order.


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## redjut01 (Apr 3, 2015)

Many thanks Jim.  Will give that a go!!


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## clee01l (Apr 3, 2015)

Welcome to the forum.  Sort order is not a function of the file itself, but a function of the app being used to view the file. While in LR you can choose a custom order, the custom order is only valid in the LR app.  Finder has a default sort order of Filename, but if you choose "Arrange By" from the Finder View Menu, you will find that there are 6-8 different metadata characteristics to sort by.   Your option in LR is to make sure there is a metadata characteristic in the files that you export that will permit Finder or any other app to sequence the exported images in the order that you choose.  In LR when you export, the files will be processed in the order that you have them arranged.  So the most common sort order is file name and LR will permit you to rename the exported images as you export using a file naming template. You can create your own file naming template or use one of the ones that ship with LR.  By choosing a custom name and a sequence,  you can create exported files with names like "India-001.jpg" and Finder then can still sort on file name and preserve the customer sort order that you have created in LR. You need to choose a sequence token with enough leading zeros so that files ending in "10", "11", "100" etc. don't get sorted between "1" & "2".


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## redjut01 (Apr 3, 2015)

Many thanks - a very clear explanation.  I am loving this Forum already!!


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