# Is there NO possibility of setting a custom sort-order in LR Classic CC?



## Steve Pillinger (Jan 22, 2019)

Hi folks,

I recently migrated over 20,000 photos from Aperture to Lightroom Classic CC. In doing so, I completely took it for granted that LR would allow random (or custom) sorting of photos, at least in collections and slideshows.

However, although I find many posts out there that talk about dragging and dropping the thumbnails in the film strip to create a random order, I cannot get this to work in any recent version of Lightroom Classic. (I've reverted back as far as ver. 7.5 and others in between, and none of them will let me create a random order).  I try dragging a thumbnail, but nothing happens: no "black vertical bar" appears at the target location, and the order does not change.

I can't get it in regular folders (Library view), even with "Show photos in subfolders" turned OFF.

I can't get it in Collections.

I can't even get it in Slideshow mode, though many posts say it's _always_ available there!

Note: I _have_ tried deleting the Preferences and letting LR recreate them (plus of course many reinstallations and reboots).

Is there some prerequite action/setup I'm unaware of?

If anyone has any ideas I'd be most grateful, because LR will be severely crippled for me if custom ordering is truly not possible.

Thanks!


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 22, 2019)

Well, the good news is that custom ordering is most definitely possible in Lightroom, both in collections and folders. You mention that you're trying it using the filmstrip (which should work), but have you also tried doing it in Grid view? One thing, when dragging the thumbnails you have to have drag the cursor from the actual image, NOT from the image frame surrounding it.....that does often trip up people when trying to drag images.


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## Steve Pillinger (Jan 22, 2019)

Jim Wilde said:


> Well, the good news is that custom ordering is most definitely possible in Lightroom, both in collections and folders. You mention that you're trying it using the filmstrip (which should work), but have you also tried doing it in Grid view? One thing, when dragging the thumbnails you have to have drag the cursor from the actual image, NOT from the image frame surrounding it.....that does often trip up people when trying to drag images.



That was it! I was trying to drag from the frame. Dragging from the picture, it works! (What a weird limitation…) But thanks a million! That gets me up and running again.

I notice now, too, that "Custom Order" is not available as a sorting option for folders with subfolders, and trying to drag there doesn't work. So there is still the restriction that it only works at the lowest level, or with "Show photos in subfolders" turned off. Is that right?

Thanks again for your help!


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 22, 2019)

Regarding folders, yes that's the way it works. It's one of the reasons why using folders for organising photos isn't ideal.


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## Steve Pillinger (Jan 22, 2019)

Jim Wilde said:


> Regarding folders, yes that's the way it works. It's one of the reasons why using folders for organising photos isn't ideal.


Right, I hear you. However I'm not a professional photographer, and I use Lightroom (like Aperture previously) mainly for archiving our family photos, with maybe just a little touching up here and there. So normally Capture time is fine for sorting my photos; but there are significant situations when I need to impose a custom order, and collections and slideshows should usually do the trick for those.
Thanks again for your help!


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