Android Auto does not respect ALBUMARTISTSORT

Support
1

App version

Production

Issue description

Hi,

I’m using Symfonium with a local music library via an SMB media provider.

I use the “ALBUMARTISTSORT” tag to get a surname-based / normalized sort order while keeping the normal artist name for display.

For example:

  • “ALBUMARTIST = Billie Eilish”
  • “ALBUMARTISTSORT = Eilish, Billie”

and:

  • “ALBUMARTIST = The National”
  • “ALBUMARTISTSORT = National, The”

This works correctly in the Symfonium Android app.

In Album Artists on the phone:

  • Billie Eilish is sorted under E
  • The National is sorted under N

However, when browsing Album Artists in Android Auto, the same library is sorted by the displayed “ALBUMARTIST” value instead:

  • Billie Eilish appears under B
  • The National appears under T

So it seems that the Android Auto Album Artist browser is sorting by “ALBUMARTIST” rather than Symfonium’s Album Artist sort name / “ALBUMARTISTSORT”.

The library has been fully resynchronized after updating the tags, and the correct sorting in the regular Symfonium app confirms that Symfonium has read the sort tags correctly.

Is there a setting to make Android Auto respect the same Album Artist sort order as the main Symfonium app? If not, would it be possible for the Android Auto Album Artist browser to use Symfonium’s Album Artist sort name when building and alphabetically splitting the list?

Thanks!

Device type

Phone

Media provider

SMB

Steps to reproduce

  1. Use an SMB media provider containing files with “ALBUMARTIST” and “ALBUMARTISTSORT” tags, for example:

    • “ALBUMARTIST = Billie Eilish”
    • “ALBUMARTISTSORT = Eilish, Billie”
    • “ALBUMARTIST = The National”
    • “ALBUMARTISTSORT = National, The”

  2. Fully synchronize the media provider.

  3. Open Album Artists in the regular Symfonium Android app.

    • Billie Eilish is correctly sorted under E.
    • The National is correctly sorted under N.

  4. Connect the same phone to Android Auto.

  5. Open Symfonium → Album Artists in Android Auto.

  6. Browse the Album Artist list.

    • Billie Eilish is incorrectly sorted under B.
    • The National is incorrectly sorted under T.

Expected result: Android Auto should use the same Album Artist sort order as the Symfonium phone app and respect “ALBUMARTISTSORT”.

Actual result: Android Auto appears to sort Album Artists by the displayed “ALBUMARTIST” value instead.

I searched existing issues first

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I understand that logs are mandatory

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Log upload name / description

Freddy_D

2

Duplicate and not possible, the AA interface and letter navigation expect things to be sorted alphabeticaly.

The only solution would be to actually display the sort name but that’s not really wanted either.