Sort Music on iPhone: Thousands of Tracks as a Feed

How do you sort music on your iPhone when a folder holds thousands of tracks collected over many years? I have such a folder. Some was ripped from discs, some sent by friends, some left over from old players. There are duplicates, cut-off files, tracks with no titles, compilations where I like one song out of twenty.

I had long dreamed of cleaning it up. And long put it off.

Why is sorting music at a computer so boring?

Because a file name tells you nothing. “Track 07,” “audio_2011.” To find out what it is, you have to play it, wait, skip, rename, drag. It is even duller than sorting photos.

I connected it and was surprised

I made Spohad for photos and video. But it shows any files in the feed. And one evening I simply connected my music folder as a source, through Files, like any other. If the music is on a home drive, it works the same way; see How to connect a NAS to your iPhone.

And I was pleasantly surprised. The music came as a feed.

What does a track look like in the feed?

Each track is a card on the full screen. If the file has cover art, it fills the screen like a photo. If not, a card with the title and artist. Tap, and it plays. The seek bar is in the same place as for video.

Deciding what to keep

Exactly the same as with photos. Listen for ten seconds, and you know.

• A favorite song: swipe to Memories, onto a shelf called “Forever.”
• A track for running: to Recall, into the “Running” folder.
• A cut-off file with an unclear name: to the Trash.
• Not sure: I keep scrolling, it will come back another time.

Nothing is deleted until Save, so a mistake can always be undone.

Like a radio

The feed is put together in mixed order, and that turned out to be the best part. I don’t know what comes next. A song I listened to at school. A soundtrack from a film I forgot. Something I don’t even remember how it got into the folder.

It is like a radio that plays only your music. And with every track it gets cleaner.

How do you rename tracks so you can find them?

I give them names while listening: “Song from that summer,” “To run to.” You can dictate by voice with the keyboard. The name becomes the real file name, and search later finds it by those words. How search by captions works is in How to find a photo on your iPhone fast.

A shelf for running

When the “Running” folder filled up, I opened it as a feed. The catalog has an “Albums” button, and there any shelf can be opened on its own. Tracks go in mixed order: finished listening or got bored, swipe up, and the next one. I got a playlist I never made: it formed itself while I sorted the music.

What you need to know

Spohad plays music in the formats the iPhone understands: MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC and others. If you want to listen with the screen off or in another app, that is background audio, and it is in Pro. So is connecting several external folders: one extra folder is free. Books and PDFs open in the same feed; see PDF and EPUB reader for iPhone.

Quick guide: how to sort music on iPhone

1. Make sure the music folder is visible in Files, on the phone, in the cloud or on a drive.
2. Add it to Spohad as a source.
3. Listen for 10 seconds and sort into folders with swipes.
4. Give tracks clear names; by voice works.
5. Junk goes to the Trash. Press Save.
6. Open finished folders through “Albums” as playlists.

Thousands of tracks later

I haven’t finished yet. But the folder is already different. It has less junk, more names, and shelves holding exactly what I love.

It turned out that putting music in order is not cleaning. It is an evening when you listen to your own life again. Try the feed on the home page.