You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Ebiss's avatar
Ebiss
Explorer | Level 3
3 years ago
Status:
Delivered

Allow sort by name reverse alphabetical (mobile)

Mobile currently only allows A-Z sort by name. Please allow Z-A sort option.

With date naming A-Z always displays oldest files first. Please allow a swap!!

  • steve78957's avatar
    steve78957
    Explorer | Level 4

    Not having this feature is so annoying, and I would have thought relatively simple to implement and found on every other app that uses lists.

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    Status changed:
    Gathering Support
    to
    Not for right now
    Thank you for sharing your idea.
     
    We have looked into this, but it is not something we are actively working on at this time. 
     
    We regularly review these ideas, and we will keep you updated if this idea moves forward in the future.
  • emilyc123's avatar
    emilyc123
    Icon for Dropbox Product Manager rankDropbox Product Manager

    Hi Ebiss and Steve, 

     

    May I ask if your mobile device is an Android or iOS device? We now have the ability to sort by reverse alphabetical order on Android devices. You can do so by

    1. Navigating to a folder
    2. Tap the existing sort method on the left side ("Name", "Modified", etc)
    3. Tap Sort by Name
    4. Tap the arrow to sort in reverse

    Please let me know if this has solved your issue! 

     

  • Emmet's avatar
    Emmet
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    Status changed:
    Not for right now
    to
    Accepted

    Hey everyone, the team is looking into this idea! You can also access it right now if you're on Android. 

     

    You can do so by:

    1. Navigating to a folder
    2. Tap the existing sort method on the left side ("Name", "Modified", etc)
    3. Tap Sort by Name
    4. Tap the arrow to sort in reverse


    Thanks for sharing your suggestion with us and to everyone for supporting it.

    We’ll update you when we know more!

  • Filip Basara's avatar
    Filip Basara
    Explorer | Level 3

     

    I always had my folders named by date&event so to get to the newest I have to scrolle all the way down. Every single time. The lack of reverse order on iOS is really frustrating. 
    Reverse order dosen’t seem to be the rocket science. Common Dropbox Team, you can do it! 

  • iar's avatar
    iar
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hey, engineer on the team working on iOS browse and file list updates here.

     

    We are actually working on reverse sorting for iOS right now!

     

    Unfortunately, this is baked into one of the oldest parts of the app codebase, and isn't just as simple as reversing a collection of items. Those items are fed into the file list from various data providers, and are parsed into sections based on what the current ordering type is.

     

    There is actually one class dedicated to each ordering type! (Name, modified date, filetype, and size.) Each ordering class has to be updated individually to support reverse sorting, and each requires different logic for handling section clustering, various edge cases, and support for the myriad surfaces across the app in which a file list may appear.

     

    We hope to rewrite much of this legacy Objective-C code in Swift at some point and take that opportunity to significantly simplify the architecture of these features so future development is much faster. For now, though, we're only able to confirm that reverse sorting is on the way.

  • conwaynorwood's avatar
    conwaynorwood
    Explorer | Level 3
    It would be great if Dropbox expanded on the folder sort options, especially an option to sort ascending (e.g. A-Z) or descending (e.g. Z-A).
    • conwaynorwood's avatar
      conwaynorwood
      Explorer | Level 3

      I should specify that I’m referring to the Dropbox app specifically.

    • Hannah's avatar
      Hannah
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

      Hey conwaynorwood, thanks for reaching out to us!

       

      I assume you're referring to the Dropbox mobile app, correct?

       

      You can currently sort your files by 'modified', 'size', 'type' and 'name'.

       

      If you sort them by name, does that somewhat help achieve what you want to do?

       

      Keep me posted.

    • conwaynorwood's avatar
      conwaynorwood
      Explorer | Level 3

      Hi, @Hannah! Yes, but those options only allow sorting one way (e.g. modified goes oldest to newest, name goes A-Z, size goes largest to smallest). It would be useful for me to have the option to switch that order to newest to oldest for modified, Z-A for name, and smallest to largest for size.

  • Rauska_Jr's avatar
    Rauska_Jr
    New member | Level 2

    Hi Dropbox team,

     

    I‘ve been also waiting for this feature for the iOS app for a long looong time and realized that it might help out if I also give my „vote“ for this. 

    In my case short by modified doesn’t solve the issue. E.g. my picture and videos are in folders shorted by YYYY-MM-DD. Sometimes I might edit them or get later some shared content which will be uploaded later and those would pop up on the top... On Mac or Windows obviously all is good, but on the mobile app, which I use the most, this little thing is frustrating me the most.


    This feature would be highly appreciated.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    Status changed:
    Accepted
    to
    Delivered
    This idea has been delivered! 
     
    If you are sorting by Name, you can tap on Name again in the sort options and it will reverse the order.
     
    Thank you for your support!