Damian Helme

YT Music Album Sorter help

YT Music Album Sorter replaces the album grid on your YouTube Music library page with one you arrange yourself. It runs in Chrome and other Chromium browsers, such as Brave and Edge, on a computer. Browser extensions do not run on phones, so it does not work there.

The video tour shows most of the topics below, in the same order.

Getting started

When you install the extension, it opens your albums page on YouTube Music and asks one question: keep your arrangement in this browser only, or keep it in step across your computers through Google Drive. Choose Continue without sync or Connect Google Drive and continue. You can connect Drive later from the status in the toolbar. Your albums then load.

If your library has no albums yet, you get the same question, then a note where your albums would be. Use Add Album to find albums to save, or Import from Spotify to bring across the ones you saved there.

From then on, go to YouTube Music, then Library, then Albums. Your arrangement appears in place of YouTube's own grid. Turn off in the toolbar puts YouTube's grid back and hides the other controls. It stays off, even after you reload, until you click Turn on. While it is off, the extension does not check your library either.

There is also a standalone page with a few more controls. Open it by clicking the extension's icon in the browser toolbar. If you cannot see the icon, click the puzzle-piece button at the right of the toolbar and pin YT Music Album Sorter.

Sorting

Choose how albums are ordered from the Order by menu at the left of the toolbar:

  • My order, the order you arrange by dragging
  • Artist
  • Album title
  • Year
  • Recently added

Sections stay where you put them in every sort, and the albums inside each section are sorted. On the standalone page, Ignore "the" files The Beatles under B, and the arrow button reverses the sort.

My order starts out in artist order, the first time your albums load, so you have a sensible starting point to rearrange from.

Grouping

Choose what the headings are from the Group by menu, next to Order by:

  • My sections, the sections you made. This is where you start.
  • Decade, such as 1960s and 1970s, oldest first. Albums with no year go under Unknown year at the end.
  • Artist, a heading for each artist with two or more albums, and the rest together under Other artists at the end.
  • None, every album in one run with no headings, even if you have sections.

Order by still sorts the albums under each heading. Grouping by decade, artist or none only changes how you look at the library. Your sections are kept, and choosing My sections shows them again.

The year is the one YouTube Music shows, which for a remaster or reissue is often the year of that release. A 2019 remaster of a 1969 album appears under the 2010s.

Under Decade, Artist or None the headings have only a Select button. In My order you can drag albums to rearrange them under their heading, but not into another heading, since dropping an album on 1970s cannot change its year. A drag here never moves an album into another of your sections: if you drop it next to an album from a different section, it goes as close as its own section allows, so it may land a little away from where you let go. The right-click Move to section still works, so you can press Select on the 1960s and move them all into a section of your own. The Sections menu becomes Decades or Artists, for showing one heading at a time, and is not shown under None.

Arranging albums

In My order, drag an album to where you want it. Drag a section heading to move the whole section with its albums.

In any other sort you can still drag albums from one section to another. They take their place in that section according to the sort.

You can also right-click an album, choose Move to section, and pick the section. The album goes to the top of that section. If you have picked several albums, they all move.

A plain click on an album opens it in YouTube Music, as usual.

Sections

Sections are headings that group your albums, such as Jazz or Classical.

  • Add a section from the Sections menu in the toolbar, with New Section. It asks for a name and puts the heading at the top. If that would sweep up albums that are not yet in any section, they are filed under a heading called Other instead, so the new section starts empty.
  • Each heading has buttons: Select picks every album shown under it, the arrows move the section up or down, Rename renames it, and the cross removes the heading and keeps its albums.
  • Show one section at a time by choosing it from the Sections menu. Choose All to see everything again.

Moving many albums at once

Pick the albums you want, then drag any one of them. The rest come with it.

  • Pick one album by clicking the checkbox that appears in its corner when you hover over it. Cmd-click on a Mac, or Ctrl-click elsewhere, does the same.
  • Pick a run of albums by picking one, then holding Shift and clicking another. Everything in between is picked.
  • Pick a whole section with the Select button on its heading.
  • Draw a rectangle by dragging across the empty space between albums. Every album it touches is picked. Hold Shift, Cmd or Ctrl as you start to add to what is already picked.
  • Clear the selection with Clear selection, which appears in the toolbar while anything is picked, by clicking empty space between albums, or by pressing Escape.

Your selection survives a change of sort and a search, so you can pick albums by one artist, search for another and pick those too, then switch to My order and drag them all into a section in one go. The right-click Move to section menu also moves everything you have picked.

The search box filters by album title or artist. Section headings stay on screen even when none of their albums match, so you still have somewhere to drop albums.

New albums

While a YouTube Music tab is open, the extension checks your library a few seconds after the page loads and then every 15 minutes. To check straight away, click the status in the toolbar, then Check now. On the standalone page the same thing is Refresh from YouTube Music.

Albums you have saved since the last check are added. If you use sections, they appear under a dated heading at the top, such as New (2026-09-27), ready for you to file. Remove the heading once it is empty.

Albums you remove from YouTube Music are hidden when you next click Check now, rather than deleted, so an album you save again goes back where it was. On the standalone page, Show hidden reveals them and Forget hidden removes them for good.

Is it up to date?

The status at the right of the toolbar answers that for your library and for Google Drive together:

  • Up to date, in green: your library was checked recently and Drive has your latest arrangement.
  • This computer only, in grey: your library is current, and Drive is not connected, so your arrangement is kept in this browser and nowhere else.
  • Checking… or Saving…, in amber: a check of your library is running, or your latest changes are on their way to Drive.
  • In red, it says what needs doing, such as Check failed, Not checked lately, Reconnect Drive, Drive conflict or Not saved to Drive.

Click the status to see a line for each, when it last happened, and the button that deals with it: Check now for your library, and Connect Google Drive, Reconnect, Choose or Sync now for Drive.

Using it on more than one computer

Connect Google Drive, either when the extension first asks or later from the status in the toolbar: click it, then Connect Google Drive. Your albums, order and sections are kept in a private folder in your own Google Drive that only this extension can see, and each computer picks up the others' changes.

If this computer and Drive have both changed since they last agreed, the extension checks what changed here. If the only change was a check of your library finding new albums, it takes Drive's arrangement and files the new albums into it under a dated New heading, without asking. If you rearranged anything here yourself, it asks rather than guessing. It shows how many albums each side has and when each changed, and offers Take Google Drive, Keep this machine or Do not sync now.

If your arrangement goes missing, you can get an earlier one back. On the standalone page, Previous versions lists the copies Google Drive has kept from the last 30 days or so, newest first, ten at a time, with Show older for the rest. At the top is the copy this computer kept the last time sync replaced one side with the other.

Each copy shows when it was saved, which browser and which version of the extension saved it, how many albums and sections it holds, and how it differs from what you have now. Restore this version puts it back on this computer, and sync carries it to your other computers. Restoring never deletes a copy, so if you pick the wrong one, restore another.

A copy marked written by an earlier version came from a browser still running a version of the extension from before 0.3.9. If such copies keep appearing after you have updated, one of your browsers or browser profiles has an old copy of the extension installed. Each profile has its own extensions.

Disconnect is on the standalone page too.

Adding albums

Add Album in the toolbar opens a search box over your grid, for adding albums to your YouTube Music library without leaving the page.

  1. Type an artist or an album and click Search. Up to 50 albums from YouTube Music are listed, with cover, title, artist and year. Singles and EPs are left out. They are in YouTube Music's own order, best matches first.
  2. Albums already in your library say In your library. Tick the others you want.
  3. Click the button that adds them, which shows how many, such as Add 3 albums to YouTube Music.

The box closes and the albums are added while you carry on. A message says when they are in, and they appear in your grid, under the New heading if you use sections.

To see what else an artist has made, right-click one of their albums in your grid and choose More by this artist. The same box opens with their albums listed first, under their name, and anything else the search found under Other results.

Nothing is ticked until you tick it, and nothing is ever removed.

Bringing albums across from Spotify

Import from Spotify in the toolbar opens the import page. It reads the albums saved in your Spotify library, finds each one on YouTube Music, and adds the ones you choose to your YouTube Music library. It never removes anything from either service.

  1. Click Read my Spotify library. The first time, your browser asks whether the extension may read open.spotify.com. You need to be signed in to Spotify in the same browser.
  2. A Spotify tab opens, and the extension scrolls through Your Library. A red bar across the top of that tab asks you to stay on it. Browsers slow down tabs that are hidden, so the read pauses until the tab is showing again. If it pauses, Show the Spotify tab brings the right tab back. Cancel stops the read. When the bar says it has finished, click Back to the import. The Spotify tab stays open until you close it.
  3. Searching YouTube Music starts by itself, and each album lands in a group:
    • Found: the artist and title agree. Ticked for adding.
    • Check these: a likely match that is not certain. Tick the ones that are right.
    • No close match: nothing matched. A different album by the same artist is shown if YouTube Music has one, with a link to search yourself.
    • Already in your library: not added again.
  4. Adjust the ticks, then click the button that adds them, which shows how many, such as Add 7 albums to YouTube Music. It asks you to confirm first.

Stop pauses the searching, and Search the remaining albums carries on. Skip on an album moves it to a Skipped group, remembered for next time, which is useful for an album you have found and saved yourself. Unskip brings it back.

Albums you add appear in your grid under the New heading shortly afterwards. The list read from Spotify stays in this browser and is not synced. Read Spotify again replaces it with a fresh read.

Backing up

On the standalone page, Export saves everything, your albums, order, sections and settings, as a file. Import loads a file back, replacing the library in this browser, and asks before it does. Worth doing once you have an arrangement you would be sorry to lose.

If something goes wrong

"YT Music Album Sorter was updated, so this page can no longer save." The extension was updated while the page was open, and the page has lost touch with it. Click Reload. Nothing you do on that page is saved until you do.

"Your library was changed in another tab or window." You have the albums page open in more than one place, and the other one changed first. The page reloads with the latest version. Make your change again.

Your arrangement does not appear on the albums page. YouTube Music may have changed its page. Open the standalone page from the extension's icon, which shows the same library.

A Spotify read comes up short. The page says so, for example "221 of 237 albums read". Keep the Spotify tab on screen and click Read Spotify again.

A change did not stick. If a change cannot be saved, the grid goes back to what was saved and says why.

Privacy and contact

The extension has no server of its own and sends nothing to its developer. Your library stays in your browser, and in your own Google Drive if you connect it. The Spotify import reads the Spotify page you are signed in to, in your own browser. The privacy policy has the details, and the terms of service cover using it.

Questions or problems: Damian Helme.

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