Fences 4, Windows 11, Sort by Date Added

Bug report

from Stardock Forums

Hello,

I had Fences 4 working correctly on my Windows 10 Pro machine, but I am having an issue with my Windows 11 Pro machine. I have a fence that is used as the 'default' Fence for all new icons added to the Desktop. I also have it configured so that it sorts the icons by "Date added to Fence". Unfortunately, the latter does not work. I can't quite understand what order it is putting it in, but it's certainly not by most recently added. New items will sort themselves somewhere in the middle of list most of the time.

fences
13,789 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Need more information on your system.

  1. Windows 11 full version number. Please use Winver.exe to get Windows 11 full version number. (example 2H22 OS Build 22621.2283)
  2. Fences 4 version number. (example V4.21)
  3. Screenshot when you right click within that Fences > Sort by >

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
I can reproduce you issue on my system. I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

I upgraded my Fences from 4 to 5.04, and the problem still persists. Is there a fix on the horizon?

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
I have forwarded again your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting SilSpd, reply 4

I upgraded my Fences from 4 to 5.04, and the problem still persists. Is there a fix on the horizon?
End of SilSpd's quote

I do not see any glaring issue here:

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/2024-03-20_13-46-57.mp4

Are you sure you have 'maintain sorting' as I do here in the video?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting SilSpd, reply 7

All of the files in this screenshot were added to this fence at various times in the last few months. You can see that it is set to sort by Date added to the fence, Maintain sorting is on, and the files are unfortunately sorted by Name regardless.

http://silspd.com/images/Screenshot%202024-03-21%20111839.png
End of SilSpd's quote

Just a reminder that all tests need to be in Fences 5.

If you are still using that, perform tests on newly created Fences as I have done in my video.  Add Files to them, resort, and see how it performs.

It would also be interesting to know what date format you have dd\mm\yyyy or mm\dd\yyyy and if changing that has any effect. 

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

Some interesting results here:

  • I am using Fences 5.04
  • My system date format is set to YYYY-MM-DD
  • The fence that has been having the issue is the fence that is set to "All new icons go to FENCENAME"
    • Per my side note at the end: Other fences with Rules are experiencing the same incorrect behavior.

I created a new fence per your recommendation and had it sort by Date added to fence. I dragged files that were in other fences into this new fence and it ordered them correctly per Date added to fence. Given that, I set this new fence as the "All new icons go to NEWFENCENAME". However, when I copied a file to the Desktop using Windows Explorer (ie. I went to the Desktop folder in Explorer and pasted it there), the file placed itself at the beginning of the Fence instead of the end where it should have gone. As a second test, I have my Firefox downloads folder set to the Desktop, so I downloaded a file. The file did not go to the beginning of the Fence, nor at the end, but rather as the second file alphabetically relative to the file that was copied via explorer. So the Fence now has two distinct sortings going on within the same fence. I have linked an image to clarify what I mean.

http://silspd.com/images/Screenshot%202024-03-22%20112703.png

Side note: This is not exclusive to "All new icons go to FENCENAME". I also have my Snipping Tool images automatically save to the Desktop. I have a fence rule set up where "Icons whose name starts with 'Screenshot' go to ANOTHERFENCENAME". This also suffers the same issue, where if I try to drag a file in that fence into another fence, it pops back into the Screenshots fence at the end, where it and any other files that have Screenshot in there name that I drag elsewhere stay sorted at the end. It's behaving the same way as the image I linked, where it is maintaining two separate sorting methods; one for files dragged between Fences, and one where Rules place a file into a Fence from external programs.

This would explain why your video shows the Fence behaving properly, because you are only dragging files between Fences. Please test the sorting by using Rules to place a file in that fence.