Sounds good! Thanks so much for your follow-up and recommendations.
I’ll reach out on GitHub if I have any other questions ~ and, in the meantime, I too look forward to having the “custom sort” option (eventually) integrated into the core. 
I’d also like to toss my +1 on this ever-growing pile.
+1 from my side as well.
This Bartender plugin is amazing. One big request I would have: a separate sort setting for files and for folders.
In my case—and I do believe this would make sense for a lot of users—I just want to manually sort my buckets. The folders. Within my “sorted just right” buckets, I’d just like to have the files sorted the traditional way. That is, interchangeably by modification date, creation date, or alphabetically, but rarely if ever manually.
Apologies if this is technologically challenging or has already been requested.
And thanks for the plugin! 
3 Likes
That helps me a lot ! ! !
I found a built-in way to change the file order arbitrarily without changing the filenames:
sorting by creation date. Swapping the names/contents of notes in effect swaps their creation dates (method 1), but it’s probably easier to just edit the property using the OS or a 3rd-party app (method 2).
Method 1 (within Obsidian):
- Click the Sort button (Up/Down arrows) in the File Explorer.
- Select “Created time” (“old to new”/“new to old”).
- Create a new file (we will use it as a dummy). Move it to the right folder. It will appear at the top or bottom, based on your choice in step 2.
- Select the note you want to appear at the location of the dummy file. Cut-paste the title and content to the dummy. The original file is now the new dummy.
- Repeat step 5 until the files are sorted.
Method 2 (outside of Obsidian):
- Just modify the creation times of the files directly. On Windows (PowerShell):
$(Get-Item FILENAME).creationtime=$(Get-Date "01/01/2000 01:01 AM") - Restart Obsidian for the changes to take effect.
Limitations/Downsides:
- You lose the real creation date information (obviously).
- Neither method is quick and easy.
- Affects all files in the Vault, so you have to apply this method in all folders. (related: Ability to sort different folders differently - #2 by sorig)
- Requires your filesystem to support creation date/time. Not a problem for most modern systems (NTFS/etx4).
- You have to pick whether you want old or new files at the top of all folders going forward. This sorting choice will impact how much swapping is needed for Method 1 and cannot be changed without having to fix all folders.
Other notes:
- Just like other sorting options, the sorting choice doesn’t affect Folders, which are always sorted alphabetically.
- The sorting choice doesn’t persist across Vaults.
- Method 2 does not require the user to have Administrator privileges.
Talking for me, With almost a thousand notes at hand, it will be bit cumbersome for me (Even though dragging past a long list is a long walk). Also for every note I may have open power shell and so forth which may distract me initially)
Bartender doesn’t lets me lose focus from what I am already doing (making notes) which gives it a edge.
But definitely a different perspective to sort files.
The most simple way would be to create a “sortable key” at the begining of the file, like Folgezettel : [[1.1.File top]] [[1.2.File under]] [[1.3.File after]]…
1 Like
I would very much like to see this feature implemented by the Obsidian developers.
The Bartender plugin is very buggy: the custom sorting function stops working randomly, so you have to activate and deactivate “Drag to Rearrange” several times and restart Obsidian, trying to find the moment when it will work.
If a directory is open and you move it to another location, when you close the directory, its location rolls back to the previous, original location.
Not to mention that the implementation in principle is not the most convenient, from time to time directories are accidentally moved to another directory rather than to the desired position in File Explorer.
Moreover, I would also like to see the possibility of dividing File Explorer into several “areas”.
The top name of the “area”, then a delimiter like the one that appears when you type ---, and after that a list of all directories or files belonging to that “area”.
In my workspace, I want to see an order and comfortable structure, classic sorting, unfortunately, can not give it. At least for me personally.
And, a little bit of offtopic…
I’d also like to see the possibility of custom sorting of vaults.
I like your idea about areas and it would be nice if custom sort was implemented natively. That said, I’ve had really good luck with Bartender maintaining the sort order for me, it just seems really buggy when trying to set the sort order. It’s a little extra work but I’ve just been changing the sort order in the plugin json configuration file and it works well. I’m happy with it and it’s definitely worth the trouble until there’s a better solution, if ever.
3 Likes
InkDrop implements Pin Note to the top feature. I think this is very usefull. Please consider to implement it.
1 Like
I also would like this, it is the one thing that prevents me from switching over to Obsidian.
2 Likes
I installed the plugin and enabled it following GitHub - nothingislost/obsidian-bartender: Allows for rearranging the elements in the status bar and sidebar ribbon.
But I don’t see the Custom appears in the menu. So nothing happen when I try drag/drop.
Do you know what happen?
Thanks
1 Like
Update: I have see the Custom choice in the menu after restart and i clicked over it. But nothing happen when I drag drop the item. Overall the app is good. But only this feature is missing. I don’t know if the core team planning to implementing this feature or not.
I assume you have restarted after switching the custom sort on.
The drag drop does work, but not always; it’s a bit glitchy. But once it is sorted, it seems to stay sorted.
A higher friction way of managing the manual sort order is to edit the .json, as suggested above.
I just take a little care and time.
I see this is already open for 2 years. I would also very much appreciate custom sorting for folders and files (also custom sorting per folder). Does it help if I post a ‘+1’ message here? Can we see who is working on this / willing to work on this feature request? Can we donate money to this feature request to make it happen? How does this work? (:
6 Likes
I support! Please add subpages too, the lost potential is upsetting!
Obsidian’s organizing power initially feels subpar compared to OneNote. Its main competitive advantage is arguably just the graph view and the bidirectional linking – at least to newbs like me.
1 Like
I too an a newbie to Obsidian and would love to have this feature introduced to this otherwise really customizable notetaking app!
1 Like