Organization of file folders

How are file folders organized? They don't seem to be in alphabetical or chronological order, just random. With the new look of "All My Files," I am surprised this problem wasn't resolved. If there is some method to the madness, could someone tell me what it is? Thanks.

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Chris_Hofer

Hi @jbielecki ...

Is it possible that you just have your "Name" column on the "Files" page not sorted correctly? For example, maybe you are sorting by the "Created" or "Last Modified" column instead of the "Name" column. If you click on the arrow (triangle) just to the right of the word "Name", you can sort ascending or descending so that the folder names are in alphabetical order the way you want. The same applied for when you click on "All My Files". You should be able to click on the arrow/triangle next to the word "Name", and it will sort the column for you. I hope this helps. Sing out if you have any other questions about this...thanks!

dbrace

Hi @jbielecki,

If you have not already, I would recommend that you take a look at the several "Files" guides that are available at https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Basics-Guide/tkb-p/basics#Files.

Similar to what @Chris_Hofer said, it seems that you might have clicked on one of the column headers and unintentionally sorted it in a way that you did not expect.

Let us know if you need anything else. If you do, please consider showing us a screenshot of what you are seeing.

-Doug

jbielecki

I'm still baffled. Here's a shot of my files page in the new look:

Screenshot 2025-08-10 112600.png

This is different from the previous (Old Files) setup, which was completely random and had no sorting option for the base-level folders, just the files within folders. Those could be sorted as follows:

With the New Files setup, I can sort the main page by name, but that's all. Why not by date? Also, what is the default? It's not alphabetical or in the order that I've last used them. I'm just disappointed that this layout was changed but seems to be no better.

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