Change image order without dragging

Sorting by file name is essentially the same as sorting by time, so you can change the time stamp on the ones that you want to move to a different position. This is what I usually do because sometimes I have images from 2 different cameras taken in the same day, so sorting by file name wouldn't work.

"periodically find images that need to be moved from near the beginning to near the end and vice versa."

There is a procedure that, when mastered 🙂 , makes it easy to do this!

CUSTOM SORT IN GRID VIEW-  MOVING ‘DISTANT’

On my Windows system (and I expect Mac to be the same) there is a method to move one, or more, selected file/s to a new location in a large Grid view on photos.

1) Select (highlight) the photo/s you wish to ‘move’ into a ‘distant’ Custom Sort grid location,

2) Scroll  your ‘View’ of the Grid to the place you want to move them to. (No dragging of photos!)

3) [Ctrl/Cmd + Click] on one single image adjacent to the target insertion point (release the Ctrl/Cmd key when done)

4) Move the cursor to the centre of the single selected image,

5) Hold down the left mouse button and drag to the insertion point when you will see a darker line between thumbnails, then release the mouse button.

EDIT: Custom Sort (without changing filenames) only works in Collections and Folders that do NOT have sub-folders.

Dragging is the only way to change the custom order of images in folders and collections using built-in LR features.