Unable to edit, sort, or change status of Collections

This may be a minor issue to most users but for me it's fairly important. I make extensive use of the Collections feature in my daily operations to track which books are currently present. I need to be able to sort and change their status.
I'm running on Windows Dell laptops, one is on 7, one is 10; using Chrome. Cannot "grip" a Collection to move it in the list, and any changes are simply not saved. I can, mercifully, create new Collections, but that is the ONLY thing Edit Collections will allow (aside from Delete). The problem has been mentioned in a couple of conversations but I don't see that it's been treated as a Bug.
Please, please, someone help.

Where are you trying to do this? Work page, Your Books, ...

I'm assuming this is after you've clicked the "Reorder" button, correct?
And can I also assume that you are using a touch device for this (some Dell laptops are touch devices, which is why I ask).

>1 BookHavenAZ: It was mentioned in the New Works Page thread here, https://www.librarything.com/topic/368058#8761904 (msgs 192 & 193, in case the link doesn’t land in the right place), and in the FAQ groups here, https://www.librarything.com/topic/350906#8761900, but I think it needs its own bug thread. I also can’t use the Collection manager to reorder collections.

I should add that as a work-around, you can use https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections, as mentioned in that FAQ thread.

>4 Charon07: Are you using a touch device or a mouse?

>6 conceptDawg: Touchscreen on an 5th generation iPad, iPad OS 16.7.10, using DuckDuckGo browser.

Thanks. I've just pushed a minor tweak to the drag/drop support. On my phone it's now working "mostly" correctly. You'll notice that once in "reorder" mode that you can no longer scroll the list if your collection list is too big for the screen. You can still drag items to the end of the list and it will scroll as you get close to the edge. But it won't let you scroll down to that point IN the list. That's the one issue I'm trying to deal with now.

>8 conceptDawg: Wait . . . should there be a Reorder button? I don’t see a Reorder button, and no way to scroll the popup if it’s at the bottom. I thought we used to just grab the line in question and drag, but maybe the problem is missing button?

Ed to add: Cleared cache, logged in & out, still not working.

>3 conceptDawg: I'm assuming this is after you've clicked the "Reorder" button, correct?
I don't know what button that is.
I'm on a laptop, and I don't have a touch screen. (Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier, been busy in here today). I go to Edit Collections, then it has a click and drag feature for reordering them.
If there's another way I'd love to see it, because it's a pain in the butt. However, a pain in the butt that I need to work - or at least for something to work.

>5 Charon07: I should add that as a work-around, you can use https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections, as mentioned in that FAQ thread.
I just tried that and it's wholly unresponsive. I tried to open a collection to see its status and it just spins at me. And there's no option to reorder collections.

>8 conceptDawg: Thanks. I've just pushed a minor tweak to the drag/drop support. On my phone it's now working "mostly" correctly.
No joy for me here on the Dell Windows 10 laptop running Chrome. Can't grab to click and drag, can't change status. Just tried now at 1745 hrs Mountain Standard Time (Arizona) 18Feb.

Oh... I was able to move a couple of collections on the Collections Manager... needed to "grip" the box on the left (which I don't actually think was there last time, it was a triangle). I'm getting the vastly amusing "you should write a book" messages now.

>2 MarthaJeanne: "Edit Collections" from both "Add books" and "Your books"

>8 conceptDawg: @conceptDawg Okay, I was able to reorder at this link: https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections after a second try. The first try didn't give me the right icons to "grasp" for click and drag.
I was able to CHANGE THE STATUS of collections I needed to be inactive !!!! Thank you SO MUCH!!! "Edit Collections" is still dead in the water, but I think I like this spot better.
I didn't realize clicking on the title of the collection opened it up to changing the status and did that wholly by accident. Maybe a hint like a different color or an underline?
I never would have guessed this functionality was tucked away here. And I've been using this program for an embarrassingly long time.

>15 BookHavenAZ: Right. Good, I'm glad that worked for you. But it shouldn't be that hard.
That page is stuck in a kind of mid-change state. But I'll work on that today to try and get it updated, as well as the popup manager.

>16 conceptDawg: Thank you! I'm just so glad I found something that worked; this has been driving me nuts!

Bumping this as I have another member reporting this issue with Edit Collections, on the Your books page. I verified this in the member's account, and in my own.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Go to the Your books page: https://www.librarything.com/catalog/MEMBERNAME

2. Click on the Collections dropdown menu and select Edit collections

3. In the Collections popup, attempt to change the status of any collection, from active to inactive or inactive to active.

4. Hit Save

5. Nothing happens, and no change is made

Note: changes can be made in Settings, as mentioned above: https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections

I'll take a look at this and get a fix out ASAP.

I was having, in part, the same problem. After creating a new collection, I could not drag it to where I wanted it to land on my list. It would highlight down the column instead of "grabbing" the Collection. I'm on a Windows 11 Lenovo laptop. However, the workaround suggested by Charon07 in post #5 solved the problem. For me. As of now, others are still instructed to use a means that does not work.

Thanks for your attention.

Thanks. I thought I had solved it, but clearly not for all browsers. I'll take a look again.

Another instance of this reported at https://www.librarything.com/topic/369123

Bump, another member has come across this: https://www.librarything.com/topic/369385

>23 kristilabrie: Some observations, in case they're of any help.

I ran into trouble re-ordering Collections late last night, and have just re-tried various permutations again so that I could document it. I'm using a MacBook Pro (Apple M4 chip, macOS 15.3.2) and accessing LibraryThing via Firefox (136.0.2). I have used both the trackpad (where a plain click is a "left click", and Control-click is a "right click") and a LogiTech M585 mouse, which has left and right buttons.

I have only 4 books right now, while I test how LibraryThing works and think about how I want to make use of its abilities. (It's only been 25 hours since I discovered LibraryThing existed, 20 hours since I joined.) I set up 7 different Collections beyond the default ones, then realized I want to re-order them.

I accessed the Collections Manager lightbox window (hereafter just "lightbox")
(1) from the 'Collections' drop-down menu on the left-hand side of the 'Your Books' toolbar;
(2) from the right hand column of an entry in the List View of 'Your Books'; and
(3) from the edit icon in the 'Collections' entry in one book's 'Your Book Information" box.
I had 2 browser windows open, one with the listing of 'Your Books' (used to test (1) & (2)) and one with a specific book (to test (3)).

(1) and (2) yield what seem to be identical lightboxes. Hovering my pointer over it caused the pointer to become a 4-way up/down/left/right cursor, except over the tiny '▶︎' left of the names the pointer became a hand with thumb out to the left and index finger pointing up. Left clicking using either the trackpad or the mouse did not "grab" the Collection name and allow it to be moved.

(3) yields a larger lightbox with '>' to the left of each entry instead of a '▶︎'. There is a small "Reorder" button below the top row/box containing "Add Collection" "Cancel" and "Save" buttons. I clicked the "Reorder" button and the '>' changed to 2 '...'s stacked on top of each other. (In other words, the lightbox now looks just like what I see at https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections.) I was able to use a left-click from either the trackpad or the mouse to move collection names in the lightbox. (Hooray!) Generally, each move also expanded (opened) the entry when I let go of the click (the grab), which would be really annoying if I was shuffling 70 names instead of 7. Where along the horizontal entry I grabbed did not seem to matter. The exception to this was that sometimes while I was using the trackpad the entry did NOT open when I let go of it, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what is different about where I've grabbed the row or how I let go of it, and I've not yet replicated the not-opening-upon-release with the mouse.

The changes I made using the Collections Manager (3) did not show up in the Collections Manager accessed via (2) until I'd reloaded the whole page; closing and opening a Collections Manager without reloading the whole page showed the original order.

Another instance of this reported at https://www.librarything.com/topic/369506 (copying from the thread):

Hi, I'm trying to rename a collection in the web version. It doesn't seem to work.

I click on 'edit collections' then open a collection and change the name then click 'save'. Nothing happens.

I see the following error in Console every time I click save:

dragdrop.js:744 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'only')
at Object.findElements (dragdrop.js:744:24)
at Object.sequence (dragdrop.js:903:19)
at Object.saveOrder (collections.js?v=5451:399:24)
at HTMLButtonElement.onclick (catalog_bottom.php:1:26)
findElements @ dragdrop.js:744
sequence @ dragdrop.js:903
saveOrder @ collections.js?v=5451:399
onclick @ catalog_bottom.php:1

Similar problems here. I've been reordering my Collections list today, and added one (which duplicated itself somehow). I do OK for a while, and then it stops accepting my direction. I successfully rearranged several Collections on the list, but then, much like >20 JohnWCuluris: above, when I try to grab and move one, it either highlights it or drops it back where it started. I thought I might be asking too much all at once, so I let it rest a while. Closed the manager, and came back to it, but it was still unresponsive. I'm on a PC, running Windows 11 Home edition, and Firefox.

I had success yesterday (Mar 25) editing and re-ordering Collections using the Collection Manager available at Settings>Collections. I also had ... waaaaay too much success? ... adding additional Collections. >26 laytonwoman3rd: you are not alone!

I'm using a MacBook Pro (Apple M4 chip, macOS 15.3.2) and accessing LibraryThing via Firefox (136.0.2), often with multiple tabs open to different LibraryThing pages. I'm going to ignore the 6 default Collections in everything I write.

After successfully adding 2 new Collections, renaming my other 7 Collections, and moving them around a bit, I felt optimistic and ambitious. I decided to add a lot of new Collections while I was staring at my bookshelves. I added 16, 4 of which I changed the names of after I'd saved them the first time, and did some re-ordering during the process. I believe that every time I named a new Collection or renamed one I'd just made I hit the "Save" button. I know that since I was on a roll and was changing my mind about the names a bit as I went along, I often left the drop-down (editable info) for a Collection showing after I'd saved it. Sometimes when I was really inspired I had 4 or 5 "open" like that. After I'd finished adding/renaming, I re-ordered them to my liking and was happy with what I saw. I had a total of 25 personal Collections.

Then I went to a different Firefox tab & added 1 more book to my library. When I went to add it to Collections beyond "Your library", I was confronted with a huge scrollable batch of buttons full of Collection names in a seemingly random order! I went back to the Firefox tab with my Settings>Collection page, used my mouse to copy the suddenly huge list, and popped it into a spreadsheet for analysis. The number of personal Collections was 202! All 25 of my desired personal Collections were there, as were 3 Collections that I'd created, saved, and then renamed, plus 1 called "Untitled collection". All of the desired Collections created after I'd settled those first 9 were duplicated (from 2 to 20 times), as was one of the over-written (renamed) Collections (10 times).

If I did something wrong, I'd love to know what and I think there should be a warning notice to prevent others from doing it.

If I didn't do anything wrong, well ... let me know if there's something I can do to help debug. I've only got 5 books in my library because I want to decide on my system and learn LibraryThing's systems before I put too much time into data entry. Errors at this point are quite recoverable.

>27 LeslieWx: I wondered if there is just a limit to how much re-organization the site can handle at a time, and I maxed it out. I just tried to finish what I started yesterday, and it is not functioning at all.

>28 laytonwoman3rd: No idea. I only discovered this site Sunday!
I am sorry to hear it's not working at all for you.

>24 LeslieWx: The Library Thing has just made some major changes to the Work pages with some cascading effects.
I've been using this platform for at about fifteen years (I'm what's called a "power user" because I have a truly insane number of books in the system). Please do not judge the Thing by these blips. It's a wonderful system, extremely reliable with a tremendous amount of functionality. Try scanning in books or using IBSNs to cut down on the misery of data entry, that way you can get a better idea of what's under the hood here without investing too much time on the keyboard.
I own a bookstore. I think I have 70000 or so active entries in the store's account. I do not feel "powerful" because this system can do so much more than I have a grasp of and I'm finding new stuff all the time. :)

>30 BookHavenAZ: Thank you for the perspective! I had no idea I'd entered this realm shortly after major changes -- that's good to know. And it immediately looked like a wonderful system to me! (How have I missed knowing about it for so long?)
I'm absolutely *not* judging LibraryThing by these blips, though! I've spent decades of writing computer code, and developing physical and electronic filing (and note-taking) systems for professional and personal reasons ... I've just learned some things about how I work (best and worst) and how technology works (best and worst) and am taking it slow :). For instance, it's no surprise to me that after less than 48h I in one way or another almost completely re-did the measly 9 categories I'd created.

>27 LeslieWx: I just came across your bug, I think! Here's what I'm finding:

1. I was editing/adding Collections from my Collections Settings at https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections.
2. For newly created collections and every edited version thereafter: they seem to be getting stuck in the "Your books" Collections drop-down as separate entries.

Example: I added the "Test New & Collection" to my library, then edited to "Test New and Collection". Both versions are saved as separate entries in my drop-down. NB: They didn't go away after I deleted the Collection/s; I had to click "Save" on the Settings page after deleting them for them to really go away. (That's misleading UI, IMHO.)

NB: I didn't add any books to the Collection, I'm not sure if that makes any difference.

3. For existing collections, changes I made to them from the Settings page didn't add a new version to my Collections dropdown.

Note to developers: It does seem to be treating the changes to the existing collection as a new Collection. Testing on the @LT_trans_fr account, I had created the "Atomic: Include Recs & Active" Collection before realizing I wanted to replace the ampersand to: "Atomic: Include Recs and Active". After seeing the two Collections in my drop-down, I went ahead and added the same book to "both" Collections, then went to my Charts & Graphs > Collections page. The links to the Collections were: https://www.librarything.com/catalog/LT_trans_fr?collection=947643&filter=co... for the original name (with ampersand) and https://www.staging-lt.net/catalog/LT_trans_fr?collection=947647&filter=coll... for the edited name (with "and" instead of "&"). The links are identical except for the ?collection=ID portion, where the latter is 947647 instead of 947643.

Are y'all still working on this? I've tried periodically, in both Firefox and Edge, to re-order my Collections, and I just don't get anywhere. Sometimes I can slide a collection up or down the list, but then it bounces right back to its original location---lately, I can't select one to move it at all.

>33 laytonwoman3rd: Are you using the Editor/Collection Manager that is attached to your catalog or are you using this one: https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections

The one in the catalog had been wonky at best and barely functional even when it work for me for ages. The one under Settings works much much better.

>34 AnnieMod: Thank you! I believe I did try using the Settings once, and wasn't successful. But today I was able to complete what I wanted to do with re-ordering there. I didn't realize they worked independently. Maybe the wonky Collection Manager should be discarded, or re-direct to the settings page.

>35 laytonwoman3rd: I suspect it will get converted when the catalog gets its new clothes - LT is rebuilding its UIs one at a time :)

>3 conceptDawg: Where is this "reorder" button? Like some other users on this thread, I don't see it.

I used to be able to reorder collections just by going into the edit mode and then doing a click-and-drag, although it didn't always work very well. Now it isn't working at all (just giving me selection of text). And the same mess happens when I go to https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections.

ETA: Wait! I think I got that settings thing working. I don't see any "reorder" button, BUT... There's that funny little six-dot icon just to the left of the collection name. Click on that icon and the icon goes from a horizontal to a vertical alignment, which then lets me drag. I'm going to play with this. It may be my solution.

>37 CurrerBell: I think there used to be a "Reorder collections" option in our old Collections Manager, but it's just a drag-and-drop now.

The 6 dots you see are to expand/collapse a given Collection's details, but the entire header of the Collection should be drag-and-droppable for reordering. I hope this helps!

Thank you to those that mentioned the ability to reorder Collections in Settings. I've been trying to move mine around for over a month and assumed it had something to do with my privacy add-ons in Firefox, but then I had the same problem in Edge.

Adding to this thread, I posted about not being able to add a collection a few weeks ago in the wrong group: https://www.librarything.com/topic/370253

Today I've tried adding a collection in three different browsers (Chrome, Edge, and Firefox), with no success, and trying from the settings page and not within the Library itself. When I go to this page (https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections) and hit add collection, it expands the top collection in the list to show which settings are checked, rather than providing any pop up box or interface to add a collection. This is the 3rd or 4th time I've tried to add a collection in the last few weeks, with no luck. Any ideas on what might be happening?

Edit: Should also note that I am running all of these on Windows 11.

Second Edit: When I hit the add collection button after it expands the collection to show the selectable options, if I hit it again, it collapses that collection. I tried reordering the collections to see if that had an impact, but it just expanded and collapsed the collection at the top of the list both times.

Fixing this is on my short list for this week. Fingers crossed.

I've updated the core library used for sorting items via drag and drop. On my phone it is better now, but let me know if it is still being a pain on other mobile devices.

I've also added an alternate selection style for the collections picker popup on work/book pages. You can toggle it via the two buttons on the right side of the picker view. It remembers your setting between uses.

>43 conceptDawg: Thanks for working on this! Unfortunately, I'm here to report a new (related) problem.

I'm using Firefox (v139.0.4) on a MacOS Sequoia 15.5 machine. I joined LT in late March just as this bug got bumped, so I quickly settled on using the page reached via Home > Settings > Collections (https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections) for doing my work with Collections. I did see your posts here & on the related thread earlier today, but decided to keep doing what I knew when I started adding some books that would require new collections.

Here's a summary of my experience using https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections today (not in order of attempts):
• When I "+ Add Collection", type the name of a new collection, & "Save Changes", nothing happens except a fine dotted line outlines the "Save Changes" button. If I go to another page and come back to https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections, the new collection isn't there.
• The same is true when I "+ Add Collection", type the name of a new collection, "Reorder" and drag the new collection somewhere, & "Save Changes".

If there's something you want me to try, let me know!

Edit: I just tried the pop-up menu version, clicking the "Set Collections" icon on the right-hand side of the "Your Books" view. I scrolled down to the bottom of that pop-up; chose "Edit Collections"; added a collection; hit "Reorder" (which didn't make any visual difference, which could be OK); dragged the new collection to where I wanted it (which was a little ugly, with the "hole" opening up well below where the dragged collection was); then went up and hit "save" (I think, didn't take notes). I had trouble getting rid of the pop-up, had to click around a lot, but then when I went to my settings and looked the new collection was there and was in the right place.

Found a bug there and the save button wasn't firing in some cases. That is fixed now, so give it another try.

>45 conceptDawg: Just went to https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections , added another Collection, hit "Reorder" & dragged it, then hit Save and got to enjoy all the little messages while the gerbils scurried around working my will :)

Thanks!

Edit1: Uh-oh, NewBug1: I actually have 2 of that new collection, both in the right spot. Will test a little more.

Edit2: All work done on same computer/software as before, and at https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections .

Went to settings/collections, renamed the self-duplicated new collection to two different names, Saved. (I'd decided on a better name for the one I originally made.) Traveled to a couple of my other pages, looked around, came back to settings/collections; all is good, with 2 distinct new collections.

Then decided to run with my better naming scheme. Four times I added a new collection & named it. After that I hit "Reorder" and dragged each of the 4 to where I wanted it, then hit "Save". All looked good on the page. Wandered around to a few other LT pages, including my Profile. NewBug2: Noticed that none of the new collections discussed in this missive showed up in the Collections list on my Profile page -- not even if I reloaded the page.

Went to one of my books, pretended I wanted to edit the collections it was part of. The renamed duplicates (now with new & different names) were there, 1 of each, just like they should be. NewBug1, again: And there were 2 copies of each of the 4 new collections, albeit all in the right place. Went to settings/collections, same thing.

===
In case you have the ability to track the details of these moves on your end, or for some other reason want the detail:

At the top of this essay, the one Collection I added & reordered as a test, that ended up doubled, was called "Breads". When I found it in duplicate, I renamed the pair to "Cooking - Baking" and "Cooking - Breads".

Later, the 4 additional Collections I added that have self-duplicated are "Cooking - Cheese (etc)", "Cooking - Equipment", "Cooking - Fruits (etc)", "Cooking - General". ((etc) is a placeholder for a lot more words.)

Edit: Note that all the above references to "Cooking" should be "Cookbooks", and that I shouldn't be writing bug reports that late at night.

>46 LeslieWx: Just noting that I don't see the Collection names starting with "Cooking" but with "Cookbooks". I do see the duplicates as you mentioned. I'll take a look.

Still an issue for @Charon07 as of 11:50pm yesterday: "I now see a Reorder button, which is highlighted when I click it, but as soon as I touch any of the collections (whether on the bar, the name, or the expand arrow) to try to drag them, the Reorder button is deselected and nothing happens. 5th generation iPad, iPad OS 16.7.10, using Safari, DuckDuckGo, Firefox, or Opera browser."

I am also getting duplicate Collections when adding a new one.

Steps to reproduce, on my Mac / Chrome:
1. Go to https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections and select "Add Collection"
2. Enter any name in the new "Collection Name" and then hit the "Save Changes" button. There appears to be the single new Collection.
3. Reload the /settings/collections page.

Bug: There are now two of the single new Collection you just added.

NB: I'm seeing two instances of the ajax_collections SaveOrder.php when hitting the "Save Changes" button. Maybe that's it?

(Also, deleting one of the duplicate Collections does not delete the other.)

I'm unfortunately unable to reproduce @Charon07's issues, but I don't have access to a 5th generation iPad simulator. (I tested on 6th generation, iOS 17.)

>46 LeslieWx: & >49 kristilabrie: I did fix that double-save issue. Darned chained events causing problems. But fixed.

>47 kristilabrie: Arghhh! Typing too late at night, sorry.

>51 conceptDawg: Thanks! I can imagine it gets pretty gnarly under the hood.

>18 AbigailAdams26: Edit a collection name doesn't work on the drop down list on member catalog site. It wouldn't save the changes.

You have to go to your member page and click on "settings". Under the headline "Your books" click on "collections".

I'm no longer able to sort my collections.

I also had to take a few detours to get the result because of a typo in one of the collections.
1. Correct the error
2. Save the correction (no effect)
3. Exit the collections without success.
2. Unsuccessful attempt at steps 1-3.
4. Create a new collection with the correct entry (without exiting edit mode first).
5. Save
6. The new collection was then created and the typo corrected.
7. Deleting the newly created collection was also successful.

iMac, Intel Core i7 (Late 2015)
MacOS 12.7.6
Firefox 140.0.2

>54 lg4106: Are you trying to do this from the Collections subpage within you profile or from some another page that has the collections popup?

>48 kristilabrie: Same problem. PC, Chrome.

>56 Her_Royal_Orangeness: Where are you trying to edit from? AFAIK, the Collections editor in the drop-down menu on "Your books" still needs fixing. (I'm seeing the reorder issues there.) Your Collections Settings should work, instead: https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections

>56 Her_Royal_Orangeness: is your PC using a mouse or a touch interface?

>57 kristilabrie: Thanks! I was able to reorder using Settings.

>58 conceptDawg: I have a laptop with a touchpad.

I'm also experiencing this issue. I can provide screenshots, on PC. Primarily Firefox.

Will try via Settings...and that works just fine.

The issue is still not resolved. Tried on Safari and Chrome on macOS.

Experincing the same on Win10 Chrome

>62 dkav: >63 davidgn: That would be because they are still working on it. And because they built you a work around
https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections

until the Your Book section is redone for LT 2.0

>Thank you so much! I don't know how I kept missing this.

Had this problem for most of the time I've used LibraryThing, and it's happened on Firefox/Waterfox across multiple installs of Linux on my desktop x86 computer. Sometimes it just works at random but it's only a fraction of the time, I find. I did use the /settings/collections workaround but I figured it worth reporting that I'm another person experiencing this, and very consistently

Just add

"https://www.librarything.com/settings/collections"

as a bookmark for LT collections maintenance in your browser bookmark bar.
You will never find/remember it otherwise. :-)

Bump. This continues to be reported as a problem: https://www.librarything.com/topic/384198.

Thanks. I'll try and elevate this on the list.