# Adding new group changes the group order back to alphabetical order

**URL:** <https://discourse.jabref.org/t/adding-new-group-changes-the-group-order-back-to-alphabetical-order/3855>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** groups\
**Created:** [June 16, 2023, 9:07am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/adding-new-group-changes-the-group-order-back-to-alphabetical-order/3855 "2023-06-16T09:07:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![evkamat](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/evkamat/32/1617_2.png) [@evkamat](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/evkamat)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:07am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/adding-new-group-changes-the-group-order-back-to-alphabetical-order/3855/1 "2023-06-16T09:07:09Z")

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Hello all!  
I’m new to Jabref and therefore maybe there’s some obvious solution to my “problem” which I haven’t found yet but I tried and found nothing. I’m shifting my library to Jabref (I choose it as Mendeley desktop replacement and I’m only sad I haven’t done it way earlier) and to not transfer the former mess I had in my library I’m doing it manually, almost article by article or rather folder by folder and therefore I’m creating new groups as I go. It’s great that I can make my own order of the groups and don’t have to have them be sorted only alphabetically but whenever I add one more group, the order of the groups changes back to the alphabetical one.  
So I’d like to ask - is there any way how to preserve the group order? Is there some different way of saving it (which maybe have I missed), change the settings or is it normal thing?

I use:  
JabRef 5.9–2023-01-08–76253f1a7  
Linux 6.1.0-9-amd64 amd64  
Java 19.0.1  
JavaFX 19+11

(and side note: Sometimes when importing the articles and I impatiently click somewhere else some errors occur to me but so far I was not able to reproduce it consistently)

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 9:15am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/adding-new-group-changes-the-group-order-back-to-alphabetical-order/3855/2 "2023-06-18T09:15:33Z")

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Hi,

thanks for your feedback. Can you still reproduce these issues with the latest development version?

> **[index - powered by h5ai v0.29.0 (https://larsjung.de/h5ai/)](https://builds.jabref.org/main/)**
>
> index - powered by h5ai v0.29.0 (https://larsjung.de/h5ai/)

We recommend creating a backup of your library before.

Edit: I think I could reproduce this. I will create an issue at github

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 10:08am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/adding-new-group-changes-the-group-order-back-to-alphabetical-order/3855/3 "2023-06-18T10:08:37Z")

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I’ve created an issue here [Group order reset after adding a new group · Issue #10017 · JabRef/jabref · GitHub](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/10017)

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**Author:** ![evkamat](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/evkamat/32/1617_2.png) [@evkamat](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/evkamat)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 9:36am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/adding-new-group-changes-the-group-order-back-to-alphabetical-order/3855/4 "2023-06-21T09:36:46Z")

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Thank you! I haven’t tried it yet but I suppose if it’s the same case for you I don’t have to?