Mystery over categories list.

[happysnapper]

This is a bit of an odd one.
Under @all I have category MUSICIAN under which appears a long list of child categories from Anthony to Wally  but then the list starts again Alan  to Tommy 
MUSICIAN
     Anthony X
     Wally
     Alan
     Tommy
Obviously I'd like to sort this alphabetically Anthony to Wally but no matter what I try I've been unable to do this.
Here's a couple of possible clues to my problem.
1. At some stage I got into a bit of a pickle and ended up with duplicates of many of the names so had to delete the dupes.
2. If when looking for a specific name I type in the first couple of letters only a name is the lower list is highlighted never one in the top section.

Any ideas for a solution much appreciated.

[Mario]

IMatch sorts categories alphabetically by default.
1. Check that there are no blanks (spaces) in front of the category names. This has bamboozled quite a few users over the years.
2. Check the sort mode you have configured (Gear button above the Categories tree in the Category View): Configuring Categories
In manual mode, you can drag and drop categories to arrange them in any order (normal categories only, no data-driven categories).

[happysnapper]

Thanks Mario I had already checked for extra spaces etc. and tried all the sort options.
I've now sorted my problem by opening the new categories frame ctrl shift ins and manually typing all the names in again. This put them where they are wanted then drag and dropped images from the dodgy folder to the new correct one before deleting the originals. Problem solved.
Would have been interesting to know why it happened though, but happy days.

[sinus]

I had such a behaviour, if I do remember correctly, because I did move some categories "per hand", manually and years later tried to sort this category - list.
Then these manually moved categories did not sort correctly.

[Mario]

You can only manually reorder categories when you switch the sort mode to "custom".
When you later switch back to any of the other sort modes, the custom sort order is no longer applied.
When you switch back to custom sort order, your manual sort order is applied again.