# How do I sort files by type and date on Android? — Adinand Auto File Sorter

Last reviewed: September 21, 2026. HTML version: https://adinandsorter.com/answers/sort-files-by-type-and-date

**Sorting by *type* is a filing decision; sorting by *date* is a viewing decision — and confusing them is why file managers feel so unsatisfying.** Type says where a file should live on disk. Date says what you want at the top of the list right now. Both are useful; they are simply not the same operation, and only one of them moves anything.

## Date: a view, not a move <p>Every Android file manager can order a folder by date modified — Files by Google, Samsung's My Files, and the Files app on other makers all carry a sort control, usually behind a three-dot menu or a small arrow above the list. That ordering is temporary and that is the point: you want the newest download for ten seconds, not a folder structure built around November 2024.</p> <p>What is worth thinking twice about is **filing into dated folders** — a `2026-09` folder, then `2026-10`, forever. On a phone that scatters related files across a dozen month-folders and breaks the "all my PDFs" question you actually ask. Ordering a list by date costs nothing and is reversible; building a folder tree out of dates is a structure you have to live with.</p>

## Type: the one worth automating <p>Type is stable. A PDF is a PDF whenever it arrived, so a folder built on type stays meaningful for years, and it answers the question people actually ask a phone: where are my documents, where is that video. It also makes storage legible — a single Videos folder tells you in one glance what a category breakdown in Settings only tells you as a number.</p>

## Where Adinand Auto File Sorter fits — and the limit, stated plainly <p>It **files by type**: it watches a folder — Downloads by default — and moves what lands there into `Downloads › Sorted Files`, in sub-folders named for the category: Documents, Images, Videos, Apps, Audio, Archives, Others. **What it does not do is file by date** — there is no rule that puts a file into a folder for the month it arrived. Its own file lists are shown newest-first, which is the viewing use of date described above.</p> <p>Three more limits worth knowing before you rely on it:</p> <ul> <li>**Categorisation is by file extension only.** A `.pdf` is a Document because of its extension, not because anything read it. A file with no extension at all is never sorted.</li> <li>**The scan is not recursive.** Only files sitting directly in a watched folder are moved — never the contents of folders inside it.</li> <li>**It never overwrites and never deletes.** A name collision becomes `name (1).ext`; if a same-named file is byte-for-byte identical it is treated as already moved.</li> </ul> <p>If what you want is a keyword rather than a type — everything with "invoice" in the name into its own folder — that is what its custom rules do: extension list, or "name contains", or both.</p>

Related: [How to move files on Android](https://adinandsorter.com/answers/how-to-move-files-on-android) · [How to see all files on Android](https://adinandsorter.com/answers/see-all-files-on-android) · [Where do downloaded files go?](https://adinandsorter.com/answers/where-do-downloads-go-on-android) · [Finding duplicate files](https://adinandsorter.com/answers/find-duplicate-files-on-android)