Hi @everettbloom,
Thanks for posting in the Spotify Community!
What you describe is the intended behavior of the Spotify app; songs can only be moved within a playlist in the “custom order” setting (mobile), or with no “sort” options selected (desktop). You can read about sorting playlists in this Spotify Support article.
One way that you can more quickly organize the tracks in your playlist on the desktop app the way that you describe is by adding them to a new playlist and then re-adding them to your original playlist. However, note that the original “Date Added” will not be preserved in your original playlist using this method.
If you are okay with a new “Date Added” for all of the songs in your playlist, then you can do this on your computer by selecting the “most recently added” sort option in your playlist, such that the songs appear in order of most recently to least recently added. Then, you can select all the tracks by clicking “Edit” -> “Select All,” and then right-clicking on any of the highlighted tracks before selecting “Add to Playlist” -> “New Playlist.” The tracks from your original playlist will then appear in a new playlist, except that in the new playlist, they are organized in the default sort option by those that were most recently added to your original playlist. This means that in this new playlist, you can then more easily move tracks around to where you want them to be. After you’re finished moving tracks to where you’d like them to be, you can go back to your original playlist, then select all tracks there, right-click on them, and select “Remove from this Playlist.” Then, you can select all the tracks in the new playlist that are ordered in your preferred way and drag them into your original playlist. The new order will be preserved in your original playlist; however, the “Date Added” will be the date on which you added them back to the playlist. Note that for each new track that you add hereafter, you will have to drag it to near the top of the playlist if you’d like newly added tracks to be there in the default sort setting; or you can repeat this process for future tracks that you add to your playlist.
I hope this helps, and let us know if you have any other questions.
Have a good day!
AdamDamonSpotify Star
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