[SoloHead]

Can't seem to find any help via Google. I always tagged my music 01, 02, etc. but ALAC files use MP4 tag and seem to only allow track 1, 2, etc. Why is this and do I really need 01?
 
But in finder or explorer, file sorting gets messed up so I always started the filename "01". 
 
What do you guys do?

 

[m2man]

Well that just means that MP4, which uses XMP for metadata, is specifying that the "track #" piece of metadata is a number (and not just text).
FLAC, MP3, are using ASCII (text) for everything, so you can enter One, 1, 01, 1 of 13, etc.

Finder/Explorer are converting that metadata field (both MP4, FLAC) to text, then sorting (which is the wrong thing to do, as you have figured out).

 

[bigshot]

ITunes is smart enough to figure out that 1 comes first. I don't know why all things aren't like that. It's dumb.