diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/components/instance-views/ComparisonView.svelte b/frontend/src/lib/components/instance-views/ComparisonView.svelte
index 7e60a767..68b2cdcc 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/components/instance-views/ComparisonView.svelte
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/components/instance-views/ComparisonView.svelte
@@ -85,29 +85,29 @@
 		}
 	});
 
-	// trigger this function when clicking column header to sort
 	function updateSort(model: string | undefined) {
 		if (model === undefined) return;
 
-		// when clicking different model columns, reset compareSort
 		sortModel = model;
 
-		// deep copy to not mutate object
-		let compareColumnObj = JSON.parse(
-			JSON.stringify(
-				$columns.filter(
-					(col) => col.name == $comparisonColumn?.name && col.model == $comparisonModel
-				)[0]
-			)
+		let sortColumnObjects = $columns.filter(
+			(col) => col.name == $comparisonColumn?.name && col.model == model
 		);
 
+		// if no column found for model, model is "", find col for any model.
+		if (sortColumnObjects.length === 0) {
+			sortColumnObjects = $columns.filter((col) => col.name == $comparisonColumn?.name);
+		}
+
+		// deep copy to not mutate object
+		let compareColumnObj = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(sortColumnObjects[0]));
+		// set ID to blank, telling backend to sort by difference.
 		if (sortModel === '') {
 			compareColumnObj.id = '';
 		}
 
 		let compareSortString = JSON.stringify($compareSort[0]);
 		let newHeaderString = JSON.stringify(compareColumnObj);
-
 		if (compareSortString !== newHeaderString) {
 			compareSort.set([compareColumnObj, true]);
 		} else if (compareSortString === newHeaderString && $compareSort[1]) {