change ID number of catalog products to change sort order

I understand that the sort order of the catalog products is determined by the date of when they were created. 

In previous versions the sort order could be changed.

I need to be able to change the sort order so I can list the catalog products by category (with the templates showing in the order I wish them to be in, not just in order created).

With increasing numbers of catalog products at the moment I need to manually add the catalog products in every Woocommerce product. This takes way too long.

I've even tried to change the catalog number in the database but can't do that.

Please, can we find a solution?

I tried changing the sort order in the