Usually thats a business decision.
Not a “I dont want it”. Or even an " I want it".
Can it bring potential customers? Will it make stay some right now?
etc…
It shouldnt be emotional, like MQA.
Roon is well aware of the business trade offs. See these from some of the many threads on this issue.
Note that this is not an easy to do option given the multiple platform nature of Roon.
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-needs-to-perform-search-for-files-folders/11885/13?u=carl
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-needs-to-perform-search-for-files-folders/11885/15?u=carl
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Thats what I said above. Thats all i want in regards to “folders”.
Use the word “storage location” if you feel some uprising emotions if you read the word: folder.
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Hello, I have just tried Roon for two days, as the seller of my Antipodes DS device told me. My library is mostly classical and I must say that when I try to find a specific play, it’s a mess. I was told to take Roon mostly for it’s sound quality but I must say that as long as there is no search by folder structure, I can’t afford it, even if the sound quality is the best with it.
I understand that some people prefer not to speak about files, but it’s my way to listen to music.
I would say, that’s fair enough, try before you buy. I just don’t understand how typing a name into the search funnel and getting exactly what you want is a problem.
example: I have in library:
Beethoven - Symphonies 1 & 4 Karajan - Phil de berlin
Beethoven - Symphonies 1 à 9 - Nikolaus Harnoncourt- Chamber Orchestra Of Europe -
Beethoven - Symphonies 1 à 9 ( - 2 et 7) - Karajan - Philarmonia Orchestra
Beethoven - Symphonies 6 & 8 -
Beethoven - Symphonies 9 - Wilhelm Furtwangler - Bayreuth Festival Orchestra & Chorus
if I type “Beethoven” I have hundreds of lines to read
if I type “Beethoven symphonie”
I have:
Beethoven:Symphonies
Beethoven:SymphoniesNos 1-9
Beethoven:Symphonies 1 & 4 ;Egmont overture
Beethoven:Symphonies 1 & 3
Beethoven:Symphonies (Krajan/philharmonia O 1951-5)
where is Beethoven - Symphonies 9 - Wilhelm Furtwangler - Bayreuth Festival Orchestra & Chorus???
if it’s because of the tags, then I have to deal with more than 4500 cd…
do I understand it right that you have more than 4000 CD’s and don’t use tags?
Apart from any discussion about folder browsing I’d really like to understand why people would spend incredible care on putting their CD’s in neatly organized folders without caring about tags… You’d just loose incredible potential for any searches independently on the library software you use.
I take care of my tags first and then let my software organize it in folders according to those tags. Why you would do it the other way round escapes me…
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I’am afraid for you, but I do not care about tags up to now because until now i do care about folders…
I am in exactly the same situation as you except most of my albums are jazz.
You can do whatever you want. I’m just curious why you’d do it.
I think the initial effort to maintain tags instead of folders and filenames is about the same, but the long term possibilities are quite different.
It’s like using MS Word just like you used your old typewriter. It’s ok to do so, but you miss a lot of possibilities the computer could give you.
If you are only loking for a player software that gives you the search possibilities of Windows Explorer than Roon may just not be the thing for you.
Just giving my opinion - everybody can do as he likes and preferences and priorities are different.
Tags require work to create and rely on verbal memory to find something specific. If you scroll up in the thread you will find my entry on locating an album I know I have but can’t quite remember. I find it much easier to find what I want in my folder structure than with Roon search or browse.
Admittedly I was focusing more on the general question: files/folders vs. tags. Even when using tags, Roon does not give you the same search experience as iTunes, MediaMonkey or JRiver. It’s a different concept. On the other hand it gives you so much more that all the other players and library managers don’t.
I wanted to understand why people prefer a folder structure to tags, when tags are so much more powerful. I have slightly complained about the way Roon deals with search strings, because my history is with JRiver, where i can just almost can search anything easily based on my tags.
I don’t completely understand you comment that tags would rely on verbal memory? Everytime I do a search I rely on my verbal memory, Isn’t that even more so with a folder based structure? It is to me much more like items on a shelf. I need to exactly remember where I’d put it in the first place and have my “putaway strategy” in my mind.
The first time I’d misplace one item I’d be completely lost finding it again.
With tagging this would not happen. I have so many big classical boxed sets in my collection that I’d never find a particular recording of a given piece if I’d rely only on my folder structure. I would not be even able to devise a folder structure that would allow me finding stuff.
But that’s maybe different in your case.
My own personal problem ( also it is disliked by me) is that the folder structure has grown over the last 12 years.
Simply because it was necessary to have some searchable order and structure in the database.
There was no Roon. Try to use a Linn or DLNA Ipad program without a folder structure.
If I do it again today all would be different. But that is in hindsight.
That would fully replace my folder structure.
I can easily remember where something is, but ask me the name of, say the streets in a route, and I will draw a blank. But I can easily remember the number of streets and turns to get somewhere. Verbal versus spatial memory.
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I like to know where things are. I did this for more than 20 years when music was not yet on pcs. So it’s far easier for me doing so. If I use Roon it’s for the sound quality.
I may use it for its associating features later.
And in a folder structure you have also the function search.
I am still wondering why you all think that Roon should change into what you want it to be rather than what it was designed to be. Really is it so bad to use something else instead of Roon? What do you use at the moment?
If iTunes, MediaMonkey or JRiver do what you want to do at the moment then please use them by all means. I for one really do not want Roon to become iTunes, MediaMonkey or JRiver.
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I like to know where things are.
I do, too - and I get it with one or two clicks. I don’t think we are really exchanging arguments about pro and cons here. You have your habit and you want Roon to adopt to it.
I personally think there is a lot of software out there that supports want you want.
Don’t understand the sound argument, though. With my wooden ears I do not even hear differences between red-book and Hi-Res… And yes, I have proper equipment 
But again: chacun a son gout. Just makes no sense to discuss, then.
We want folder-based access because we’re really undercover agents from Foobar, iTunes, and JRiver, and we want Roon to fail!
Seriously, it’s one thing to be saying that you would prefer some other feature to be developed first, but another to actively discourage features that some users would find useful.
Think of browse by folder as a utility for the back-office part of Roon. It’s not how people want to use Roon primarily - then it would just be another itunes – but rather something for the occasional need. And no, search by text and the current storage location Focus functions don’t fill those needs.
I’d like to be able to play a media file that isn’t in the Library, without having to temporarily index it and then remove it. That requires some form of explorer-type function. As mentioned, I would be fine with drag and drop from Windows Explorer, to play the file rather than add it to the Library. There are legitimate use cases for this - for example, let’s say I love Grateful Dead bootlegs. I get a new batch from a friend and I want to check out the sound quality before I go to the trouble of organizing them – adding metadata etc. That should be a quick process, not an index-find-play-delete process. Try doing that with more than a dozen files quickly, especially if there’s no metadata in the files as received.
This feature could also then be used to play CDs and media from thumb drives and other portable media (i.e. friend comes over with tunes).
Sure, I could use Foobar or even WMP to listen. But let’s say I want Roon to tell me if it has any metadata on a file to help me decide what metatags to add. Plus since I took the leap of faith to reorganize my network to optimize for Roon, I can’t just play audio with Foobar or WMP on my headless Roonbridge as I could when it wasn’t headless.
Folder-based access is not going to ruin Roon. It will just make it a tad less of a hassle to use for some of us. I can understand others having different priorities. What I don’t understand is the thought that this will somehow ruin their experience with Roon or that they actively don’t want it as a feature. You can just ignore it.
Don’t know whether you’re adressing me, but I never would actively discourage features that other users find useful. I am just trying to understand in this case why users want this particular feature and I like to discuss about alternative approaches. I just did not see any argument so far that would convince me this feature is needed.
I do understand that a lot of people ask for it and you have every right to continue to do so. And I am not so foolish to believe the Roon guys will take my viewpoint over yours.
I just think that Roon offers a distinctively different approach and if you’d ask me I think the team should not make the mistake to please everybody. Because at the end nobody might be really happy.
I can’t speak for others of course, but I don’t think I would say it would ruin the Roon experience. I just believe that amongst the fear that Roon would invest in this instead of other features there is the fear that we will end up with a piece of bloatware like some other library managers.
Personally, I think folder based browsing would contradict the general Roon approach, but at the end you don’t need to convince me anyway, but the Roon team
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