How accurate is Inspector duplicate?

Roon Software Discussion
1

I have alot of duplicate on my music collection that I am trying to delete. I am using Roon Inspector duplicate to help. As I want to make sure that I do not delete any important music. I would like to know how accurate is the duplicate feature on roon?

e.g.

  1. I see the same album with same format, same resolution and same dynamic range. Can I assume they are the same?

  2. I see 2 same album with same format, same resolution but different dynamic range. I would assume these are from different masters e.g. Japan press vs UK press?

  3. I see 2 same album with different format (lossless format) but same resolution and same dynamic range. Can I safely assume they are the same album?

Thanks!

2

Click on the album to open the album page then under the “Tracks” listing click on the three little buttons to the right of the track title. On the little pop up the appears click on “View File Info…” and this will show the location of the file. You can then compare the locations of the items in question to determine if they are two separate albums and if so then delete the duplicate.

1 Like
3

I do know they are in separate locations. The real question I want to know is if they are actual duplicates so that I can delete one. Or it could be one is a slightly different version of a album or “pressing” so I should keep both

4

Unfortunately only you can answer that question since I assume it’s your music collection and not a collection you inherited from someone else.

Some other things you can check:

  1. Any album art or information files, if you have these items along with the actual music files

  2. The file tags, again if you have well maintained and robust tags

These can both (artwork and file tags) be checked using Roon.

5

I would not use Roon to delete it, I would do the deletion at the OS level with a computer. Or you could just hide the duplicates in Roon instead of permanently deleting them

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6

It isn’t accurate at all. I have had several issues in the past of the two discs in a double CD album being identified separately as the same CD title. If I had deleted one without looking at the track names I would have deleted half the CD.
So no, I don’t trust duplicate identification without reviewing the files themselves in Windows File Explorer, as suggested in the post above. This also allows you to select the duplicate to keep with the best artwork images attached, all other things being equal.

7

Yes!

I never delete anything.
Disk storage is free.
You never know when you need it — I have regretted deleted stuff several times, I have never regretted keeping it.

8

“Inspector Duplicate and the Treacherous Twins”

(Sorry, it’s Father’s Day, time for bad dad jokes.)

9

Thank all for your answers.

Its just that I have been changing my ripped CDs format (Lossless to another lossless) and many times not deleting the older lossless. That My collection is now in a mess.Plus there are different collections in my office and my home which I am now trying to combine.

Guess Its still a manual job instead of relying on Roon to help sort it out.

10

Yes. I would suggest doing all the work not in a Roon watched folder. If I was going through the process, I would setup a new library space and then copy things into it. Once I had everything in order, I would copy ALL the old stuff to an external hard drive to Archive it just in case (cheap enough) and then delete. Then, I would clearout the previous Rppm library and then copy the perfected library into Roon’s watched folders.

Imho, that would be the cleanest way of doing things.

11

This is where JRiver shines. I wouldn’t advocate it just for this purpose because it’s not free and its best uses require some learning. But if you have it, this is right in JRiver’s sweet spot.
There is something to be said for having the right tool for the right job.