I am reworking some of my files for Roon. The software seems to rekindle an interest in music that might have waned some over the years. My query is how deep can one nest files/folders before Roon can not find them. Is there a known number or what do the other users think or do?
Thanks…
Why do you want deep nested folder structures (use case)?
In Roon you can’t browse by folder anyways – but you can find tracks by path if you need to.
So a simple structure should be sufficient:
Music/
Artist/
Album/
01 - Track Title.flac
…
Creating different top-level folders instead, which you then add as different storage locations in Roon, allows you to use Focus with them or let you simply activate/deactivate them.
HiRes/
CD/
LP/
X-Mas/
If you specify a folder as a Roon Storage folder then SFAIK Roon will include all music files in all subdirectories.
I use a flat Artist/Album directory structure but there is no reason other structures can’t be used. Roon can Focus on top level storage directories with Albums/Focus/Inspector/Storage location.
Is focus restricted to top level files/folders only? I am on a Mac, but structure for the most part is the same. In my comp folder, I am wondering how far I can nest down. I use HD’s as my watched folder(s).
Focus is restricted to the storage locations defined in Roon – but you shouldn’t nest these!
If properly implemented by Roon, limitations will arise from the underlying filesystem and/or network share protocol.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/fileio/naming-a-file
Focus/Inspector/Storage location uses only top level Storage folders. There are a wide variety of other Focus tools.
If you want a more granular Storage location Focus you can disable the parent folder and add each underlying folder as a primary Storage location. This would enable you to Bookmark various Focus searches including such locations. Some people might do this to create Tags for such subfolders and then revert to the single parent Storage location.
I am aware of the ‘company line,’ but have close to 10K albums and I am not going to throw them in a heap, for anyones company line. I think I understand how/why Roon dropped folder structure, but it is a marketing thing, not something the team most likely ‘wants’ to do. Many folks have a mess, and for them this ‘Roon’ way works. I am good with that, but I don’t have a mess and do not want to introduce one at this time. SO, the question is how deep, can one go, not if it is policy or not. Should be a simple enough answer, if some one knows it.
I don’t know what you referencing to by ‘company line’.
I provided you already some answers. Feel free to google for more if these are not sufficient.
Good old google is your friend…
I don’t know if there’s a limit, but just tested this by nesting one of my existing albums 20 folders down. Roon found it instantly. I suspect that if the file system can handle it then so can Roon.
Thanks David, I only need to go four or five deep. I just did the test here and found that my needs are not deeper than Roon can handle.
Oh my this made me cross-eyed just looking at that folder depth ha ha. Seems like you solved it anyway, if the file system can handle it then Roon should be able to.
I wondered why the need for this by the OP but honestly if I look at my folders some are that deep, at least four or five. Say “multiple artists” > “soundtracks” > “XXX album” > “CD 1” for instance. That’s four deep (or is it five counting the root directory?). Anyway, always gets found.
I have a bigger problem with long file names but mainly due to the limitations of my older NAS I think and the file system used on it (HP MediaVaults which are starting to be long-in-the-tooth).
