· As I add to my library, I need a way to organize it. I've read about Artists under My Library, and Tags, but these still leave the clutter of all library albums in one massive group. I've read you can't create folders, which really has me confused, as it is the usual and typical method to organize data.
I would like to create groups (i.e., folders) for (a) composers for which I have many albums (one group for each composer), and (b) broad categories such as Classical and what I call New Age (e.g, 1980's definition). These can be mutually exclusive, that is, any album assigned to a group would not appear in another group. I want the "base" library to be items that I have not yet listened to or have not decided which group in which to put them.
What is the best way to come closest to what I want? And with others asking about folders, why don't they exist already?
Roon’s philosophy is metadata-driven rather than folder-based, so traditional folder hierarchy isn’t available and isn’t planned. That said, you can get quite close to what you want using Tags
Tags work as your “groups/folders”:
Create a tag per composer (e.g., Bach, Beethoven) and assign albums to them
Create tags for broad categories (Classical, New Age)
An album can have multiple tags, but you can browse each tag independently - effectively a folder view
Filter Albums by a specific tag, then save that as a Bookmark -one click access, just like opening a folder
For your "unlistened/unsorted" base library:
Use the Heart (or lack thereof) combined with a Focus filter, or simply create a tag like To Sort and remove it once an album is assigned elsewhere
The workflow would be: browse by Tag to see each composer's or genre's albums for quick navigation between groups.
As for why folders don’t exist -Roon’s design prioritizes discovery over rigid hierarchy. Tags are more flexible since one album can belong to multiple contexts, but I understand that’s a different mental model than what most file managers use.
Thank you Vadim. Bookmarking tags is very helpful. But for the “unlisted/unsorted,” I hearted a couple of albums, but when I clicked on Focus, I did not see an option to show the albums I added the heart to. Could you explain this a little more?
Also, is it possible, after selecting multiple tags, to not show them, that is, show all albums without any selected tag(s)? Like inverting the list, so I can see the unsorted albums?
Geoff, I selected 2 albums from my library then clicked the heart at the top next to “> focus,” but that resulted in no listed albums and a message box saying to try to turn off favorites or remove some focus criteria, with a reset button that showed all of my library, with the two albums still selected.
If I clicked the minus to the left of favorites, favorites turned red, but then all my albums were visible, also with the two albums remaining selected.
Note: you don’t click the icon next to the Focus button in the album browser - you want the menu associated with your selected albums - the “3 dots” icon at the top of the page will show this menu.
Notice how they now have the heart icon on the album cover:
Roon, is basically a database, and was built to move beyond that file level organization.
If you need use into folders, then create the folders on your music drive and stuff them full of what you want. Then use the Folder View to move about the drive’s file structure.
Here’s my Music Folder, you’ll notice that I create Folders for each Origin Source of the file, like Qobuz, Physical, Linn Records, etc etc. Then underneath each, there are folders by Artist/Album.
However, you could do what you want with Tags/Bookmarks and that’s what I would suggest using. In fact, you could do both, since Roon doesn’t really care what folder each file is in for organization as organization is provided by the meta-data. And Tags are meta-data groupings that you create and apply to either Tracks, Albums, Artists, Composers, Genres, or heck even other Tags.
Rugby, I thought folder view was only for music I own and have on my hard drive where the Roon Server is, and not for albums I have (via Qobuz) in my online Roon library that I have not actually purchased.
I’m all set. I might recommend Roon Staff create an article specifically for newbies used to using folders, to describe in beginner terms what a tag is, and how to use tags with bookmarks to emulate folders. Maybe even the “heart” thing (is that called a Favorite?) in order to view just a subset, but that would be level 2, so maybe not.
I searched quite a bit to try and figure out what to do, but I lacked some basic knowledge that, while available in existing articles, was hard to find for a beginner.
Actually, I don’t think so. I saw those articles when I first joined, then again just before opening this thread. First, “tag” is not defined. Second, the focus was too off for me (dare I suggest the focus is on young people?..but see last paragraph). The 4 examples don’t suggest “Organize albums into different groups” and even that alone does not suggest “and with Bookmarks, show only the group(s) you want.” Both are necessary to emulate folders.
Vadim’s initial reply put me on the right track with these bullet points, quoted from above:
Tags work as your “groups/folders”:
Create a tag per composer (e.g., Bach, Beethoven) and assign albums to them
Create tags for broad categories (Classical, New Age)
An album can have multiple tags, but you can browse each tag independently - effectively a folder view
Filter Albums by a specific tag, then save that as a Bookmark -one click access, just like opening a folder
Maybe adding the above to the Tags article would help people who understand bookmarks but not so much about tags.
I see in an article ( Age Distribution of Roon Users - #6 by wizardofoz ) that, in 2007, the majority of users fell into the 41-70 age range. I wonder if the examples given in the Tag article really talk to them (us…I’m 74). I do have a bias about young people creating computer things for old people, so when I saw “organize music for a party,” I did not think it was for me.
In the Roon ROCK directory which holds my music; I have folders for each artist and within those, folders for each album. I also have separate folders within my library for singles and for soundtracks.
function is no longer explicitly listed as “Favourites” in the Focus function - use the 
> General > Customize album display > Edit)
