Folder Browsing [Never happening] 2019-10

Dear Roon, I love your software, using it now for almost a year.
As an old (windows) pc user I am used to folders.
And while I am now listening to great music trough Roon I found that I missed music that sits on my Qnap NAS (running Roon perfectly) in some folders.
I ripped all my 2500 CD’s over 10 years ago when I switched to Sonos. I always played them via the folder search input.
I have now upgraded the system, with HiRes music and Tidal (MQA) files and that is a great addition … but I want folder browsing

What is the problem?
Please explain why browsing music via a folder input is so difficult.

Thanks

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Amongst many other categorical statements from Roon that they will be never do folder browsing.

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Roon provides access to the contents (music and metadata) and not to the structure containing them (the filesystem and folders). It’s a principle that strongly identify this product…

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To turn your question on its head, why do you need folder browsing? I see no merit in browsing by folder but would be interested why you miss this.

Roon offers far more flexibility than a fixed folder/ file hierarchy. I can achieve a lot more with tags, bookmarks and Focus.

Here’s the statement from Roon.

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Because it is, sometimes, the most direct way to find something in my database as compared with a multilevel search.

And one reason why I will never be able to use Roon exclusively.

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Just in case you somehow missed this:

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Have you already seen this?

FAQ:How can I find tracks by path?

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Yes I did, and it is faster for me to use a file explorer and then add the track in the search function of Roon.

That is just what I did this afternoon while enjoying music and thought about bringing up the folder search option back in this (mostly very friendly and informative) community

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How would you feel if all of a sudden you could only navigate on your computer by typing the full path name and file name of a document?

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Roon doesn’t use folder search. Period.
I would suggest that you find a piece of software that more fits your needs.

That’s how things were back in the days of Microsoft DOS and still are when I log into my Linux based server. I’m still alive. :rofl:

It’s not a matter of if we agree with Roon. We know Roon’s position on this and that it is not going to change. You need to come to grips with that fact…

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Couldn’t you just just use Windows Explorer/Mac Finder on a computer or a folder style app? I keep a constant backup of my music on two separate hard drives and when I plug them into Windows I know the same number of tracks are consistent across them and Roon.

As for knowing what you have, if anything I’m more aware of what is in my collection because of Roon.

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Roon (probably) isn’t going to add a folder browser function for the reasons cited above.
However, it is helpful for Roon to understand exactly what you can’t accomplish when you can’t search by browsing folders. I think you started to get to this earlier in your post.
Roon has a design philosophy they want to stick with. But I get the impression that if there are things that are important to a lot of users, they will try to find ways to provide a function that fits their design philosophy. The tool may be different, but you may be able to still get the task accomplished with a different tool.

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Moving on from folder browsing, there are some things that can be done to enable easy access to folders that contain music that may not fit usual Focus criteria for easy bookmarking.

Firstly, the Focus/Inspector/Storage locations tool enables you to Focus on top level folders, so if you have a folder of recent music on your desktop copied from a USB stick, for example, you can add that folder as a top level Roon folder and Focus on it with this tool.

Roon Tags are a way of organising music outside of Focus tools or folder structure. You can create a Tag by selecting all albums within a view and add to it from other views or Focus bookmarks.

There is a longstanding feature request for Roon to recognise a file tag created in a third party tagging program and use that file tag to generate or add to a Roon tag. Roon has already implemented ROONRADIOBAN file tags so there is good reason to be optimistic about this request.

If you get stuck with a particular use case then there are many experienced users on this Forum who are willing to describe what they do or what can be done.

Hi andybob, the Focus/Inspector/Storage feature I have used and it works but is stil more work than using file explorer via windows/ipad Qfile and then look for that in Roon.

I must admit that what Mark_Hyland states is also true. I did find music I had forgotten trough the Roon interface and that is great as well.

But I got the message … see below

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Good luck in finding the right piece of software for you.
It’s obvious that Roon just isn’t for you.
Just move on, rather than moaning about it.

Oh I am very happy with all other features of Roon, so for now it is what it is.

You might have solved my issue.

I created an extension to play tracks to audirvana using Roon as the library. And using the data in the process I created a page to view the library in the folder format.

I just tried it after turning on the “path” for searching and it seems to work (although I only have about 300 tracks on my laptop now as I’m traveling). I’ll do some more test when I get back in about 2 weeks.

If anybody want to test it, you can find the repository at https://github.com/st0g1e/roon-extension-thirdparty-player

Please note that i’ve only tested it on MacOS.

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Maybe a compromise is a file explorer extension that lets you right click and “play with roon.”