Roon prefers Tidal over local album copy (ref#V5NX1E)

What’s happening?

· Something else

How can we help?

· None of the above

Other options

· Other

Describe the issue

Roon prefers Tidal to local album copy

Describe your network setup

Synology NAS and MacOS 15.0.1 Sequoia

Prefers how? Your local copy isn’t listed in the versions as „In Your Library“, so maybe it isn’t recognized as another version of the album that‘s seen in the screenshot. Maybe it’s listed as a separate album?

Here is what I observed:

  1. I search for “brahms piano concertos”

  2. Get back some album listings

  3. The copies of one I’m looking for all have Tidal icon next to them.

  4. I pick one, then click on Versions - see below

  1. As you can see all versions listed are Tidal, none from my library. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get to the local copy.

  2. I log off Tidal and repeat the search above.

  3. Now I’m getting my local copy of the album, as below:

Why is it not listed as one of the Versions when I’m logged in to Tidal? I could understand Roon preferring one version to another, using all available copies, local and cloud, when prioritizing search results, but once Versions is clicked it seems ALL versions should be listed, should they not? Is there a setting controlling this?

Look at the album titles. Different spellings.

Tidal
1000058271

Local
1000058273

1 Like

There is maybe some funny metadata in your local copy , notice the first 3 tracks are not indented to indicate being part of a PC1 etc?? Compare the 2 images

Do you have [Composition] and [Movement] tags set

Roon is picking 192/24 over 96/24 there is a setting for Pick Best somewhere

They are not the same album. I see that from time to time between Tidal and Qobuz where it can be hard to find the difference, but they are different.

NB Brahms as an artist on the Tidal one.

Thanks, @Mike_O_Neill and @Jim_F.

I set flag Mike is showing earlier today, and now when I search for “brahms piano concertos” my local library album is showing, but not the Tidal ones. I am ok with that however.

If I browse strictly Tidal and use the same search I am seeing the Tidal versions.

I am still puzzled why the overall search isn’t showing both local and Tidal albums? It used to before. Something must have changed in that area.

That search brings back several albums my local copy was no. 3 in the list

It’s a truly great recording BTW :heart_eyes:

Hi @xred,
Have you tried merging the Tidal album and the local album? That should make sure the local files show up even when signed into Tidal.

Thanks, @Daniel. Not sure why I would need to merge them, as each is a complete Album, however, even if I wanted to I can’t, as I do not see them side by side. With “Prefer edited versions (“Clean”)” flag on right now, I can only see my local copy, and can only see Tidal versions when browsing Tidal. When I do, I do not see my local copy.

I think @daniel meant group, not merge. If an album isn’t automatically recognized as a version of another album but shown separately in My Albums, grouping tells Roon to file it under the version tab of the one album. It happens, sometimes due to small differences like different track runtimes.

This is for preferring censored over “explicit” versions. I don’t think there is a lot of f**k and p***y in Brahms lyrics, so that shouldn’t do much.

I hear you, @Suedkiez. I switched that flag off now, and behavior didn’t change. That is, the only version I see is Local; I cannot get to Tidal version of that album in Roon – don’t know why. I search, list by Album - still Tidal version does not show.

If I run Tidal app separately and search for “Brahms, piano concertos Gilels”, sure enough, it’s finding the Album. I feel something is messed up in my Roon app or the server, in indexing or elsewhere, but can’t figure out what.

I don’t get it - it showed in the screenshot of your first post

And you said you only see the Tidal version and not your local one:

Can you clarify?

yes, but then I turned that “Prefer edited version” flag on, and after that started seeing only local version - don’t ask me why. I have now turned that flag back off, as I said, but continue seeing local only. That’s why I’m saying I suspect something is messed up.

I wonder if there is a way to reindex the library, and if so, if that would help to remedy this.

This clean setting has nothing to do with it. It didn’ doesn’t even change visibility of proper explicit versions. It just prefers clean over explicit versions in stuff like Roon Radio.

Go to My Albums and filter for the album title (or parts of it). Use the filter, not search.

Do you see two albums, one being the local one and the other from Tidal?

here is the result:

The album in question is in the lower left. It’s a local copy and there is no Tidal version. (though you can see other Tidal albums satisfying the search listed.)

btw, to add, if I search for “Brahms” in the Tidal app, I get many dozens of albums.

I see. I suppose there is no Tidal version there because you added none to your Roon library. The My Albums view only shows content of the Roon library.

None of the Tidal versions in your previous screenshot are shown to be in the library, either. That’s why the three entries on the Versions tab all have the “+ Add to library” option, and there is a (+) button under the main album title, next to Play Now:

Also read here:

And after you add the Tidal album to the Roon library, there may be one album entry in Roon where you see both your local album and the Tidal ones all under Versions.

If not, try the filter thing in My Albums again. Now you probably see your local one and the Tidal one as separate albums (because for some small difference Roon didn’t automatically recognize them as different versions of the same album). Then you can group them:

Select them both (by holding the Cmd key and clicking them both, just as usual for multi selection on the Mac), then click the (…) button at the top (next to the Play Now button) to open the menu. Click Edit… and then click Group Alternate Versions.