Apple Mac Mini, Intel chip, MacOS 12.x, 8 GB RAM, WAV library on external 4TB drive(s).
Networking Gear & Setup Details
No VPN
Wi-Fi is an Eero Mesh, v 6 something. No issues there.
Connected Audio Devices
Sonos systems, Oppo UHD205, various Apple devices, iPhones etc.
Number of Tracks in Library
150,000 tracks approx.
Description of Issue
I have the Doors “Perception” 6-disc set on my server. Roon persists in misidentifying the order of the discs, and when I correct them manually (which is a pain!), Roon shows garbage data (replicated names, etc). I have tried breaking the set apart, renaming the folders, nothing seems to work.
How can I delete this box set and start over again?
I tried that - Disc 1, Disc 2 and so on. Even moved the entire structure to a different location and pulled it in as a new library. No dice.
The set is the 6 original Doors albums, extended with alternate takes, outtakes etc. On the actual CDs, the titles are ‘Perception Disc 1’ and the original album title, etc. Roon does not even come close to identifying them, and I cannot figure it out. The set is correctly shown in Discogs, the track lengths are spot on, give or take a few seconds here and there.
I was thinking that somehow there is a cache in Roon that needs to be erased to start the ID process over?
I created a second set of folders for the Doors Perception on a second drive, and left the original box set in the main library intact. Lo and behold, Roon identified the second set correctly. Then I deleted the first set (the screwed up one), thinking that would resolve the issue: it did not. The instant I deleted the first set, Roon rescanned the second one, and that one got messed up. So finally I resolved to have two copies - one I can play, the other I ignore (the Roon messed up one), until Roon support can figure this out. I am convinced that there is a persistent cache somewhere, but no amount of rebooting seems to matter.
The problem isn’t with the Doors’ box set - the problem is with box sets in Roon in general. There are multiple posts about this. Hopefully Roon can implement a solution soon.
By the way I had lots of issues with my Miles Davis box sets (Bitches Brew Sessions, Miles Davis & Gil Evans Complete Columbia collection) too, but nothing like the Doors.
The frustrating thing is that the collections are all on Discogs, track timing is correct, but Roon is somehow pulling the wrong info.
If you are bringing up Discogs as a way for Roon to verify a box set, then I don’t believe Discogs has an interface to allow that, or that that would be legal without paying some usage fee.
If you are bringing up Discogs as an example of software that gets it right, I think that most of the info on Discogs is user entered or at least checked by some moderator. Roon is (trying) to do it automatically.
If your complaint is that Roon’s manual procedures are inadequate, then I agree.
In this regard, the question is, how would Audirvana or JShiver automatically (or manually) handle your example. I have to believe that Roon’s devs are as clever as the devs for those players.
You may have done something like this already, but in similar situations this has often sorted things for me:
move (all copies of) the box set out of your watched folders;
clean-up your library data (via Main menu - Library - Clean up library);
move a copy back into your watched folders and cross your fingers .
If the box set is very large and or the mechanism for moving / copying your files over fairly slow, it can be worth stopping Roon Server while moving / copying the files into your watched folders, to prevent Roon trying to identify albums too early. Hardly had to do this in recent years, but worth a try.
Alternatively / additionally, have a play with what things look like if you un-identify the album (if it is still screwed up), and/or try to identify a correct match manually, assuming there is one.
Apologies for wasting your time if you have been through all that already. Good luck!
Actually, Discogs as an “aggregation” of data is pretty good. They are constantly making small adjustments, the contributors are usually fanatical collectors, so yes, I think the Discogs listing are pretty accurate, and seeing as I own the actual box set, I can attest to the Discogs accuracy in this case.
I am not suggesting an interface for Roon, however, there is a pretty comprehensive metadata scraper called SongKong that uses MusicBrainz and Discogs (plus others) and comes up with excellent results - at least as good as Roon, anyway. I have used SongKong when all I had was “unknown artist”, “unknown album” and “Track 01, Track 02 …” to successfully identify an artist, album, artwork AND track names from the album’s fingerprints (track lengths).
Roon’s editing capabilities are inadequate, and although it is pretty god at identifying album, there could be some improvement in their metadata scraping.
This Doors problem is a bug, in my opinion. Hopefully someone from Roon is actually monitoring these threads …
Actually, I think you’re spot on here. I found this “work around” myself with several box sets and also “meshed up” single albums. So far it resolved all my issues - in conjunction with the “merge albums” function. IMO this can be placed in the knowledge base…