The Qobuz Downloader - Some Observations

Roon Software Discussion Qobuz
23

I just tried, MULTIPLE TIMES to download the downloader from Qobuz. It downloaded but wouldn’t even open. When I tried to launch it a series of four error messages occurred, each with an annoying “ding” sound on the computer. Each of the messages referred to some .dll file.

Had I known about this I NEVER would have wasted so much time selecting tracks and then purchasing them. What’s even more infuriating is the fact that, at least according to this post in a Reddit thread, Qobuz didn’t impose this downloader their customers in the past:

“Qobuz has removed the ability to download from its website in the format you want to impose the qobuz downloader which has many problems. Tonight it keeps freezing the computer, does not recognize the optimal qualities of High Res files (and therefore downloads cd qualities) …I’m very, very disappointed. Not to mention the labyrinths of folders that have to be opened to finally find the audio file…It sucks!”

CONSIDER THIS TO BE FAIR WARNING FOR ANY AND ALL UNSUSPECTING ROON USERS WHO ARE THINKING ABOUT BUYING ANY QOBUZ TRACKS OR ALBUMS–YOU MAY WANT TO WAIT UNTIL THEY FIX THEIR DOWNLOADER BEFORE SPENDING ANY TIME OR MONEY ON THE QOBUZ WEB SITE.

UPDATE/ADDENDUM:

Kudos to Qobuz for responding to my query. They said this:

"Hello,

We are very sorry about this problem.

According to our technicians, you’ll need version 2022 of the visual c++ installer.

You can find it here : Neueste unterstützte Visual C++ Redistributable-Downloads | Microsoft Learn

If you have any questions or further concerns, please feel free to contact us again.

Best regards

Charles

Qobuz"

I responded with this:

Thank you for your answer. I just downloaded the OTHER downloader from the same page and it works fine…

The one shown on the bottom (“Downloader”) does NOT work for me. However, the one in the upper left (“Application for PC,” [64 bit version]) DOES work, and it did so the very first time! 😀 Tres bien!

image.png

To which they responded with this:

"Glad it works!

Thanks for the feedback!

Charles
Charles

Qobuz"

So I’m very satisfied with that. {It’s not lost on me that the solution came from this thread rather than them [although maybe their seemingly cumbersome suggestion may have worked–I’ll never know because I didn’t try it].}

24

The Qobuz downloader has been withdrawn by Qobuz - you should not be using it.

The purchase and download function is now included in the main Qobuz app and works very well.

See:

25

Qobuz has not withdrawn their downloader. It is still available for download on their website. Downloading from their player has always been possible. What I understand is that they have enhanced their player to allow purchasing from within their player.
As a Roon user, I have no use for their player and make all my purchases through their website. After a purchase it very easy to transfer your entire basket to the downloader.

3 Likes
26

Frankly, I’m pleased that the separate Downloader app is no longer necessary. Qobuz kept faffing about with it introducing “goodies” folders and using a different folder naming format that was not compatible with Roon’s method of handling box sets. Good riddance, as far as I’m concerned.

27

When did this change as I’ve been using last week. Ive not had any issues with the downloaded and it’s much faster than the web downloading. I don’t like their main app so dont want to use that for downloading.

3 Likes
28

For me Downloader works as expected. I could not get any information from Qobuz, that the Downloader is going to be withdrawn.

@Geoff_Coupe Do you have any official statements/links?

2 Likes
29

No - probably a mistaken assumption on my part. I saw that Qobuz had reintroduced the download function into their main app, along with the ability to purchase downloads directly within it, and assumed that the separate downloader app was now deprecated.

As I said, I’ve given up on using the separate downloader app - as far as I am concerned, Qobuz never got it into a state where I could use it with Roon directly. I always had to manually adjust the downloads of box sets. And then they introduced an extra “goodies” folder and put PDFs into it. Once again, I had to manually move PDFs back into the main folder so that Roon would see them…

30

Ahhh, ok.

No problem. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it.

31

Re-transcoding would not harm anything, but why do it, can’t you just rename files and insert updated metadata without transcoding? Not familiar with XLD, but e.g. MP3Tag can do both, including renaming files based on tags, without having to re-compress FLAC.

1 Like
32

Good to know about MP3Tag, but it’s yet another software license purchase which I’d rather avoid. So long as there is no impact to quality of the FLAC files by re-transcoding (which I thought was the case based on prior research on FLAC files), then I’d rather stick with my known/free option of XLD. It’s super-quick/easy for me to just use XLD to perform this step (I use the same software for my CD rips).

I do separately still keep the original download files as a backup (not really needed … but I just do as another precaution in my backup scheme).

33

Yes, I’ve been using the downloader for months.

At first it didn’t work very well; they needed to better integrate the queue on screen with what you’d actually bought.

They did that about three months ago and since then it’s worked perfectly for me.

I also found that the fancy subfolders (‘1’ etc) went away when the download was completed, or at least became easier to handle and understand

Maybe it’s a macOS versus Windows issue?

1 Like
34

I use both and its the same on either.

1 Like
35

Thank you for all of the replies!!! This is a great forum (so far anyway…) with lots of smart people.

So I UNINSTALLED the Downloader and then downloaded the OTHER downloader and it worked–FIRST TIME!!!

I downloaded an album I had purchased. Now, how do I get it into Roon?

36

What’s your Roon Server running on?

1 Like
37

“What’s your Roon Server running on?”

I have a Roon Nucleus Plus (I think that’s what it’s called).

38

And are you using internal storage on a second disk in the Nucleus, or external disks attached by USB, or a NAS, etc.? Probably best if you could simply describe your setup in detail

1 Like
39

It’s free (although author accepts donations). If XLD works for you it’s fine, doesn’t hurt anything, although if you have to recode just to write tags to a file, it’s really a wrong tool for the job…

40

The following is my (rudimentary and possibly flawed) understanding of the setup: As far as I know, everything is stored on the Roon. It has, like, terabytes of storage space. I have the Roon application on the desktop of my main (desktop, Lenovo) computer and my laptop (also Lenovo) computer. I have dBpoweramp for ripping CDs on both of them. For ripping CDs, I have it set to send the ripped copy to a “staging folder” on the desktop of that computer. Then I drag the contents of that folder into Roon (any field–the Roon window just has to be open and I have to click to copy the file) and it appears on the Roon Server. The two computers are connected to the Roon server via the home network.

The Roon server outputs into my DAC, which then feeds into my preamp, etc.

41

Then you can do the exact same thing with files downloaded from Qobuz.

42

I’m on a Mac and the Mac version is $24.99 after a free 7-day trial:

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image909×647 63.5 KB

Maybe you’re thinking of Windows where it’s free?