That is correct, it is not possible to like tracks without adding them to your library.
Also in the UI it was not obvious that you could add a single track to a library. That is mildly helpful but still clunky for liking songs as you hear them. For mobile users it’s especially clunky.
As long as adding and liking are separate, this essentially broken.
It’s not broken they are different things and from a time before streaming was in Roon. In Roon favourites are for any track or album in your Roon library. When Roon was first released it was local library only, it had the favourite or heart option as a feature already so you could tag your favourite songs albums in your collection and easily find them.
Later they added streaming services. To be able to perform the advanced searches and metadata edits it needs to be in your library. So Roon have a conundrum, rename an existing feature because it now clashes with a function in the services app, modify it so it works like Tidal, or add a new feature entirely.
Roon isn’t a streaming service it’s it’s own thing with its own identity and goals. Many of its users don’t use streaming at all. They stuck with not upsetting the existing user base which I commend and added in a new way to manage this. Personally I don’t want every album I add from Tidal or Qobuz to be a Roon favourite.
I can see if your coming from streaming apps then this seems at odds, but it doesn’t take 5mins to get used to it and it becomes 2nd nature. I barely use streaming apps so this difference is just not an issue and it isn’t for the vast majority of users who use Roon as their primary interface.
By all means request a change in the feature request section but this is not broken and is not support it just doesnt meet your expectations which is fine we all have our own preferences.
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Unsolicited Roon history. Who asked?
Roon should not have added these services if they can’t match the expected functionality and feature parity of them.
That’s exactly my point, neither do I!
You might assume my use case facilitates immediately searching for what I’m listening to. However, I am not always sitting at a computer or have a device ready to go for that, so it has to happen later. And that means wasting time searching through my previous queue, finding what tracks I liked and sometimes taking more time to listen to them again to remember which ones I liked. You also might assume many people don’t use streaming only options in Roon, but despite what it’s main functions are, there are quite a number of streaming only Roon users.
Your opinion that my request is not a support issue is also irrelevant. I am not looking for someone from a different point of view to tell me my use case is wrong. I am looking for support from Roon for a neglected and broken area of the user experience.
Support will indeed assist with things that are broken. However, by definition, a thing cannot be broken if it is functioning as it’s intended to function.
You’ve opened a Support thread on an open forum, you’ve been given a workaround, you’ve been given an explanation as to why Roon functions in the way that it does. You can wait on Roon changing things to fit with your “user experience”, but you might be waiting a long time! Best of luck.
I am going to say this once only.
This is NOT a support issue.
You have been told multiple times by multiple members exactly why it is not so.
Please raise a feature request instead if you desire, that will be your best way forward right now.