Watched folders producing duplicates

Support
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I have been using Roon for about a week.

When I first started importing music, I just wanted to import individual albums, one at a time. I wanted to get a feel for the software before I imported my whole library. I didn’t see any way to import files other than creating “watched folders”. So, I went ahead and did that. I created a watched folder that just included one album. For example:

ASUS VIVO PC->C->Users->laric->Music->13th Floor Elevators->Easter Everywhere

I did this with probably 100 albums. Now, I want to start importing more files at once. So, I’ve started to import whole artist folders. For example:

ASUS VIVO PC->C->Users->laric->Music->13th Floor Elevators

What I’ve noticed is that Roon is starting to create duplicates. These are not duplicates created because of different versions of an album, but duplicate albums created from the same exact files. As far as I can see, this is because Roon is “watching” two different folders. The album folder, and the broader artist folder.

If I have already set an album folder to be watched, and try to set it again, Roon gives me a warning, telling me this folder has already been imported. However, if I set the broader artist folder to be watched, and one of the included album folders has already been imported, Roon doesn’t give me a warning. It seems strange that it wouldn’t detect that an included subfolder has already been imported, and give me a warning.

So, I would like to go ahead and set my whole music folder to be “watched”:

ASUS VIVO PC->C->Users->laric->Music

However, my fear is that Roon will create a bunch of duplicates, because it is already set to watch a lot of the subfolders in the Music folder. The duplicates automatically get “hidden”, so I don’t see them when browsing. But it’s kind of annoying to have them there. Is there any way I can prevent this from happening? It seems that Roon should detect that I am trying to import files that I have already imported.

Secondly, is there any way to rid my library of duplicates that are created from identical files? Obviously, I don’t want to delete the album, as that would delete the actual files.

3

Hi @Louis_Richardson ----- Thank you for the report, I will be glad to help you with the duplicates you are noticing in your collection.

Based on your feedback this is definitely being caused because there are multiple watch folders containing the same content. Please see below for instructions. Thanks!

  • Before anything, please make a backup of your Roon DB. This is just to ensure that we have a fall back in the unlikely event something should go wrong.

  • Reveal the duplicates by going into “settings”, “general”, and setting “show hidden tracks and albums” to the “yes” position. If you then navigate to your album browser you should see all the duplicate albums that have been imported.

  • Next, please visit the “storage” tab and “disable” all the “sub-watch folders” that you’ve added to Roon (i,e Music->13th Floor Elevators->Easter Everywhere and ->Music->13th Floor Elevators) from the master “music” folder.

    • The master “music” folder that is being watched should be left active and not disabled during this process (i.e ASUS VIVO PC->C->Users->laric-> Music).

  • Once you have disabled all the “sub-watch folders”, if you go back to the album browser window the duplicates you noticed previously should be gone.

  • If the duplicates have disappeared as expected, please “remove” the disabled “sub-watch folders” from the application.

-Eric

4

Thanks very much Eric. My next questions:

The main Music folder has not yet been set to be watched. So, I should set that first before I sart disabling the subfolders?

Also, I have made some significant edits to some of the albums I have already imported. So, I’m assuming that if I disable the subfolders, and these albums are re-imported when I activate the main Music folder, that these edits will no longer be there?

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Hi @Louis_Richardson — Thank you for touching base with me!

Can you verify for me where the editing was performed before we proceed forward? Were these in app edits you made OR were these edits you had made outside of the application?

-Eric

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Thanks for responding. They were edits I did within the app. I have some large multi-disc box sets that Roon was not identifying. So, it was mostly just asking Roon to re-identify the album, and messing with the title until I saw the correct album. Also, sometimes I chose to use my own album title or picture instead of what Roon chose.

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Hi @Louis_Richardson ---- Apologies for the delay, thank you for verifying that information for me. In order to maintain the edits you created in Roon, this is what you are going to want to do…

  • Before anything, please make a backup of your Roon DB. This is just to ensure that we have a fall back in the unlikely event something should go wrong.

  • Next, please visit the “storage” tab and “remove” all the “sub-watch folders” that you’ve added to Roon (i,e Music->13th Floor Elevators->Easter Everywhere and ->Music->13th Floor Elevators) from the master “music” folder.

  • Finally, the “sub-watch folders” have been removed please add the master “music” folder in Roon.

Afterwards, there should be no duplicates and your in app edits will be maintained. Let me know how it goes.

-Eric

8

Eric. Thanks for your help. All the duplicates are gone. Most of the edits I made were maintained. Some of them disappeared, but it’s nothing I can’t do again fairly quickly.

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