Tap to select the album
Tap to get the drop down
Tap to get the Edit menu
Scroll down to get the (otherwise invisible) Delete Album option
Tap Delete
Tap to Permanently delete
Tap Browse albums to get back to where you started
OK it’s six taps and a scroll, but Phew! That is just too much! And since the delete option isn’t actually visible it’s not very friendly either.
Why not just put delete in the drop down next to the albums as an alternative to Edit … ?
As the Spice Girls would say it’s because Roon wants to know.
Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want…
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I don’t manage my music through Roon. I rip it and tidy up metadata elsewhere and I also remove albums from the disk they are stored on and then clean up the database in settings.
The click fiesta you describe as well as the clunky metadata editing process is telling me that Roon doesn’t want you to manage your music through their app either. I tend to subscribe to the unix ethos where you have many smaller more specialized tools for each task, rather than one big hammer to do it all.
Sheldon
Were what you say to be correct, doing things as you suggest would require far more keyclicks. I’d need to exit Roon, scroll about, find some app on my IPad that let me edit my files on my Roon core machine, dig about the folder structure … or get up and go over to my Roon Core machine and open up a file browser there … and what about entries in my library from Qobuz? Are you seriously arguing I should leave Roon, open Qobuz, find the album, delete it, go back to Roon, and invoke a sync? This would be far more cumbersome.
All I’m asking is that Roon neaten up the process of deleting an album! Get rid of a couple or three more clicks.
I’m not arguing anything. I’m pointing out that you are correct and that Roon is cumbersome to manage your music library and I provided another example of it being cumbersome for another related management task.
I manage my library external to roon because I’m not 100% married to roon, and when I rip or import music into my world I do it much closer to the files with tools optimized for each task at hand. Editing metadata can be a HUGE task after ripping music and I just couldn’t see that being done in Roon. Now, roon will auto-clean your metadata in it’s database, but if you use those rips anywhere else (like your car for example) then you still need to do some metadata cleanup.
EDIT: This is a fundamental difference of views of what digital music is and how it should be handled. I treat my music as data files, and my various users of those data files (iTunes, Roon, my Car infotainment system, etc) are “guests”. They should not and will not do too much changing of my metadata. Because of my file-centric and ownership centric view of my music, I tend to use more specialized digital music management tools than what is available in any of the music playing apps like roon or iTunes.
I cannot understand how it would be less work for you to delete an album from Roon using the workflow you say you prefer. Please tell me which of your preferred “specialised tools” makes album deletion from Roon take fewer than 7 key strokes, including the keystrokes necessary to open the tool and return to Roon.
Just prevent any accidental deletion…
I never said it was less work, it’s just more straightforward and I have more control over the end product using my method. I DID say that Roon is cumbersome to do the sorts of things you are trying to do.
If I want to delete something (which I typically never do) or change some metadata, I don’t want to change it in roon only; because I also use iTunes, and also have my library on an SD card for the car. I also have no idea what is the next great thing to use my music on, so I need to understand what is happening to the files on disk, not what is happening in Roon’s database.
I still can’t understand why you say it is “more straightforward” using your method. What is “more straightforward” about coming out of Roon, possibly going to another device, opening up some tool or other, finding the album you wish to delete and deleting it then returning to Roon on your iPad, waking it up ,refreshing … that is not at all straightforward. Roon is open on my iPad. I see an album I no longer want. It may be one of my own rips, it may come from Qobuz. I wish to delete it from Roon that I have open on my iPad that I am holding in front of me. Just with fewer than seven keystrokes!
Click the album folder on a Mac (number of clicks to get there varies), press command+delete, it’s gone, Roon updates it’s self.
OK, I’m going to try to summarize this exchange a bit:
I said that I don’t do the stuff you are complaining about in Roon for two reasons:
The first reason is that it’s clunky to do in Roon (I provided a second example of why library management in roon isn’t great), and second I don’t only use Roon, so the music files and needs of my other streaming programs require additional measure. For example how does deleting a file in roon effect my SD card in my car?
The following pile of replies is you trying to explain how your iPad deleting example is less work than my use case for my music. I agree with you that if you only use Roon and only ever want to use roon in the future, then your use case is probably the easiest. But if you value your music library more than you value roon, then maybe it’s not the best way.
Also there is the issue of where is your master music library? My Roon library isn’t my master so changes there don’t propagate back up. It took months and months to rip my music, and many years cleaning metadata, so I have my various apps that access my music only touch a copy of the master. So it’s true that if you only have one copy of your music and you are letting Roon grope it, then my method may not seem straightforward at all. But if you deal with a diverse set of music access apps and backups of your music, then all of a sudden the concept of “straightforward” is different.
This is all fine for actual, physical local files, but for virtual files such as those from a streaming service (Tidal or Qobuz) there’s no place to go outside of Roon other than those services dedicated apps. So there should at least be an easy way of deleting those streaming titles from Roon. A good start would at least having the delete/hide function at the top level of the sub menu (i.e. along with share, add, etc) vs being in the sub sub menu (and at the bottom of that as it is so one has to scroll even after getting there). .
But I’m sitting down, with my iPad in my lap! I don’t want to get up, go to another device, open it up, try and figure out where the album is (not straightforward if you have Qobuz, and certainly not quick if you have a nested folder structure) and delete it, then return to my comfy seat where my iPad will have gone to sleep … I just want Roon to move a delete option up a couple of levels! To where most pieces of software I use have such an option, next to Edit).
So plan A, seven taps from your iPad. I don’t like this feature in Roon, though it’s purposely made difficult to prevent accidents. Are you sure, are you really sure?
Because Roon isn’t a file manager. That is the job of an OS. A while back, it took fewer steps with the resulting complaints of users deleting their only copy of their music, thinking it was an online version they were deleting.
Jez, to your original question, there are two points. Not really related, but part of how we got here:
So, we are here. Yes it’s hard.
Ah, OK, I can see where Roon may be coming from. But that argument doesn’t apply to music added from streaming services such as Qobuz, which happens to be most of my listening nowadays. You can “Add to Library” from Qobuz with one unconfirmed click at the top level, so I think it is still reasonable to ask for a “Remove from library” much nearer the top level. This could be kept for stuff from streaming services, and the delete option left buried to avoid upsetting folk.
So I’ll change my request to: Please can we have a “Remove from Library” option in the drop down next to an album when the album is from Qobuz or Tidal.
That’s a good idea for that situation.
Who makes money on what?
“Remove from library” option is great. That way, if one was to accidentally remove an ‘image’ that relates to a physical local copy, the physical copy would just reappear in Roon (assuming auto import is activated) until one goes into the byzantine delete menu and removes it permanently. Perfect solution to separate local vs streaming titles.