Guides

2The Randomiser

This is the "I have 4,000 files and no idea what to watch" tool.

Animation: switching to All Videos, selecting files, and opening the command palette — Switching views, selecting a video, and opening the command palette — recorded from the running app.

Pick something

Pick Random & Play — chooses one and launches it.
Spin — the roulette, for when you want to watch it choose.
Skip — not that one; pick again.

The five modes

Mode	What it favours
Surprise	A balanced mix — the sensible default.
Discovery	Things you have never played.
Favourites	Only what you have starred.
Rediscover	Watched, but not for a long time.
Pure	Flat random, no weighting at all.

The details pane

Queues, playlists and the command palette

Up Next builds a queue so you are not choosing again in 40 minutes.
Build Playlist saves a set you can come back to.
Ctrl+K opens the command palette — the fastest route to anything in the app.

The command palette open over the Randomiser — The command palette. Start typing and it filters; it remembers what you use most.

Stats

3The Series Organiser

Point it at a messy folder and it works out which files belong together, then files them into folders — after showing you exactly what it intends to do.

Animation: scanning a messy folder and the detected series appearing — A real scan of a folder of loose files. Three series detected, one file it could not identify.

Select Folder — choose the messy folder.
Scan — it reads every filename and groups them.
Check the Review tab for anything it is unsure about.
Build Plan — see every move it proposes, before any of them happen.
Execute Plan — do it. Undo Last reverses the whole run.

Scan results showing detected series names and confidence scores — Each row shows the file, the raw token it found, the folder name it proposes, and how sure it is.

Why some files say "Unknown"

A folder is only created when 4 or more files share the same series name. One-offs and pairs are deliberately left where they are, so a single stray episode never spawns its own folder. In the screenshot above, random clip from phone.mp4 is alone, so it stays put.

If you want a small group filed anyway, right-click it and correct the folder name by hand.

Confidence scores

Score	Meaning
0.85 – 0.98	Very high. A clear pattern was recognised.
0.60 – 0.84	High. Several files agree on the name.
0.35 – 0.59	Moderate — flagged for review. Worth a look before executing.
Below 0.35	Low. Flagged for review, or left in place entirely.

Anything under 0.35 is flagged, not hidden. The Organiser would rather ask than guess wrong with your files.

It moves files. Read the plan.

Build Plan is not a formality — it is the last point at which nothing has happened yet. There is an undo, but the plan is easier.

5Online identification — what works, and what needs a key

The Organiser can look a file up online and fill in proper titles, studios, performers and dates. Which database it asks depends on what the file looks like, and one of them needs a free key from you.

Content	Database used	Setup needed
Adult scenes	ThePornDB	None. Works the moment you install.
Movies	TMDB (themoviedb.org)	Your own free TMDB key.
TV series	TMDB	Your own free TMDB key.
IMDb ratings	OMDb (omdbapi.com)	None. A key ships with the app.

Why not just use IMDb?

IMDb has no free public API — there is nothing to plug into. TMDB is the practical route: it has excellent movie and TV coverage and returns the IMDb ID for most titles, so the app can still link you straight to the IMDb page. If you specifically want the IMDb rating, OMDb supplies it.

Adding your TMDB key — about two minutes, free

The app has a window that walks you through it. In the Series Organiser, click 🎬 Movie/TV setup in the button bar (it sits next to 🔎 Identify online).

Sign up — click the button in step 1. It opens themoviedb.org/signup. Skip if you already have an account.
API settings — the button in step 2 takes you straight to Settings → API. Request a key and choose Developer; personal use is fine, and "for my own video library" is a perfectly good answer to what it asks.
Copy the value labelled API Key (v3 auth) — a long string of letters and numbers. Not the "API Read Access Token", which is much longer and starts with eyJ. That is the one people pick by mistake.
Paste it into the box, click 🔌 Test key, then Save.

Test key tells you straight away whether it works. A green tick means TMDB accepted it. A red cross means it did not — usually the Read Access Token pasted by mistake, or a key that has not finished activating on TMDB's side.

You can still press Save without testing — useful if you are offline — and the window will say plainly that the key was saved but not verified.

Your key is stored on your own PC, in %USERPROFILE%\.video_toolkit\ui.json, and is only ever sent to TMDB. It is not shared with us and it does not travel with your licence.

Until you add one, movies and TV are simply skipped when you click Identify online — adult scenes are still identified, because that database is built in. Nothing breaks; you just get no result for those files, and the app will offer to open this window for you.

IMDb ratings come along automatically — a shared OMDb key ships with the app, so there is no second signup. That key has a daily ceiling across all users, so if ratings stop appearing, grab your own free one at omdbapi.com and paste it into the OMDb box. Yours always takes priority.

Identification is not the same as organising.

The Organiser sorts files into folders by reading filenames — that needs no internet and no keys. Online identification is a separate, optional step that enriches what it found with proper titles and cast.

6Activating your licence key

Bought a licence after trying RollMyLibrary Free? Your key goes into the full app, which you download with the code emailed to you — the free portable .exe has no activation screen because it never needed one. The green Activate button in the full app's top bar is there from first launch.

The activation window with the licence key field and terms checkbox — Paste the key, tick the terms box, click Activate. It takes a second and needs internet once.

Click the green 🔑 Activate button in the top-right.
Paste your licence key — RML-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX, four blocks.
Tick I have read and accept the Terms.
Click Activate. The button disappears once you are licensed.

Two different codes arrive in your email. They are not interchangeable.

Download code — RML-XXXX-XXXX, two blocks. Gets you the installer from the website.
Licence key — RML-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX, four blocks. Unlocks the app.

"That licence key was not found" almost always means the download code was pasted in by mistake. Count the blocks.

One key covers 3 machines. Moving to a new PC? Deactivate the old one from inside the app to free a seat. If the old machine is dead or wiped, open a support ticket and we will free it for you.

7When something goes wrong

"That licence key was not found"

Check you are using the four-block licence key, not the two-block download code. The alphabet excludes 0/O and 1/I on purpose — copy and paste rather than typing.

"The activation server is temporarily unavailable"

That is our end, not yours, and your key is fine. Wait a few minutes and try again. An already-activated copy keeps working regardless — the app verifies your licence locally and only re-checks occasionally.

The free edition says a feature needs the full version

That is not a fault. RollMyLibrary Free catalogues: it scans your folders, builds the library and lets you browse, search, filter and sort it, so you can see it handle your own files before paying. Everything you then do with that library is the paid app — playing a video at all, the weighted random picker, Roulette, playlists, tags, Smart Views, Up Next, the duplicate finder, the stats dashboard, thumbnails and previews, and the whole Series Organiser. Nothing expires and nothing nags you on a timer; you can keep the free edition for as long as you want. Side-by-side comparison.

I bought a licence — do I have to import my library again?

No. Both builds keep the library in the same place (%USERPROFILE%\.video_randomizer\library.json), so the full app opens with your videos, folders, favourites, watched marks and tags already there. No second scan.

The free copy is a portable .exe and does not uninstall itself. Delete it once you are happy, or keep both — they read the same library either way.

I do not use VLC — can I use my own player?

Yes. ⚙ Settings → Randomizer → Media player lists VLC, MPC-HC / MPC-BE, PotPlayer, mpv, and System default player — that last one just uses whatever Windows already opens video files with, so it needs nothing installed and nothing configured. If yours is not on the list, choose Another player and point it at the .exe.

Two things worth knowing. The VLC Fast Launch section only appears when VLC is selected, because those switches are VLC's own and mean nothing to the others. And for Play all, players that cannot accept a list of files on the command line are handed a temporary .m3u playlist instead — otherwise they would open the first video, drop the rest, and look like they had worked.

No thumbnails or hover previews

Those need ffmpeg. The installer can fetch it for you; if you skipped that, the rest of the app still works, you just lose previews.

Nothing here fixed it

Open a ticket in our Discord or email support@rollmylibrary.com. Include what you were doing, the exact error text, and your Windows version. Never include your licence key.

1Getting started

Point it at your videos