Airport Express 2 issues with Roon (only)!

Support
1

Hi,
I have a very simple set-up: Nautilus One connected by Ethernet cable to my server/network.
I am running several speaker set-ups via Airport 2 from my Nautilus One: all good, however I also have a second generation Airport Express running 7.8.1 added to ‘Home’ if I connect to Nautilus One via Airport 2 as ‘Main Speaker’ or try to connect it in ‘Group’ then nothing plays until I take it out of the system again?
The AE works perfectly via Airplay 2 from my iMac, but not from my Nautilus One: any ideas out there?
Many thanks,
Phil

2

Hi @Philip_Robinson,

I’m afraid we’ll need to clarify a few details to take action on this thread.

Diagnostics indicate that you have an iMac-hosted RoonServer instance called “Nucleus One,” but we don’t see a Nucleus One unit associated with your account in diagnostics.

Please ensure that both of the routers you’ve mentioned are on the same subnetwork - the second router should be in Bridge/Access Point mode or equivalent.

Airplay2 announcements rely on mDNS (bonjour) traffic, but Apple’s native Airplay2 stack has additional fallbacks not available in Roon. One of two things is wrong - either Airplay2 network traffic isn’t arriving at the Nucleus One as expected, or the Nucleus One is not handling that traffic as expected.

At your convenience, please use the directions found here and send over a set of logs from the Nucleus One (not the iMac server) to our File Uploader?

We’ll watch for your response. Thanks!

3

Hi, many thanks for your timely response; I used the directions as posted, but the file uploader would not upload the ‘Roon Server’ folder (I sent the screenshot).
I can assure you that I use a Nucleus One server; all good.
I actually only mention one Router, the Nucleus One is connected to it: an Express VPN Aircove-510

4

Hi @Philip_Robinson ,

The only folder we would need would be the Logs subfolder, not the entire RoonServer folder. Can we kindly ask that you upload the contents of this RoonServer/Logs folder to the uploader (preferably as a .zip/etc archive) and let us know once uploaded? Thank you!

5

OK thanks (you’re talking to a ‘thicko’ here when it comes to IT acronyms, et al): Logs sub-folder zipped and uploaded.
Kind regards,
Phil

6

Hi @Philip_Robinson,

Thank you for sending those over! To confirm, have you also attempted to toggle the AirPlay compatibility setting before starting playback?

Here is more info on how to access the setting:

Let me know if it helps!

7

Hi, many thanks for your detailed reply; I can confirm that I have turned on ‘Compatibility Mode’ for my Airport Express 2 in the Roon interface, unfortunately however this has made no difference, Roon, whilst showing connected to my Airport Express 2 is not playing through it as a main speaker and as part of a group it blocks any and all other sound outputs completely. The Airport Express 2 works perfectly from my iPhone and iMac however. As mentioned previously, the Airport Express 2 is also shown in ‘Home’ on my iPhone.
Hope we can get this issue resolved somehow?
Many thanks,
Phil

8

Hi again; in fact after I had turned on ‘Compatibility Mode’ and sent my last reply, I tried a Nautilus One reboot to see of that made any difference and indeed it did: my Airport Express 2 appears to be working perfectly with Roon now; a small miracle!
Many thanks for your help and kind regards,
Phil

9

Hi @Philip_Robinson ,

Glad to hear that everything is working as expected with the compatibility mode turned on, this is wonderful news. Happy listening!