Always adding music to library and slowing down remotes

Support
#1

Roon Core Machine

Mac Mini 2018, 3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7, Big Sur 11.5.2, 64GB RAM
This machine is used as the Roon Core, a Plex server and to manage household Time Machine backups.

Music files are stored on two laptops, connected by wifi, both running latest Big Sur:

  • MacBook Pro 2016, 2.9 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM
  • MacBook Air 2021, M1, 16GB RAM

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Ethernet connection to Netgear switch > EE router > Apple AirPort Extreme in Bridge mode for wifi
TP Link 2000Mbps powerline > Airport Express in Bridge mode provides wifi for a remote part of the house.

Connected Audio Devices

Main room: Raspberry Pi 4 connected by ethernet, running RoPieeeXL, with Allo DigiOne Signature HAT, Coax connection to Naim DAC.

Back room: Airport Express > Optical output > Bose system

Number of Tracks in Library

31,000 on the MacBook Pro
67,000 on the MacBook Air

Description of Issue

The Roon system/ remotes slow down to an unusable pace when Adding Music To Library happens, and it happens several times a day. It feels like Roon spends more time scanning libraries than letting us play them.

Roon seems to start a new scan every time one of the laptops holding the source files is opened or woken from sleep. This coincides with when we usually want to play an album or radio station, so it has made using Roon rather frustrating.

What can I do to fix this? I’m sure it didn’t happen when first started using Roon, but that may have been because it only sourced music files from one laptop. Now we use it to combine two household libraries, it seems to struggle.

Any advice is most welcome. Thank you! :slight_smile:

Screenshot 2021-09-17 at 09.03.37
Screenshot 2021-09-17 at 09.03.371508×938 137 KB

#2

Hello @Noel_Cottle,

Thanks so much for getting in touch about this. Roon tends to be resource intensive when importing or scanning your library and, depending on your library size, this can take a while.

I wonder, have you adjusted your analysis speed?

That should help manage when do you want Roon to focus on this process, or allow the resources to go towards listening to music.

#3

Don’t use WiFi connections for your shared music this is your main issue

Power line networking is not recommended nor is apple networking double whammy there I’m afraid

See the help pages here

#4

Thanks @rebeka - I’ve now ‘Throttled’ the background analysis. Hopefully that will improve things. :+1:

1 Like
#5

Thanks @wizardofoz

I didn’t know about the Apple routers. I’ll try switching over to our ISP’s router and see if things improve. Luckily we don’t really use the powerline areas of the house for music.

Any recommendations as to the best way to get Roon working with the music stored on household laptops?

…although I’m not very clear on why Roon is always triggering library scans just because the music is stored over a wifi connection. Can you help me understand? Thanks :slight_smile:

#6

buy a big USB drive and copy all the music to it… plug that into the core machine. disable the old locations and add the music folder on the USB drive. keep the old locations as a backup if you like but dont link them in the storage settings - remove them once you library is caught up of the USB drive.

because wifi is SLOOOOOOOW compared to USB or Wired LAN speed, its like one way at a time (its not able to send and receive at the same time) nor do anything to multiple machines at one time, ie using bucket brigade to fight a fire instead of a big hose. and using the fire fighting analogy you only have one bucket for several fires … verses wired where you have as many hoses as fires.

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#7

Hey @Noel_Cottle,

We’re really grateful that you’ve brought up this topic and that you were so engaged with our community and our team.

I wanted to take a moment to follow up and see if things are still well on your end, or, if there’s anything we can do to help :nerd_face: .

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#8

Hi Rebeka

I’m following @wizardofoz 's advice. I’ve bought a big USB SSD and copied all the music over today. It’s plugged into the MacMini Core machine. It seems that any Roon scans now just take a few minutes. :+1:

To keep this library up to date, I’ve set up the USB drive to sync with music folders on two household laptops daily. We’ll see how well it works :crossed_fingers:.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

1 Like