macOS Monterey 12.6.1
Mac mini (Late 2014)
3 Ghz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Roon Server latest version
Networking Gear & Setup Details
Mac mini with Roon Server Ethernet wired
Netgear switch
No VPN
Fiber internet
iPhone with Roon Arc via WIFI with a Netgear Orbi WIFI mesh router.
Connected Audio Devices
HDMI Marantz AV receiver
Number of Tracks in Library
87483 tracks
4908 albums
Description of Issue
When I try to download music to my iPhone, the downloads often get stalled / stuck when it’s albums with larges] files (dsf files).
And when I download multiple albums at the same time, some get stuck and some are marked fully downloaded, but when I play those they don’t get played from locally but streamed from the remote roon server.
When I turn on offline mode, those marked full download albums just won’t play.
This problem appeared recently I think, because I have small albums downloaded from some time before and those play normally offline.
Roon ARC latest version runs on my iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 16.1
Storage : 70 GB of 512 GB used.
After yesterday’s (27th Nov.) update, it seems to be little a bit better, but the problem remains.
I tried to download 3 albums again from scratch, let out work overnight, but it gets stacked again after “9 of 16 tracks”
You have my sincerest apologies for the delayed response here, we’ve been dealing with a higher-than-usual volume following our release and we’re working as quickly as we can to get back to everyone.
Following up on this thread, are you still running into download issues? If so, please remove Arc from your device, and power the device down. From there, restart the device, reinstall Arc, and let me know if you run into the same issue
It may be worth checking your settings on this subject as well, to see if you have “Download on Wi-Fi only” enabled.
Thank you for your message.
I did as you recommended : removed arc, reboot iPhone, reinstalled, checked that download only on wifi is on …
The problem is still the same:
Downloading CD quality albums is fine (16 bits 44 kHz - tracks less than 60 MB each)
Downloading high-res albums (dsf tracks from sacds - tracks bigger than 90 MB each) is still super slow, and it gets stuck after a few tracks. Never managed to download a whole album.
All this has been logged so many times with so many users , downloads on iOS are pretty much broken unless you download one album at a time, queue them up phone overheats, they all slow down ans stop when app is in background or goes to sleep. And more often the app will crash when it gets too hot.
My ISP fiber optic modem has an internal switch with 2 ethernet ports, each supporting up to 1GB.
My first Netgear gigabit switch is connected to one of the ports of the ISP modem.
My Orbi Pro router is connected to the other port of the ISP modem.
My Orbi Pro satellite is wired backhauled to the Orbi router (connected by an ethernet cable to the first Netgear gigabit switch).
My Mac Mini, where Roon server runs, is connected to another smaller Netgear gigabit switch via ethernet (wifi is disabled on that max mini). The smaller Netgear gigabit switch is connected to the first Netgear gigabit switch by ethernet cable.
The Wifi connectivity and speed in the house is quite good.
Here is a capture of the wifi speedtest from my iPhone, where runs Roon Arc (mobile data was disabled for the test).
Download: 437 Mbps
Upload: 337 Mbps
Thank you for your continued patience while our team investigates this further. After deep diving into things a bit more, we’re not yet able to pin down a specific issue outside of a general limitation around downloading a large number of hi-res albums to your mobile device.
There is also a current limitation on how downloads work and how our code is able to run on such devices. As of right now, the app will need to be in the foreground during download, as iOS will only allow Arc to run code (and continue to download tracks) for a few seconds after the app is put into the background. This specific limit is more on Apple’s end in this case.
All of that said, our team has discussed the importance of sharpening up both of these limitations, and are looking to find where we can add it to our future roadmap. We’re ways out from anything concrete, but fully understand the need and how helpful it would be to implement updates in this area.
I apologize I don’t have a concrete solution for you here, but will certainly keep you in the loop on any progressions made
Thank you for your answer. Having developed iOS applications myself, I understand that background download needs specific handling (background execution modes / background sessions) but even so I recall the speed can be severely restricted when the app is in background.
So your suggestion to keep Roon Arc in the foreground while downloading totally makes sense.
Now, even if I keep the app in the foreground, my iPhone would auto-lock after 30 seconds and it’s actually quite annoying to turn off auto-lock temporarily (needs to go into settings, find auto-lock etc…) and then turn it on again …
Could I suggest a work around : Roon Arc could propose a modal dialog with a “Start download” button, when clicking on that button, Arc would programmatically disable auto-lock until Arc is closed or put into background, or until I press a “stop download” button, or until all tracks are downloaded. If Arc is put into background while downloading, it would be nice if on restoring Arc to the foreground Arc would programmatically disable auto-lock again.
There must be a workaround to vastly improve the speed as PlexAmp manages to download about 14 tracks after putting in the background on a 19 track album. . If you can get to the speeds PlexAmp does for downloading then we won’t need to have background downloading as it’s lightning fast. This should be ARCs benchmark to achieve otherwise downloads are just not worth it as you can’t get them down in any decent time, phones battery drains quicker to. It’s not a good user experience.
Thanks for giving it a try on the newest build. Our team is still actively investigating potential issues around this download issue, and testing with the specific tracks would be helpful. Can you please upload the files in question below:
Thanks for your patience here. Our QA team could play every track from the Album in both Airplane mode and Offline mode enabled in the settings. However, there are a few important things to note on the subject:
Using an iPhone 13 pro running ios 16.2, it took 35 minutes for everything to successfully download on the device. The overall file size was 7.94 GB.
What could be happening here, is that the tracks are not fully downloaded prior to attempting to play them.
As the next step, can you please remove and try to download the media again, but this time:
re-download without sending Arc to the background.
re-download with avoiding locking the screen of your device.
This will take some time and patience, but may very well solve your issue
I tried again downloading only this single album, with auto-lock disabled and not touching the phone at all to make sure Arc is always in the foreground.
It worked indeed - the album was done downloading in 27 minutes.
I think I will eventually listen to my DSD albums online because it’s not very practical to download the albums this way. I don’t mind it takes a long time to download, but having to leave the phone untouched so that Arc stays in the foreground and having to the disable auto-lock temporarily makes it just unusable for me.
Anyway, thank you very much to you and your team for the patient support and investigations !
Thanks for the update! And I completely understand your thoughts here. The good news is, we’re working hard on improving Arc in many aspects, and the speed of hi-res downloads is on the list!
As we continue to push new releases, I am confident your experience will improve
