I’ve removed all the system detail stuff as I’m sure ROON will have enough data by now about people’s problems with pretty standard kit.
I run ROON on my Apple Mac at home quite happily. The software is fully up to date. Several months back I bought a car with Apple CarPlay and subsequently installed ARC on my phone and enabled it on the Mac.
It’s been next to useless trying to play music in the car. It’s worked just a few times but usually comes up with ‘Poor Connection’. ‘Loading’ or ‘Cannot connect to ROON core’. All this despite the other apps in CarPlay (eg Goggle Maps) working perfectly. Mobile signal is very variable round here - anything from 2 bars of 3G to 2 bars of 5G depending on where I am.
Then I had a thought - does ROON have to be running in the foreground on the Mac all the time ?
Seems like when the Mac goes to sleep (I’m sure most Mac users would enable this rather than having the computer running full on for hours when away from it) the ROON core cannot be discovered.
If this is the case it seems nonsensical to need a Core device running 24/7 full on just to get an hour of sos music via ARC.
Can calls to the ROON core ‘wake’ the Mac ? Am I on the right track or is this just a series of coincidences.
What have other Mac / ROON users experienced with ARC and CarPlay ?
Thanks
My Roon core is a Mac mini, and I have used ARC in the car, both direct from my iPhone and via CarPlay. Both work well, even in 1-2 bar cellular conditions.
I did initially have trouble, getting ‘poor connection’, but someone in the community told me to check with my ISP to see if they were impacting port forwarding. I did, and the ISP made a change that made everything work. I don’t know exactly what they did, but when I told them I am trying to stream music from my home and that port forwarding was not working, they took care of it quickly.
Yes your core has to be on.
I download music to the device for spotty/no reception.
No.
Your core has to be running all the time for ARC to work.
You can install RoonServer, so that the full Roon app does not need to be open. RoonServer runs in the back ground but your Mac will still need to be awake.
The Tidal/Qobuz servers run 24/7. These would be more suitable for those mobile users not running their Roon servers 24/7.
You can tell I’m not a techie . . .
On my Mac, ROON starts automatically whenever the computer is turned on.
Not sure what the ‘Sleep’ function on the Mac actually does - is it just a screensaver ( ie no picture) or does it ‘sleep’ any running programmes ?
The Mac is switched on 24/7, aside from the occasional powercut.
I’ve asked my ISP to look into the port forwarding comment given in the thread above.
Hi @Stephen_Judge,
Thank you for reaching out.
With ARC, your Roon Server functions like a small streaming service server, actively handling requests to/from your phone through the ARC-designated open port in your router. Desktops and laptops aren’t designed for 24/7 server use and have power- and RAM-saving sleep settings. Roon and ARC are active processes; a sleeping computer can’t run them.
Many Mac users on this forum navigate to #tinkering or #roon and find third-party apps like Amphetamine on the Mac App Store will keep their computer awake automatically to prevent logouts with ARC on the go.
The tech support team would be happy to investigate any diagnostics you’re receiving in the Roon → Settings → ARC page. You mentioned a port forwarding issue; there might be steps we can take in the meantime in your router settings that will resolve or improve your on-the-go connectivity before reaching out to your ISP.
Thank you for your patience and we’re here to support.
Well, progress has been made I think.
Contacted my ISP and it looks like the port allocated for ARC had not been opened !
What a frustrating six months trying other options 
They’ve now done this and it seems it’s all working now, although I’ve not been for a drive and used Apple Carplay yet.
On the sleep issue - when I’m using normal ROON with my Ipad as controller it does not seem to matter if my Mac has gone to sleep. Perhaps it is only a screensaver function ( the one in the drop down from the Apple logo in the top left hand corner).
Perhaps, if its not already there, it might be helpful to add a ‘check port opening with your ISP’ comment in ROON / ARC setup guide.
Cheers everyone
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