Downloaded a number of songs prior to a vacation. Have sec now set up on offline mode as I don’t want to use Data. My core is also shut down at home. All of my downloaded songs I’m Arc are displaying no album artwork. Is this normal functionality?
Moved the topic from Uncategorized to Roon Software Discussion
I and others had this at least in the past. I have not experienced it in months, though. I am not sure if it is supposed to be fixed or what exactly the expected behavior is if the core is offline, but I believe you must load every album once in ARC before you go offline, so that the artwork gets cached - which, if still the case, is not ideal.
Generally, the Core being online works better.
Below is a thread from Early Access testing from a few months ago, but since then the behavior probably had improved as far as I can tell, at least for ARC’s offline mode for a limited time. However, my Core is always on, so I’m not sure on your case.
1 Like
Thanks! What do you mean “load” album prior to the core being offline?
Going to the album in the ARC app - which can be annoying if there are lots (if this still is necessary, not sure)
Interesting. I’m wondering if this is somehow also related to an issue I have reported a while back.
Based on on the remark about caching I started scrolling through the list of albums. I noticed that for quite some albums the artwork was loading as I was scrolling through the list. So perhaps that is enough. I’ll keep an eye on it during my next drive.
Yeah probably. It should be obvious anyway, if the artwork starts to appear when one does this while online
I just experienced the same issue with Arc on a flight, in offline mode there was no artwork for multiple playlists tracks despite all the tracks being downloaded beforehand. Can this be flagged as a bug to be fixed?
This was reported long ago, several times and also in threads more recent than this one here. It seemed sometimes worse, sometimes better, then returned again. Here is the thread in Early Access, but it was also marked as solved eventually. However, I just tried again and I still have the same issue in ARC B296 (Early Access), thanks for pointing out. I will ask to reopen again:
EDIT: I am being told that although the thread was closed as “resolved”, internal development tickets have been created for both issues mentioned in this EA thread, for my original issue and the “Now Playing” issue in the final post.
1 Like
Thanks for the follow up Suedkiez. Now that the file/playlist downloads work reliably compared to in August 2023, I was surprised to see this issue occur with the artwork.
Yeah, annoying. Has been going on for years and I don’t get what’s so difficult about caching images.
1 Like
I’d really love to see Offline use improved. Search is a significantly worse experience limited to the download page. You’re forced to sort by Date, Size or Format and frequently if I havent opened an album in a while the page wont load making playback of majority of downloads impossible without Playing All or Shuffling via the 3 dot menu.
Missing album art is annoying but being unable to play these tracks is an utter failure of the feature.
Issues observed on an iPhone 13
1 Like
Offline listening is the only option for those not living in more significant metro areas or mountainous places. I’m in the Burlington Vermont area and do a lot of road traveling all over New England with annual drives back home (Virginia Beach). Roon Arc has the worst offline experience compared to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, and even Qobuz. It isn’t just album art. I can live without that.
By far, the biggest annoyance is the disconnecting from the Roon server as cell service changes or drops. In a 10-minute drive between my house and kids’ schools, I get three drops in offline listening due to changing cell signals. My expectation is offline listening means I am listening from the hard drive in my phone without any reliance on the internet. But, Roon Arc keeps trying to call home, and when it doesn’t like the answer, it kicks back to the main screen and in many cases stops playing music.
All other music apps remain in offline mode regardless of their success in connecting to an online server.
Despite Roon Arc not having many of the features these other apps have, I still prefer it because of the investment in Roon, Roon experience, and the investment in my own music library. It seems to be a simple fix to make Arc’s offline mode present the user with an offline experience. I’m not saying it technically needs to change the calling back to the home server, but at least give us a UX that doesn’t make it obvious it is.
1 Like