How can this not be a feature? Is it a joke??
I bought a DAP and a 1.5tb Micro SD just to realize my old 256gb iPhone X is better at downloading my music offline. What’s the difference of storing/reading music from a SD card from the internal storage?
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The main request with the most votes:
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/arc-support-external-storage-eg-sd-and-micro-sd-cards/219204?u=suedkiez
Any comments?
Roon very rarely comments on future feature plans, it only leads to grief
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Well, they should, @jamie. This is not a small feature improvement we’re talking about here. This is core functionality that was demanded two years ago and is highly ranked in our community. Furthermore, the whole local downloads group of features is flawed. For instance, I download a playlist of all the tracks I liked, but they do not individually appear when I browse an album offline that contains a track I liked.
I understand that a private company is not a democracy, but this is a significant roadblock without any technical explanation. At least give us a roadmap.
Coincidentally, I’m a user of a great piece of software named Infuse (developed by Firecore) to play movies from my Jellyfin instance, and their manager has a clear roadmap published: Upcoming Features (updated 8/27/26) - Suggestions - Firecore.
Neither Roon nor Firecore are Apple, protecting super secret industrial plans. Roon chose to build a community, so take care of it!
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Why is this still not a standard feature? I just bought a cheap small tabletop use to store music on the road. Shocked that Roon ARC still doesn’t support extra storage.
This issue, plus the hidding of the Android navigation buttons, makes RoonARC completely unusable. I actually have to lock my screen amd unlock it to get the navigation buttons to get out of the app. Plus I can’t use the 2TB microSD card in the tablet.
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This is really incredible.
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Roon might not support your decision to do this, but let’s just say your Android phone might have a useful option in Developer Options that can make Roon Arc work on external storage. I’m using it right now on an Xperia 1 VI and so far, so good 
And my downloads are in progress on my 1tb SD card (despite Roon saying “internal storage”) lol:
As with anything that uses an SD card, generally the faster the card, the better. I can’t see there being any significant performance bottlenecks here with just caching and playing music, though.
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Thats great. Did you have to move the Roon Arc app itself to the SD card then, or does it just default to the sd card?
I already had it installed and hadn’t synced anything yet, so I had to move the app over, but I could test installing a new app that doesn’t natively support moving to SD and see where it lands. I think it would be a mistake for this feature to default every new app install to external rather than just allowing every app to be moved over like it says it does.
It appears at least on my phone, if you install new apps after enabling this option, they will default to the micro SD card. That’s a minor annoyance for me, but not enough for me to turn off the feature (and I’m a little scared to see what would happen to Arc if I did).
I don’t want to move ARC to a storage card, I just want ARC to support music stored outside of ARC which can be anywhere else including a storage card.
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How is it possible that 2 years later ARC still cannot see or select an internal memory card? Come on ROON!!! It’s 2024!
I literally purchased a brand new Fiio DAP to use roon arc and listen to my collection offline.
That’s not going to work with this tiny internal storage!
This cannot be that difficult! Every music player in the universe has the ability to see all available storage!
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I can confirm it works this way! Thanks a lot!
This topic has been raised in the discussions, and there was a positive reply from the development team in … 2023. But this feature is still unavailable, and the topic was closed after 45 days. It’s BAD!
I have just got myself one of the first Astell & Kern small Activo P1 players for travel as soon as US shipping has become available. I’ve also added a 1.5TB SD card to it to hold my Hi-Res music collection with no compression or downscaling. I could not even imagine that Roon ARC did not support such a trivial feature as downloading music to the SD card… It was a huge disappointment to discover it…
I (and others) can use a temporary workaround by connecting to the cloud storage (or PC) and simply copying files. But that way I will not be able to use the incredible Roon indexing and context info, meaning being limited to “regular” Android player features…
Let alone downscaling the collection when it grows beyond 1.5TB. Adjusting download quality is an amazing feature that is only available in Roon ARC (similar to streaming services), and in no other player that I am aware of… It IS important for all people with huge music collections or limited SD card sizes.
To the best of my knowledge, plenty of Android apps support SD card storage, and there are a number of Android-based Hi-Res players out there, including reputable brands like Astell & Kern, FiiO, and others, as well as many Android smartphones with SD card slots.
Why was not this feature, planned for 2023 releases, not added yet? Can you kindly add it to the release plan?
Thanks in advance,
Leo
I tried this on my iBasso dx260 DAP and I still couldn’t get Roon ARC to see the external storage. I tried reinstalling ARC after activating the Developer option setting, but no go.
Anyone else have a hack of this sort for an Android DAP?
I definitely echo the other comments, this is really annoying that Roon ARC doesn’t allow to download to external storage. I’ve had to manually add my music and go through Poweramp Pro, but this doesn’t help with my Roon playlists.
I too purchased a DAP for ARC and no SD card support is ridiculous.
Can’t believe such a basic feature is not available. Please for the love of all things holy and unholy enable this feature now!
My DAP relies on sdcard for storage =(
2 Likes
Its nuts this still doesn’t exist.
Overview:
With the increasing demand for high-quality music streaming and offline access, the ability to utilize MicroSD cards for storing downloaded tracks would provide a convenient solution for users who want to maximize storage on their mobile devices.
Benefits:
Increased Storage Capacity: Many mobile devices have limited internal storage. MicroSD card support would allow users to expand their storage capabilities easily.
Offline Listening: Users can take their music library on the go without worrying about device storage limitations, making Roon ARC even more versatile.
User Flexibility: This feature would provide users the freedom to manage their downloaded files as they see fit, whether for organization or transferring files between devices.
Proposed Implementation:
Settings Option:
Introduce a settings option within Roon ARC to select the MicroSD card as the default storage location for downloaded files.
File Management:
Allow users to manage downloaded content directly from the app, including the option to delete or move files.
I believe that adding MicroSD card support would be a significant enhancement to Roon ARC and further establish it as a leading choice for audiophiles on the go.
Thank you for considering this request. I’m excited to see how Roon continues to evolve and I appreciate your ongoing commitment to delivering exceptional user experiences.
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