I came to this thread after recently upgrading my DAP to an Android 12-based Hiby R4. After being concerned that I’d run into the same outcome, I was able to resolve this with System > Developer Options > Force Allow Apps on External.
The exact steps I followed are:
Insert empty SD card (512GB) into device
In Settings > Storage > SD card, select “Format as internal”
Install Roon ARC from the Google Play store
Navigate back to Settings > Apps > Roon ARC > Storage Used, select SD card
When I Download music via Roon ARC, it is now stored to the SD card
It’s been a day or so of high usage and it’s working as intended.
Note: I saw other reports of app instability with Roon ARC when forced onto an external storage device, but that has not been my experience.
I will monitor this thread for the future, but after 4 years I don’t think this is worth hoping for. I’ve cancelled my subscription, and I’m putting my Nucleus in a cabinet for now. I had two use-cases (home music and travel), and I think in the economy of 2026, paying a hundred dollars a year for “50% good” just doesn’t make sense. I’ll miss Roon as my front-end, but there are plenty of alternatives without subscription for the home music part, and the travel solution remains unsolved for now.
Great work. I just tried this on the FiiO M21 and I don’t get the option to format as internal, just format. I formatted on the FiiO, do I need to elsewhere?
I have had Roon for a few years now. I travel extensively for work so ARC is a major use case for me. The first year it just did not get used much as I had port forwarding issues that I finally figured out about 18 months ago. This was a game changer for me. The few other issues I had seem to have been fixed with the the latest updates.
I now have ONE major issue with ARC and it is no SD Card support. Like everyone else on this thread I don’t get why this option is not available? My first smart phone with an SD Card ~15 years ago had the option to read the music from the card, that was like the entire point.
Since I hate subscriptions I got the lifetime plan soon after trying it. So I will be waiting for this feature to come at some point down the line. But like everyone else on here I don’t get why a simple feature that literally every music app I have ever used has is not in ARC. Streaming works great when you have good WiFi or great cell connection. That said any road warrior knows that there are times when you won’t have either and a lot of times that you won’t even have internet.
