I agree that this is a staggering problem.
I was excited, amazed, and buying into this ecosystem throughout my trial. I had already ordered my Nucleus, and was getting ready to go Lifetime. I’ve installed the app across my audio setup, looked at upgrading my home internet connection — and am now seriously reconsidering all of it.
My DAP -the reason I want Roon in the first place- has only limited internal memory, does not have mobile internet, is locked down in terms of Android installation, and won’t allow me to use the trick mentioned above. I have a 1TB micro-SD in the device, and it is useless. I can’t use ROON to access the files on the card, and ROON can’t put files it can access on it either.
In other words, relying on Roon has gone from an exciting and inspiring solution to somehow being a guarantee I won’t get to bring the music I like with me. I am seriously considering sending back the Nucleus when it arrives. I don’t think I’ve ever gone from “truly amazed, will tell all my friends” to “deeply disappointed, glad I haven’t started raving about it yet” as fast as this on any service or product - and the fact that its over something as obvious as this is insult to injury.
I guess I’m just very sad about this. It’s so rare that you find a well-considered, beautiful solution like this for any problem nowadays, and it is just staggering to me that it fully falls apart over a feature most student apps have.