Audio Analysis causes Server to crash constantly

Hello, have been using Roon Server for quite while.

Previously on a Mac (Mac mini i7 – ca. 2012) and – yikes – on a Nucleus+. Unfortunately I still run into an issue on the new mighty Nucleus+ that I supposed to be coming from the aging Mac :-(.

When I turn on Audio Analysis, the Roon server processes some songs and than crashes. On the Mac side the app simply “unexpectedly quits” which result in a lost connection until I restart the app. On the Nucleus the server (app) restarts by itself and each client connects again after the server is up and running.

This is a closed loop and I can count seconds until the next crash.

Luckily I tracked down the issue to Audio Analysis – if I turn it OFF the server works nicely (with the lack of the Audio Analysis benefits like Dynamic Range).

It does not make any difference how “fast” I set the process – Throttled or any Number of cores result in the same “behaviour”.

I looked the the community threads – obviously I have an issue with some/many songs the server chokes on when analysing. Unfortunately I can’t find out what causes the problem.

Following some threads I took a look at the (many) log files on the Nucleus* – I can see that songs are “dirty”…?!? I can listen to the files named there and Metadata-Tagger can read the songs/files displaying tags just fine.

How can I track down the issue and identify and resolve the cause?

Best, Lorenz

@support
You may need to assist here. I think it is hardware related but you may need to go in and take a look.

@Henry_McLeod

thanks for your reply and thanks for flagging my thread for @support (didn’t know how to di that – once I typed your name I figured it out :wink: ).

My assumption is (still) that the problem ist caused by my files: What makes you think it’s an hardware issue? Two totally different systems (a proven but aging Mac and a brand new-out-of-the-box Nucleus+)…

Best, Lorenz

OK, I see now it happens when either are the core. Do you have many MP3’s or other older lossy files in your collection? Or do you have files split between DSD and FLAC like I do. You could try linking to each folder separately in turn until you find the one that is causing the issue. Other than that I am at a loss!

My HD ist totally MP3 free. I even toss each and any download voucher that comes along vinyls that leads to MP3s… :-).

My library consists of the folders:

  1. HiRes-Files – the NEW Standard. I did buy a lot of HighRes files from sources like HD Tracks in the past. These have been carefully tagged using Matadatics. I do manipulate the names of the albums and the songtitles by adding and “___HR” at the and – file names are changes automatically as well to 100% differentiate these from #1 and #2.

  2. DSD-Files – occasional use. Only a couple from the same sources like HD Tracks. Handling of them very much the same. Tagging and manipulating files ("___DSD") in order to not get lost my the different versions in #1 and #3.

  3. Legacy files – Lots of them. Apple-Lossless, Apple-MP4 (AAC) – these come from the ages of iTunes Music Store and self ripped CDs from that era. Plus I convert all my HiRes-Files (#1 + #2) towards this type for use on my iPhone and iPod (car use) – when I do so I do (remove if necessary) the text manipulations.

When in Roon I can see – e.g. an album up to 3 times (DummyAlbum, DummyAlbum_HR, DummyAlbum_DSD). This makes identifying Albums/Songs fool proof.

With my “old” mac I was able to add/access the three folders individually. After formatting the internal disk of the Nucleus I was able to add my 3 Folders and sync the files/folders from the Mac to them. The Nucleus+ (at least I didn’t find out hot to do that) let’s me access/scan these folders individually (as mentioned before the Mac did let me do this).

My next two moves would be: kill the already imported files, and import DSD, HiRes and Legacy files in three steps trying t find out where and where the problem start. Other option would be to fill files and use may 3 Master folder on the Mac as star points one at a time.

BUT – if someone might have look (and know WHERE and WHAT to) at my log files might be another approach to this :slight_smile:

Best, Lorenz

I’ve had a dsd file that’s corrupted crash roon every time it scans…you will need to check the logs…or get @support to do so

Hey @Lorenz_Ismer — I’m sorry to hear about your troubles here, but I appreciate the detailed report!

I have enabled diagnostics on your account so our technical staff can get some more insight into what’s going on here. The next time your Core is active a diagnostics report will automatically be generated and uploaded directly to our servers

Once that’s been received, I’ll be sure to update this thread and pass the diagnostics over to the team for further analysis.

Regards,
Dylan

@dylan – thank for coming into this. PLEASE do NOT try to check the log NOW. I have just activated the licence on my MAC and try to analyse/scan one folder after the other. Therefore I had to deactivate the Nucleus license. If you check now, you will have either the wrong machine and/or result with no problem due to deactivated Audio Analysis.

I will reactivate the Nucleus, turn on Audio Analysis then and wait for some restarts when I’m back at home. Will drop a line here once this happens.

Best, Lorenz

1 Like

@wizardofoz – at the moment I have no idea on what and where (exactly) to look at the log files. But Roon support rocks – @dylanis already checking on that.

DSD is not to blame. I have just re-activated my license on my Mac analysed/scanned the DSD folder – all work fine. Will now have the HiRes-Folder scanned. Hope that narrows my problem down.

@dylan the Nucleus+ is now at YOUR service. I have re-enabled Audio Analysis (2 core to speed things up) and set the music folder to InternalStorage only.

Please note that the Nucleus crashes every 15-16 seconds. The client loses connection and reconnects afterwords. In the webpage of the Nucleus I can see this behaviour as well.

Will leave the Nucleus+ this way until you advice to change something.

Best, Lorenz

PS if want to take control again I only have like 2-3 second between the client is up and running, going to settings, turning the Audio Analysis off and “saving” this. Works 1 in 5 attempts – usually I’m too slow.

Not sure if this will work – but I try to attach a GIF version of an 25-seconds-ON-OFF-ON-OFF–screen movie…

IMG_2361_SMALL

Thanks, @Lorenz_Ismer!

I have enabled diagnostics on your account again. The next time your Core is active a diagnostics report will automatically be generated and uploaded directly to our servers

Once that’s been received, I’ll be sure to update this thread and pass the diagnostics over to the team for further analysis.

Thank you,
Dylan

@dylan thank (AGAIN!) for your patience. If you got a chance to download/receive anything last night FINE. If not, we have a slight problem. Internet is down at my home place since tonight and I have no idea, when it will up up again (service provider working on it – but…) :frowning:

@dylan the Internet has been fixes ;-).

Nucleus is up an – well – crashing from now on until you tell me that you have downloaded/received log files.

Thanks for keeping me informed, @Lorenz_Ismer!

I just wanted to confirm that we have received the diagnostics report and that I have passed them along to our technical team for analysis. I will be sure to update you ASAP when I hear back from them.

Regards,
Dylan

@dylan GREAT – will be patiently awaiting feedback.

Hey @Lorenz_Ismer, thank you for your patience as our technical staff has been investigating this report.

I spoke with a member of our technical team and they believe they have traced an issue back to this file: InternalStorage/iTUNES_MUSIC/Faith Hill/Cry/01 Free.m4a

They have asked that you remove this file from the watched folder in Roon and see if this stops the crashing you have been experiencing.

Regards,
Dylan

@dylan – thanks for looking into it.

After testing and checking I have good news AND bad news…

What I did:

A1) Remove storage for good.
A2) Copy the file/album on an USB stick, plug it into the Nucleus and use it as my sole storage.
A3) CRASH – obviously something is wrong with the files/album. Server crashes/restarts indefinitely.

Then I took the other approach:

B1) removed the USB-Storage (all fine than – but no storage)
B2) reinstalled internal storage, deleted THE album/files to be used as my sole storage
B3) CRASH – obviously the same problem exists with other albums/files as well

——————————————

Now my solution/workaround (weekend solution – which corresponds to the findings towards your suggestion)…

Over the weekend I was already able to narrow issue towards my “legacy” AND LOW-RES(!) files that have been accumulated over the years from iTunes and self ripped CDs.

C1) my HighRes-DSDs work fine
C2) my HighRes-FLACs work fine
C3) my LowRes-Apple Lossless’ work fine
C4) my LowRes-AACs dor CRASH.

then

C5) “resampled” 1/4 of the collection (BTW including the mentioned album (Faith Hill / Cry) using dbPoweramp 16. I actually used AAC to AAC conversion only – which (magically) works like a dishwasher for all the files/albums.
C6) activated this fraction as my sole storage. within Roon using an external USB-SSD. Roon did Audio Analysis on all of them without a problem.
C7) resampled the rest of my legacy files. Copied all legacy files to the USB-SSD and performed Audio-Analysis without a glitch.
C8) coped the full library (HR-DSDs, HR-FLACs, ALACs and my RESAMPLED LR-AACs) to the internal storage.

Everything up and running!!! :slight_smile: . On both my Nucleus and my Mac!

BUT – two questions remain:

D1) what was/is wrong with the corrupt files? Every audio play I know plays the flawlessly – even Roon does with Audio Analysis turned off. Tools line Audacity show a perfect waveform, tools like Matadatics show (perfect) tagging.

D2) why does this trigger Roon to crash completely? Why not an error message? Why skipped files?

Best, Lorenz

PS thanks again for your great support appreciated very much!

Glad to hear you’re up and running, @Lorenz_Ismer!

As to what the exact issue is with those particular files, I don’t have specifics. Based on the diagnostics report the technical team could see where the problem was occurring, but not specifics regarding those files. Normally, if there is an issue with a file, Roon would just skip it. It looks like there was something else going on here, though. I’m going to pass this information along to the technical staff so they can investigate further.

Happy listening!

-Dylan

2 posts were split to a new topic: Importing files causing Roon to crash