Playing to grouped AirPlay devices, the audio sometimes plays out of sync when resuming after pause or starting a new session. It doesn't happen every time. I haven't been able to determine anything that triggers it happening. Eventually it will play in sync again, sometimes after a considerable time, but I also can't work out why.
I’ve tested the speakers/devices with other software that can sync AirPlay (LMS and Airfoil) and they work as expected, the sync issue only happens when using Roon.
The devices are three Dynaudio Music wifi AirPlay speakers which only support AirPlay 1, and WiiM Pro, using Compatibility Mode in Roon to force AirPlay 1 to the WiiM.
Describe your network setup
Roon running on Intel i3 NUC, connected by ethernet. 3x Dynaudio Music speakers on 5GHz wifi (AirPlay 1) and a WiiM Pro on ethernet (AirPlay Compatibility Mode selected in Roon). Router is RT-AX86U Pro
Hi @matt,
Thanks for reaching out to us about this issue.
I think the next step here is to enable some diagnostics on your account so our technical staff can get some more insight into what’s going on here.
However, before I enable this feature, I’d like to ask for your help ensuring we gather the right information.
First, can you please reproduce the issue once more and note the time at which the error occurs. Then respond here with that time, and I’ll make sure we review the diagnostics related to that timestamp.
Thanks Daniel. The issue is happening now (1pm 26/02/25 Australia/Sydney).
I’ve narrowed it down a bit further. If I skip tracks or pause from the Roon app, when replay resumes it’s sometimes (but not always) out of sync. I haven’t noticed it going out of sync when just letting Roon play.
I’ve found that when the group is out of sync, using a hardware button on one of the speakers to pause and then resume causes it to sync up again. Pausing/resuming from the Roon app doesn’t fix it, it appears to only work using the hardware.
Can you please confirm how you are grouping these speakers? Are you using Roon to creat the group, or are you grouping via Mac and then having Roon play to the default output? Does the issue happen in both methods?
We were able to enable logging for your account and looked over the 1PM timestamp but it looks like there was quite a lot happening then. Can you please share a new timestamp and include the track affected so that we can also use this as a data point to analyze the logging? Thanks!
I played Pawnshop by Kara Jackson, around 27/02/2025 12:25pm Australia/Sydney
It initially started playing out of sync. I paused and restarted a couple of times using Roon controls, it was still out of sync. Then I paused and restarted from the physical button on a speaker, and it has gone into sync.
The issue happens when using grouping in Roon (see screenshots)
As a workaround, I have tried used Airfoil running on my mac to group the speakers and then output from Roon to Airfoil as a single output. The sync issue has never happened with Airfoil.
Thank you for the follow-up! Do you by chance notice if it’s a specific endpoint that falls out of sync each time, or does it change to different endpoints at different times?
A few additional troubleshooting steps for you to try:
Check Network Stability – Since AirPlay relies on the network, ensure all devices are connected to a strong and stable network. If possible, use wired Ethernet connections for critical devices, see if hardwiring your endpoints results in the same sync issue.
Restart Devices – Power cycle your router, Roon Server, and all affected endpoints to rule out temporary network glitches.
Verify AirPlay Grouping – Ensure all devices in the group support AirPlay 2, as mixed AirPlay 1 and 2 devices can cause synchronization issues. Test out enabling the Airplay compatibility toggle within the device settings in Roon.
Adjust Resync Delay – In Roon, go to Settings > Audio, find the affected devices, and adjust the Resync Delay under device settings. Start with a small value (e.g., 500ms) and increase if needed.
The three Dynaudio Music speakers stay in sync with each other, the WiiM does not
The WiiM is on ethernet. The Dynaudio speakers are WiFi only. I haven’t had any other problems with WiFi. The signal is strong and I don’t have many devices on the band.
The Dynaudio Music speakers only support AirPlay 1. I have compatibility mode turned on for all of the devices in the group.
This isn’t a viable fix because the sync error is not consistent
If this is the case, are you able to test out moving your WiiM over to wifi and see if the same issue persists? Typically, this is counter-intuitive, as we highly suggest hardwiring any devices if possible, but we’d be curious to see the results in your case.
It may also be worth checking and reinstalling the latest firmware across your devices if you haven’t already. Thank you!
I’ve tried both of those suggestions. I tried the WiiM beta firmware which didn’t help so I rolled it back. The WiiM was initially set up on wi-fi before I connected it by a cable.
We have confirmed it only occurs on the Wiim device - are you able to test different file formats to see if that plays a role in the behavior?
We’ll need to review a fresh diagnostic report with our development team as a next step, could you please reproduce the issue and share the track name again? Your prior example unforuantly isn’t showing up on our end.
A fresh example of out-of-sync playing is “Phlox” by Emma Rawicz at 4:38pm, 2025/03/06 Australia/Sydney
Here’s a summary of everything I can tell you so far:
I have tested with three different endpoints: a Raspberry Pi running Shairport-sync, the WiiM Pro and the Dynaudio speakers described above. Roon can not keep any two of the device types in sync.
I’ve tested with all devices on Wi-Fi and with Shairport and the WiiM Pro on ethernet
I’ve tested with two different computers as the Roon server, a Linux i3 Nuc and an iMac
All testing was done with Compatibility Mode enabled in Roon (the Dynaudio speakers only support AirPlay 1)
The issue I’m describing happens when streaming directly to the endpoints in question and grouping them in Roon.
For testing purposes, I have tried removing Roon from the equation and using different players: Airfoil and Lyrion Music Server. Both other apps are able to play in sync to all endpoints. I think this indicates the problem is with Roon’s implementation, and not the hardware or my network configuration.
I don’t recall having this problem with earlier versions of Roon. I believe it might have started around the time Roon released support for AirPlay 2, although I can’t say for certain.
Thanks for the timestamp! We were able to capture the event in a fresh diagnostic report, and have added it to the development ticket.
I’m not able to speak on specific timelines quite yet, but the ticket is in their queue for additional review and analysis. As soon as they share more information with us, we’ll follow up on the thread to let you know immediately!
In the meantime, we can verify the issue is specifically related to Airplay playback, so if there’s any wiggle room to play content over a different streaming protocol, you’ll likely not experience the same issues.
We’ll let you know as soon as we have more info! In the meantime, you can try to group the devices via a MacOS PC and use the system output of that Mac PC to send the stream over. Hope that helps!
Thanks Noris, that’s what I’m doing. I use Airfoil on a Mac to group the speakers.
As I mentioned before, AirFoil has no issues with keeping the speakers in sync, which makes me think that this is indeed an issue with Roon’s AirPlay implementation
Based on the errors we’re seeing from your diagnostic report, we’re confident our team will be able to push a fix to rid you of your sync issues. We should have more information to share soon!
