Backing up my database folder to a mac

I’d like to back up a copy of my Roon database to my mac from my Nucleus. The only option I see is to Dropbox and a drive connected to the Nucleus. Can somebody help, please.

Also I’m backing up my music folders to an external hard disk connected to my Mac, If I’d like to occasionally use Roon on my Mac with the external hard disk how do I synchronise to be the same as the Nucleus to include Tidal albums and playlists?

You need to set up a watched folder on the Mac: https://kb.roonlabs.com/Adding_Folders_Using_Path

You can’t really synchronize it, per se, because you can only run one Roon core at a time. But it isn’t difficult to migrate your database from one installation to another. Basically you back up your Roon database, then restore that database to the new Core on the Mac.

https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_How_do_I_move_my_Roon_library_to_a_new_computer%3F

Hi @Paul_Elliott,

Scott’s post above is spot on:

  1. You’ll need to create make sure that you have the Mac’s folder appropriately shared over the network, as outlined here. You can then select Add Network Share when choosing your backup location and use the path to this shared folder.
  2. You can’t sync data between the Cores, but once you’ve made a backup you can restore that backup on the Mac so that you can use it on that machine.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

Hi, I’m having difficulty setting up a backup of my music and the Roon database from my Nucleus to an external hard disk connected to my Mac. Is there anyone with experience with this setup who can go through the issues with me please?

Hi Slim,

Thanks for your response.

Yes I can do that, except that I’m using an external drive attached to my mac with music files copied from my Nucleus+ with a mixture of folders including my old itunes library and hi rez and MP3s not added to itunes. I added the external drive connected by USB using SMB.

cheers

Hi @Paul_Elliott.

What format is the external drive?

You should still be able to share a folder connected externally over the network so that it can be added in Roon — Have you shared the folder? Can you share a screenshot of the share settings?

Hi Dylan,

Thanks for reply about sharing folders. I’m trying plugging in the external drive directly to the Nucleus+, can you tell me if that will work or are the USBs in the Nucleus only for adding music?

Can I save a copy of my Roon database to my Mac lapbook? The only option I can see is dropbox or an external drive with my music connected to the Nucleus.

Hi @Paul_Elliott,

You can back up to a USB drive as long as it is formatted in a way that allows Nucleus to write to them. We recommend USB drives connected to Nucleus be formatted exFAT if you require compatibility, or EXT4 if you don’t.

Sure! You can either back up to a network folder as mentioned above, or you can back up to the USB drive and then move it over to the Mac and copy it over.

Hi @dylan,

Thanks, are you saying that the format that the drive is now APFS is unreadable by Nucleus? Because that would explain why I can’t see it connected to the Nucleus.
After Carbon Copy Cloner crashed while copying my music folders from the Nucleus to the external drive connected to my Mac the drive became read only. The only re-format option in disk utility was APFS with no variations of FAT.
If APFS won’t work with Nucleus it looks like I need to return the drive.

Hi @Paul_Elliott,

APFS is not a supported format for Nucleus.