Blue circle spinning continuously despite 'complete' status in music library (ref#I5R9KW)

Support
1

Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· My "adding to music to library" blue circle has been spinning for about 4 weeks now, although It says "complete"

Tell us about your home network

· netgear

2

Hi @david_klipper,

Thanks for writing in and for sharing your report!

If you haven’t yet, I’d safely stop Roon Server from running, and fully reboot your server machine.

Then, see if the same behavior occurs. We’ll be monitoring for your reply, thank you! :raising_hands:

3

This has been done more times than you could conceivably imagine. This does not do anything.

4

@benjamin

I tried to upload a video, however, this system will not allow that.

5

@benjamin

It is STILL spinning.

6

Hey @david_klipper,

Thanks for the update! Sorry to hear you’re still having issues! To confirm, what is your total number of tracks? A fresh Roon Server diagnostic shows that Roon is tracking 143,730 tracks (with 4,893 hidden) and 8,705 albums. This massive difference suggests Roon might be indexing a much larger collection than expected, perhaps including your entire TIDAL library or a duplicate storage path.

The logs show “endmutation” tasks taking upwards of 101 to 135 seconds to complete. Normally, these should take milliseconds or a few seconds. This indicates the database is struggling to commit changes, likely due to the volume of data or underlying file issues.

Some next steps for you to investigate:

Go to Settings > Library > Skipped Files. If Roon is repeatedly trying and failing to scan a corrupt file, it will cause the spinner to persist. If you see a long list here, it may point to specific files that need to be removed or repaired.

Investigate the Track Count:

  • Since the log shows 143k tracks, check Settings > Storage to ensure you don't have redundant folders watched (e.g., both a parent and a sub-folder).
  • Also, check if you have "Sync TIDAL Library" enabled, as a very large TIDAL collection will keep the spinner active as it refreshes metadata for those 100,000+ extra tracks.

With that, we’re also seeing hundreds of corrupt files during the scanning process. I would use a third-party app like dbpoweramp to analyze the health of your tracks, and make any repairs to corrupt files.

Roon is also hitting a wall with specific .m4a files in your King Crimson folders.

  • Even though Roon supports .m4a, this container can hold different types of audio. On Linux-based servers (like a SonicTransporter or NUC), Roon often relies on specific system codecs to "unpack" these files.
  • What to check: These files might be ALAC (Apple Lossless) or encoded with a codec your Server doesn't currently recognize. They could also be old files with DRM (Digital Rights Management) from the early iTunes days, which Roon cannot play.

Hope this helps, thanks David! :+1:

7

Benjamin

Thank you.

Is it possible to speak with someone on how to fix this stuff? I am not a young tech person.

How to I clear the skipped files? The list is really long.

All of King Crimson is in .m4a. I will convert this to flac.

I have dbpoweramp and perfecttunes. How do I use that to analyze my tracks? I do not want to make a mistake and delete stuff. Over 4T is live recordings, so they will have no “proper” metadata in accurateRip.

I do have 143K tracks, it is about 7.1T currently. Over 4T is live recordings, so they will have no “proper” metadata in accurateRip.

I have never used tidal or other streaming services, I have everything on a sonictransporter :slight_smile:

Thank you.

David

8

I was able to clear out the skipped files. Most of them were .mp3 text with zero bytes. That folder is now empty.

I only have 1 folder in storage. That was a mistake of mine years ago, Andrew at SGC helped me with that.

I did this yesterday evening. It is still spinning this morning as I type.

9

Ben

It is still spinning and my system still randomly stops playing.

I have restarted everything: Router, SonicTransporter, Roon and all of my Roon endpoints.

The “skipped files” tab is empty.

The “clean up library” is at 0 except for the 6 files that are not associated with a storage location. This has been like this for years and will not delete.

Cache has been cleared, again.

10

Hi @david_klipper,

Thanks for the follow-up! We’re only offering support via the community at this time, so you’re in the right spot!

This is a key piece of information, as Roon will continuously try to identify your content unless you tell it otherwise. That said, The logs tell the complete story here.

On April 12 at ~2:14 AM, your 143,735-track metadata queue finished processing successfully — it hit zero. Then at 8:33 AM the same day, Roon restarted (likely the SonicTransporter’s scheduled maintenance window), and the entire queue of 143,735 tracks was immediately re-enqueued from scratch. As of your most recent log (April 15, ~3:40 AM), it still has ~42,000 tracks remaining.

The root cause is the 4,193 albums stuck in the identification retry queue. Every single log entry from the past three days shows this same number: retry queue has 4193 albums but none ready for retry yet. These albums failed cloud identification, and the retry backoff timer keeps deferring them, causing Roon to continuously re-process the same large block of your library. This is what triggers the full 143,735-track re-queue on every restart.

What to do:

  1. Check Settings → Library → and make sure "Background audio analysis" is not set to run at max speed simultaneously — on a dual-core i5-6200U with 145k tracks it creates contention. Turn all analysis off and see how that goes.
  2. Avoid restarting Roon until the queue clears — each restart resets the whole queue back to ~143k.
An important note on this - your storage drive /storage/music reports DriveNotReady for a brief moment on every restart before coming online. This is normal for a spinning HDD that needs a moment to spin up, and it does come online cleanly. However, it means each restart triggers a brief re-scan of your 6.1 TB library before Roon confirms all files are present — contributing to the re-queue cycle.

For your audio stoppages, this is a separate issue.

The HiFiBerry DAC+ HD has severe clock drift. It’s consistently running at 49–68 ppm drift, which is far outside the normal range (typically under 10 ppm). You can see Roon logging repeated long rtt sync warnings specifically for snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplushd. At 50+ ppm, the clock can drift enough over time that the RAAT buffer is exhausted, causing the zone to stop. The Sonore ultraRendu and the HiFiBerry Digi in the same zone are behaving normally (under 7 ppm).

There are also recurring error writing to connection remoting errors and RemotingException: failed to look up object id critical errors appearing on a regular cycle throughout the logs. These suggest a Roon Remote (likely your MacBook or iPhone) is periodically losing its connection to the server in a way that disrupts active sessions.

Some next steps for you to try for this issue:

  • The HiFiBerry DAC+ HD — check that the Pi running it has a stable power supply (underpowering a Pi causes clock instability), that its OS is up to date, and that the HiFiBerry driver is current. You can also try removing it from the grouped zone temporarily to see if playback stops go away — this will tell you definitively if it's the culprit.
  • For the remoting errors — these appear to coincide with your MacBook or iPhone connecting/disconnecting. If you're using the Mac as a Roon Remote and it sleeps, that can cause these. Check Settings → Display and disable any sleep-related settings on the Mac while Roon is active.
  • The BRAVIA TV is constantly cycling in and out of the device list (Chromecast disconnect/reconnect every few minutes throughout the logs) — this is harmless but adds noise. If you're not using it as a Roon endpoint you can disable it.

Thank you!

11

“make sure “Background audio analysis” is not set to run at max speed simultaneously — on a dual-core i5-6200U with 145k tracks it creates contention. Turn all analysis off and see how that goes.

How do I turn all analysis off? The only options I have are “scheduled” where I pick the time. I have this between 1am and 5am. And “unscheduled”. There is no option for “off”.

Did it say which DAC+ HD? I have 3 of them.

The rest I do not understand. My Macbook is connected via ethernet to the same junction as the sonictransporter.

Not sure how to disable sleep on the Mac?

My TV I not connected to Roon at all. Not sure why it is showing up? It is not listed in Audio as a device.