I’d like to use Roon Core on my Win 10 Laptop sometimes, but use it as Roon Remote on other occasions. Is that possible?
Use Case:
I have Roon Core installed on a Win 10 PC with 5TB drive that serves the home network. Occasionally, but infrequently it is used as a media centre PC including displaying Roon to an attached TV, so headless Roon Server is not an option on it really.
I also have a high-end Laptop used for work. Win 10, fast i7, 16GB.
That has an external 5TB USB drive which is regularly synchronised with the ‘media centre’ PC drive, so the music files are the same. I have Roon Core on the Laptop and have been using it for a few years at work. Sound quality is not important on it, since it is just outputting to Logitech 5500 sub + satellite speakers.
Finding myself now confined to home for much of my work life (Covid-19 lockdown or course!), I would like to be able to control the media centre PC Roon via the laptop as a remote. But I don’t want to remove Roon Core from the Laptop which has a separate library based on the external USB drive.
When I start Roon Core on the Laptop it requires me to unauthorise the media centre PC Roon library, which, of course, is the one I’m wanting to control. That’s not a problem if I have the Laptop at work because I either there or home. Now I’m there and home!
You should be able to use either one as the core machine and the other as an endpoint/remote as long as they are both on the same internal network. The one being used as the core will need to have the other machine enabled in the settings - audio - as a zone.
I started with Roon core running on my desktop controlling my endpoints. Moved to a NUC/Rock setup which is now the core unit and it has the Desktop enabled in the audio setting as an endpoint. I use the desktop remote to control the NUC/Rock core.
Sorry if i misunderstood the question and this is not the answer you were looking for.
Hi Mike, thanks for your reply.
Apologies for the delay responding… just had a bit of a disaster. My main 6TB HDD with all my music files on the Core PC just carked it. Lot’s of nasty clicking noises and no sign of it on the PC or the network!
Anyway, re your response, I probably wasn’t clear enough. I wanted to have a Core available on both the PC and the laptop, such that the laptop runs only as a Remote when I am home (i.e. to control the PC) but runs as a Core when I am in the office with an external HDD library. I think what you’ve suggested is to have the Core only on the PC with the laptop as a Remote?
Thanks for your reply. Apologies for the delay getting back to you.
From what you’ve said, does that mean I should remove Roon from the laptop, initially. Then install Roon Server (which is headless, right?) on the laptop followed by installing the main Roon package again, but when I install Roon I select for it to run as Remote rather than the Core?
Presumably I can then just install the latest library backup.
When I installed Roon on my PC it was all in one. Core, output and remote. The core on the PC also connected to an OPPO and receiver in my home entertainment center. When the NUC/Rock was added I switched to that core from the PC and the PC then was used as the remote for the NUC/Rock. As I recall you select the core machine and that is all you need to do. I did not have to add/remove anything. it has been awhile but that is what I remember.
I believe you can use either machine as the active core with the other one deactivated and use both machines for remote control of the active core.
Yes, that is right. If you don’t remove the original installation it still contains some server attributes.
Make a current backup
Remove Roon
Install RoonServer and load backup
Install Roon and during installation select to connect to the core already running on the same machine, NOT to be a core, This will install the client side of things.
Gafflyn, I realize that this thread is old, but I am wanting to do the exact same thing you are. How did things go with Roon Server + Roon “Remote” on your laptop? Thanks!
I can’t speak for Gafflyn, nor using a laptop, but, on my desktop system I’ve been running it that way for 5 years. So…
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
12
I can concur that my main PC was used as Roon core and Roon remote for quite some time before I moved to a NUC running ROCK so as not to worry about all the Win10 updates possibly screwing life up.
It worked perfectly with zero issues.
Hi, David
Everything worked really well following Daniel’s instructions. I run my main system on a Win10 PC at home, and another on my Win10 laptop at work with an external USB HDD (which I sync from time to time with the home PC using the excellent utility: AJC Sync. That’s also handy because it gives me a backup in a different location).
There is one minor intermittent issue with it. On the laptop sometimes, when I start Roon, it presents a login screen and requires me to reenter my username & password. When that happens I’ve discovered that, usually, clicking the back arrow (top left of screen) 2 or 3 times, it takes me to a screen where I can just select either core (i.e. the home PC or the laptop PC). Once the laptop core is selected it goes to the laptop Roon home screen. Then, at some random interval it presents a dialog box requesting that I put the home PC offline (since I only have one license). When I say random interval it seems to be any time from immediately to 10-15 mins later. Go figure! (If I don’t immediately take the home PC offline, it doesn’t seem to prevent me playing on the laptop anyway).
Sometimes, clicking the back arrow won’t get back to the screen that allows me to select the laptop core, and I just have to continue to login again. No big deal. I can live with that!