I'm having issues accessing both Roon and Roon Arc on my iPhone 16 Pro. Roon is installed on my M4 MacMini (macOS Sequoia 15.5)
I can access Arc when on my mobile network, however when at home and connected to wifi it is unable to connect and times out eventually with the message 'Roon Server Unavailable'.
When trying to access Roon on my phone on my network, I get 'Waiting for your Roon Server'. On my other devices (opening Roon on MacOS or on my Windows Laptop everything on Roon when I connect looks ok...even the status of ARC.
Steps taken: - Recently had to re-install Roon due to general instability (end-points unable to access Roon, almost every day so just restored from backup) - Rebooted router & home network - Rebooted Roon (multiple times) - Rebooted iPhone 16 Pro - Re-installed Roon Arc - Followed workaround of toggling Roon within System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network, and rebooted.
Thanks for the detailed info and the steps you’ve already taken—they’re really helpful.
Since Roon ARC works over mobile data but fails on your home Wi-Fi, and the Roon Remote app also can’t connect on your iPhone, the issue seems to be related to local network access.
Could you please double-check that both Roon and Roon ARC have permission to access your Local Network on your iPhone?
To verify:
Go to Settings on your iPhone
Scroll down and tap on Roon and then Roon ARC (if listed separately)
Make sure Local Network is toggled ON
After confirming, try relaunching the apps
Let us know if that helps—if not, we’ll dig further into other potential network issues like multicast or firewall settings.
Thanks for the additional information! Do all your remote devices have issues connecting to your Mac running Roon Server?
How is your server connected to your network? Via your primary router, or via an access point? I’d next attempt to simplify your network - see if you can temporarily disable your access points and get your remotes connected all via your primary router, and see if the same issue occurs.
No I think it just seems to be affecting my iPhone and iPad.
My m4 mini is connected via WiFi and is sat right next to a an access point. I can’t say I’ve noticed any other connectivity issues with any other apps. The AP is a UniFi U7 Pro Wall. I disabled this so the MacMini connects to the UniFi Dream Machine but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference.
Thanks for the update! I know you mentioned you re-installed Roon recently, I’d like to perform a full database refresh to see if your behavior changes at all. Steps to follow may be found below:
Thanks. I’ve just gone through the steps and can confirm that with a fresh database before restoring the backup, I’m getting the same ‘Looking for your Roon Server’ screen on my iPhone (reinstalled both Roon and Arc on iPhone too). Arc I got further, status is green however when I attempt to play anything I get an immediate ‘Poor Connection’ error. After toggling the local network setting off and on again and a reboot, ARC now seems to be playing okay…Roon app on iphone and ipad still not finding the server.
Thanks for the details. Are you currently using a firewall on your Mac Mini? Based on your description, it’s possible that the firewall is interfering with Roon’s network communication.
If so, try whitelisting Roon, RoonServer, and RAATServer to ensure they have the necessary permissions. Let us know if that makes a difference—we’ll be happy to help further if needed.
In my firewall settings I’ve got RAATServer, Roon & RoonAppliance all set to ‘Allow incoming connections’. I temporarily disabled it to see if if made a difference, but it did not.
Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, and thank you for your patience.
At this point, we believe the best next step is to escalate your case to our development team for a deeper investigation. I’ve created a ticket with them, and we’ll follow up here as soon as we receive any updates.
We appreciate your continued patience while we look into this.
There is 1 end-point that I just can’t get Roon to recognise - the Chord Poly. If I’m honest I’ve had issues with that prior to this issue but thought I’d mention it.
Thanks for the additional info! Are you able to connect and use the Poly outside of Roon? Our team should be reviewing your ticket tomorrow, so we should have some next steps to share soon!
We brought up your case with the team today. Can you please try to check IGMP Proxying / Snooping settings on your network and see if that triggers any change in behavior? If that still does not resolve the issue, do you happen to have another (simpler) router you can try to use instead of your current UniFi network for the Roon Server & ARC device? This is most likely something due to the network configuration, but we would like to explicitly confirm this.
It was a bit of a pain but I temporarily have been able to get a hardwired connection to the MacMini rather than rely on WiFi. Tonight I’ve been able to listen on multiple end points (including Poly) and use both my iPhone and iPad as remotes.
I’ve had a look in my UniFi network settings and both Multicast DNS & IGMP Snooping are enabled on my network, but IGMP Proxying was not enabled. I’ve turned that on and I suppose the next step is to move my MacMini back to the previous location to see if this change has resolved the issue over wifi (I’ll have to do this in a few days).
