Hi All. I just read in the kb that there’s a counter-intuitive way to use Roon on a desktop that’s lighter on system resources and has a positive effect on sound quality. At the end of the article linked below, it talks about running the standalone server on the desktop, and then opening Roon as a remote to control it:
I’d like to try this, as I just moved to a lower-powered Mac (long story), and running all-in-one Roon on this machine is a bit of a problem. I’ve downloaded Roon Server, and it seems to be running, but I can’t find an interface for configuring it. (Is there an interface for configuring it?) I also uninstalled my existing Roon app, and tried re-installing a fresh download, thinking I’d be asked in the setup process whether or not I wanted to use it as a remote. But I wasn’t asked. It just opened like the Roon I’ve always had.
So I’m stuck. And I have a couple questions:
Did I interpret the kb article correctly? Is what I’m trying to do a thing, and will it really result in a lighter system load?
What do I need to do to Roon Server to make this work? Just install it and run it, or is there something else?
How do I get my existing Roon install to run as a remote?
Thanks so much.
Brock
UPDATE: I just stumbled into making it work… kind of. I found the setting to start to use as a remote, but when I did so, I got dragged all the way back to square one. Roon’s building a completely new library, and it seems that all my genre mapping and grooming, and all of my (many) tags are gone. This is kind of a deal-killer for me. How can I use Roon as remote, but still have access to all my old tags, genres, etc.? Thanks.
Just in case, have you been running Roon’s backup feature?
Another question, are you moving from one computer running Roon to a different computer and wanting to use Roon Server? Or are you doing all this on the same computer? You mentioned a lower powered Mac, but I’m confused.
If you have Roon running successfully on the computer and want to change it to a Roon Server, with Roon also running as a remote on the same computer, you wanted to do this:
Shut down Roon
Navigate to your Roon folder in Library. Find it here.
Rename it RoonServer.
Install Roon Server and run it. A Roon icon will show in the top right of the screen.
Run Roon. It should ask if you want to install as a core or remote. You renamed the library folder, so it should run as a new install. Run as a remote and find your core.
Seems like there’s confusion for some new users in relation to the ‘remote’ concept, as this has come up more than once.
Perhaps there’s a way to make it more obvious in the docs that a remote on a desktop is simply Roon that isn’t running as a Core, and that RoonServer doesn’t have any configuration beyond the settings page in a remote. Since iOS version can’t run as a Core it’s kind of obvious that it’s a remote, but the desktop setup less so (IMO).
Converting a desktop Roon to RoonServer crops up a fair bit too. My suggestion would be the default Roon installler to contain both, and ask people what their use case is and suggest running RoonServer where possible for the core. Doesn’t seem like much downside in most cases, but has obvious benefits.
I would actually have thought that rather than roon optionally running as a core or remote that it should always install as a remote and connect to a server that is installed as the first piece of the product.
I wonder how many actually use the remote/core build on one machine together, as having to leave both running seems to be a waste so system resources. But maybe that’s just me…then again my core runs headless or at least as server no mater where I run it.
Thanks @Greg and @Henry_McLeod. Yes, I have backups running. In fact I used the most recent one to go back to where I started after I got freaked out that I might have screwed everything up.
@Greg… this is a replacement Mac, not a second one, but it’s a downgrade. I’ve been running Roon on it for about a month, which has taught me that my new machine is really underpowered compared to the one it replaced. So I thought I’d try switching my setup to the one we’re discussing.
Your guidelines make sense; I’ll try it out when I get home from work tonight. Just to be clear, though, should I be expecting a full library rebuild (from backup or otherwise) when I do it?
@hifi_swlon… Just to add some color to your thought, maybe some anec-data will be helpful.
When I read about the possibility of doing this I thought I understood fully the difference between Roon remotes and cores. I thought the Roon I had been running was essentially a version that simply bundled Roon Remote and Roon Server, rather than being something else entirely. My interpretation was that I already had “a server” and “a remote” on my machine, but that the frontend I was using just hid the server, because I didn’t need access to it when working from a single machine.
I guess I’m saying that my intuitive understanding was exactly what @wizardofoz describes.
Then once I figured out that no, I had to install a standalone server and then configure my version of Roon to operate as a remote:
It took a lot of seek-and-find to figure out how to do this.
I was in no way prepared to see my carefully-maintained library start compiling again from scratch. (I think) I understand why this is now, but it would have been much better had I been prepared for what was coming, and had I been reassured that all my work on my library was not lost. I def had a few minutes of unnecessary freak-out there.
So I guess for me, this comes down to a messaging issue and a “user story” to maybe address in the ongoing development process. It’s not a structure-of-the-product issue, per se.
In any case, this has no bearing on my affection for Roon. For me, the only real problem with Roon is that it doesn’t say “I love you” back.
@Greg It took a few days, but I just made the switch according to your directions. Everything went perfectly, and the tax on my system resources is way down, as hoped. Thanks for your help!
I am going to look over the User Guide and FAQ articles regarding the installation of Roon Server. There is information about installing Roon Server and converting Roon To Roon Server, but it’s not clear about running Roon Remote on the same computer as Roon Server.
The article you referred to in your original post regarding sound quality mentions running Roon Server with Roon Remote on the same computer. It’s at the end of the article. I will add a link for instructions on how to change from a Roon to Roon Server to the article. Hopefully, it will make things clearer.
Appreciate the fact that you’re thinking about some changes re: message clarity.
On that note, I have one last thought to share. I learned about the possibility of doing this from the bottom of the post I first mentioned and you just referred to again. However, that bit of content doesn’t explain how to do it. When I went looking for directions how, I came up empty, using the search terms that seemed logical to me. It wasn’t until your note pointing me to FAQ: How do I move my library over to RoonServer? How do I run headless? that I figured it out.
You might want to think about optimizing that post around some more common usage keywords, like “running Roon Server and Roon Remote on the same machine.” I never would have come up with the phrase “headless” on my own.
Anyway. Just a thought. Thanks so much for all your help.
I have just followed these instructions for installing RoonServer on my MacPro and using Roon as a remote.
No problems what-so-ever. It worked perfectly and it took about 2 minutes to complete.
Running remote + server on the same machine is lighter than all in one and so is a good approach for older/less powerful machines - that much I understand.r
In my experience so far, there’s not one. I’d guess that ease of initial user implementation is the only reason it isn’t Roon’s default way of doing things. There are others here, of course, more qualified to speak to that point than I am.
What I can confirm personally is that it works. Roon sounds demonstrably better and is much, much less taxing on my system after I split it into a remote + server arrangement.
Since tackling the issue described at the start of this thread, I’ve gone one step further and split the server and the remote onto two different machines. This setup works much, much better than anything discussed above, in terms of both system resources and sound quality.
I’d read about this sort of setup several times, but the idea of actually doing it intimidated me, as I’m no IT guy. But a couple weeks ago, I decided to give it a shot, using an old computer that hadn’t been touched in years. I was surprised to discover how easy it was. I had done a lot of googling and had mapped out a very detailed implementation plan, only to discover that my “plan” way overcomplicated things.
In my case, both machines are Macs. There are a couple really simple settings on Macs that basically do the networking stuff for you. There’s even a simple screen-sharing setting, which allows me to leave the old laptop (the RoonServer machine) closed and tucked away. I can manage it using screen sharing from my main machine. All shockingly easy.
So, if you have an old replaced-but-kept-in-storage machine sitting around somewhere, you might want to think about using it as a single-purpose Roon Server machine. The setup is easy to do, the SQ is much, much better, and the performance of your primary machine will return to a state as if Roon had never been installed. Highly, highly recommended.
I’m about to do the same for a MacBook Pro - but a little confused by instructions and checking before I do.
I have backed up. I close ROON. Install ROON Server having renamed ROON folder to ROON Server. Launch.
Now it is the same machine that was running ROON as Core. No new machine. Do I have to do a fresh install of Roon for this to operate as a Remote? Or donopen the ROON desktop I am familiar with and point it at ROON Server.
The instructions come with a warning about running two databases that concern me - and it’s not clear to me.
Make sure that you renamed Roon folder to RoonServer (one word).
When you start Roon (after starting Roon Server), it won’t have a database, so it should open as a new install. When it asks, choose to run it as a remote. It should then find your Roon Server Core.