I'm on a NUC10 with Ubuntu running RoonServer. My music is on a Synology NAS. Unfortunately, I regularly experience crashes of the database/library. Fortunately, recent backups from my Dropbox could always help me out. And I would only miss a few days of statistics and additions to the library.
Recently though, I updated to version 1392 and that ruined my database. As normal, I did a clean install on my NUC, after first moving the current database var/roon/RoonServer to var/roon/RoonServer_202404 (I have several old databases that went bad).
All the backups I tried to restore from my Dropbox (ranging from February (build 1368) to April (build 1388) could be restored, but required "a database update". After that, I either get "There was an issue loading your library"-message of an empty Roon (0 artists, 0 albums, 0 tracks, 0 composers, no endpoints).
Even though I have spent hours and hours of curating, editing and improving my library, I decided to do a clean install. So no restore of any backup and a fully new reindexing of my library. Unfortunately, after indexing my approximately 5,000 albums, I get the same error: "There was an issue loading your library".
So, I'm in a loop. None of my backups work and a fresh reindexing of my music fails too. This leads to several questions:
1. How does Roon (or do I) check the integrity of my database? 2. How does Roon (or do I) check the integrity of my backups? 3. How can I prevent a corrupt database? 4. Most importantly, how do I get Roon to work again with my music? Preferably, with a restore of my precious library data...
I'm done with the lossy Spotify list of my spouse, so please help me. Thank you in advance.
Describe your network setup
Synology NAS DS414 (running DSM 7.1.1-42962 Update 6), NUC10 running the latest Ubuntu with the latest RoonServer for Linux installed, cabled CAT 7 network with several tp-link switches, main endpoint Devialet 250 Expert Pro. I don't use Wi-Fi for Roon (only for the remote).
Thanks for your message and sorry to hear about the issue you are having here.
This is a very interesting observation, and if the issue reproduces even with a fresh database, this suggests that the issue is with the library or the hardware. Can you try to check the health of your Ubuntu disk and upload your /var/log/messages to the following link and let us know once uploaded?
Okay, I’ve spent some time with the NUC again. I had no Roon related logs in the folder /var/log. Actually, there’s not even a “messages” folder there.
So I just uploaded 3 different versions of the /var/roon/RoonServer/logs folder to Zoho under my alias Koko. These are the logs folders from my installations of April 7 (the messed up database after the update to 1392), April 8 (made by version 1392) and May 7 (made by version 1401). My RoonServer folder of April 7 is in total about 6 GB, but the later two are only 5 GB. So a lot of my curation seems to be lost with reindexing.
Anyway, the SSD (Samsung 970 EVO, 500 GB, ext4) doesn’t seem to have any bad sectors or to generate errors.
It might be good to know I’m also running Plex Media Server for my visual media on the same NUC. BTW Plex has been running stable for years now, unlike Roon.
Right now I’m doing a clean install of Roon version 1407 and it’s indexing my NAS again. This time I didn’t connect to the Dropbox and Tidal services yet and I’ve killed the Plex Media Server process in Ubuntu for the time being. I’ll keep you posted here on how the reindexing goes this time.
I’m curious if you can find anything interesting or relevant in the log files. I’m still eager to learn how to check my library for database issues or corruption and how to correct it and prevent it from happening in the first place.
So, it seems that the latest restoration succeeded last weekend. Roon indexed my music without library loading issues (for now). Unfortunately I’ve lost all my statistics and now I have a daunting task of curating, editing and correcting the library again (boxsets, anyone?). I’ll wait a while before connecting to Tidal again or starting up my Plex Media Server on the same NUC.
Because of all the hard work I’ll put into it again, the previous important questions remain:
Also, I would like to learn if my logs could give us some insights on what went wrong and how I ended up with only corrupted backups.
Thanks for the suggested link, but that only leads to some general information and isn’t really helpful. I’ve read if before.
My hardware was bought new, shows no errors and runs properly with overcapacity. Power outtages don’t occur often or even at all, still I seem to deal with quite a lot of (latent) corruption in my database and backups. Usually after a Roon Server update.
So please don’t beat around the bush and be clear about this:
1. How does Roon (or do I) check the integrity of my database? 2. How does Roon (or do I) check the integrity of my backups? 3. How can I prevent (or fix) a corrupt database?
There’s been quite a few complaints and speculation about the alledged lack of backup verification on the forum and while having read those, my questions above have not been answered by Technical Support yet. Users are just guessing how the Roon software deals with it and I’d like to hear it from Roon’s people, as they’ll know better how the software deals with corruption and verification and how users could or should deal with the software.
Other related threads on this topic:
Furthermore, I was asked by Technical Support to send in my logs, which I did, and now Technical Supports wants me to look at those logs??? Look, I’m a complete noob regarding Roon’s software. I just want it to run smoothly and unfortunately it doesn’t, because of repetitive database corruption. Please let qualified persons have a look at the logs to see what might be the cause.
I just don’t want to end up starting over again with a clean slate every so often, which is exactly what I’m doing right now unfortunately.
I understand you’re frustration and what you’re asking is not unreasonable. Let’s take a step back - can you please share a screenshot of your Watched Folders screen from Roon Settings → Storage?
We’d like to clarify the precise subdirectories Roon is attempting to mount and scan.
Additionally, logs do confirm that there’s latent corruption on at least one file in the following album: Ween - Demos, Rarities, B-Sides. The particular song name contains an expletive so I won’t paste it here, but it starts with “Put the Coke.” I’d investigate whether or not this file can play in a media player other than Roon in the meantime. A single corrupt file can often seed latent corruption over time. If you’d like, you can upload this album for our QA team to investigate: Media Uploader
I’ve just uploaded part of the specified music folder. I zipped it in parts < 100 MB, because that’s all your upload system handles. I’ve also added screenshots.
I have 1 music folder on my Synology NAS that is watched by Roon: 192.168.etc…\Music
This folder does not contain music files, only other folders.
This Music folder contains several letters and artist names as folders, i.e.:
192.168.etc…\Music\A
192.168.etc…\Music\B
192.168.etc…\Music\C
(…)
192.168.etc…\Music\W
192.168.etc…\Music\Ween 192.168.etc…\Music\Ween - Demo’s Rarities, B-Sides
etc.
These folders do not contain music files, only other folders.
These folders usually contain albums, i.e.
192.168.etc…\Music\A\ABBA - 2021 - Voyage [Hi-Res]
(…) 192.168.etc…\Music\Ween - Demo’s Rarities, B-Sides\ween - craters of the sac 192.168.etc…\Music\Ween - Demo’s Rarities, B-Sides\Ween - Rare and Live - The '00’s
These folders do contain music files, usually in FLAC format.
Sometimes those folders have a deeper subfolder, i.e.
192.168.etc…\Music\A\AC-DC\AC-DC - 1976 - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
etc.
In the case of the suspected song “Put the coke”, it was features in both the abovementioned Ween albums (“craters of the sac” as an MP3 and “Rare and Live - The '00’s” as a FLAC). Both albums are part of the upload. I’ve left out the other 9 GB of the 192.168.etc…\Music\Ween - Demo’s Rarities, B-Sides folder.
I’ve tested both versions of the song “Put the coke” with both VLC and Windows Media Player on a Windows PC and they play just fine. So I doubt whether the media files are the cause of (latent) database corruption.
It’s been almost 14 days ago, so this message is to keep the thread alive.
Have you found anything of relevance amongst my uploads? Did the specific songs play on your other players or seem corrupt?
Respectfully I mention again that you are also leaving some essential questions unanswered about how Roon handles integrity checks/backups (see above in this thread). Are you evading these topics on purpose?
We’re not seeing any tracks uploaded on our end - could you please try again? From another review of your Roon Server logs, it does appear the same tracks is coming back as corrupt. For example:
Warn: [storage] [directory] Failed to extract audio format from '/mnt/RoonStorage_f9dbd90643720d4c0aacaa48a9e8d757485e44ea/Ween - Demos, Rarities, B-Sides/ween - craters of the sac/04 Put the Coke *Moderated*.mp3': CorruptFile
Perhaps using a third party program like dbpoweramp to better analyze and tracks in question would be helpful.
Every time Roon performs and update, it checks your database for any signs of database corruption. That said, corruption can still evade these integrity checks as @connor has mentioned above, latent corruption can occur over time. That is all the information we have to share on the topic at this time, I apologize if it doesn’t satisfy what you’re looking for.
Removing any corrupt files would certainly help maintain a healthy database a local library. We unfortunately can’t speak on any absolutes in regards to corruption.
Thanks for the reply. I’ve uploaded the particular album with said song just now. I’m curious to see if it is really a corrupted song. That particular album was a self-released mp3-album by Ween.
Thanks for your patience! Our team took a look at the files you sent over and found similar results in that the track including “Put the coke” indeed appears to be corrupt:
Warn: [storage] [directory] Failed to extract audio format from '/roon/sys/storage/mounts/Roon Imports/USSFMN189797/imported at 2024-06-10T13-12 UTC-07_00/Ween - Demos, Rarities, B-Sides/ween - craters of the sac/04 Put the Coke [Moderated].mp3': CorruptFile
In this case, it appears to be a failure in extracting audio format from the file.
Okay, thanks for the confirmation. Here is what I conclude from this case:
Roon doesn’t have a way to check for integrity of the database before making a backup. It will blindly make backups that might be useless when a restoration is needed;
Roon is not a robust piece of software, as a little grain of sand in the vaseline (i.e. only one corrupted song) could amount to latent corruption of the whole database and therefore could render all the backups made of that database useless (as in my case);
My lesson for now: Users should - for now at least - make backups regularly and test restoration of those backups themselves;
Hopefully a lesson for Roon (or feature request): Make Roon more robust and user friendly by having the option to find and correct corruption in the database (i.e. to receive an active alert of corrupted files and offer a way to fix this).
I hope I don’t have to go through a situation like this again. Anyway, thanks for the help!
