Roon Core Machine
NUC8i5BEH, 8GB of RAM (2x 4GB DDR4-2400 CL17), 500GB NVMe SSD boot drive (WD Black SN770), 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD for music (Samsung 870 EVO).
Networking Gear & Setup Details
My ROCK is hardwired directly into my Verizon Fios-G1100 router via ethernet. The router is hardwired into the Nokia 211 ONT (Optical Network Terminal) that Verizon supplied me with (Model number: G-211M-C).
Connected Audio Devices
I have a pair of KEF LSX speakers hooked up to my MacBook Pro, via Aux. That’s the only zone I’m using.
Number of Tracks in Library
1,622 Artists, 3,897 Albums, 28,609 Tracks, 25 Composers.
Description of Issue
I keep needing to reboot my core in order for my Roon programs to work, such as Roon on my iPhone and MacBook, and Roon ARC on my iPhone. The apps either say they cannot connect to the core, or they just stay continuously loading.
Everything does work well for a while after rebooting the core, but eventually it stops working and I need to reboot the core again.
Does anyone know what I can do to help fix this problem? Thank you!
Sry, no immediate idea about the connection issue, as the network seems reasonable.
But(!!) - AUXed to a mediocre port of a MBP? The LSX are RoonReady. Why not hooking them up to ethernet and get the SQ and very comfortable integration they are really capable of?
To give a bit more context, I have the original LSX, which I believe are not Roon Ready, and I have an M1 Max MacBook Pro. I believe the aux out on that laptop is better than normal (built for high-impedance headphones), and I have an Audioquest aux, which I likely paid too much money for. If you have suggestions for improving the sound quality though, I am all ears!
Ok. Re RR on an older version this might be correct, not sure about that. In any case watch your signal chain:
Digital stream(or file) → MBP D/A conversion to analog signal delivered at AUX port → LSX now A/D convert this signal for internal digital processing → another D/A conversion for the internal amp stage → and finally you hear what went through at least one unnecessary conversion
So any digital input to the LSX (WiFi, LAN or USB) should offer more SQ. Further the D/A in the MacBook conversion is probably suitable for consumer headphone purposes. But circumventing it if possible should improve things.
I never thought about it this way, analyzing the signal chain to optimize audio quality. Thanks, I see what you’re saying. I’ll do some further experimentation with it 
Does anyone have any ideas about the OP issue and how to solve it?
This should be unnecessary. Note that your core discovers remotes, not the other way around, so it is likely something is blocking discovery on the core. This could be a firewall or VPN blocking local traffic.
Furthermore, simplify your setup to eliminate potential issues, and connect the LSX to your network direct as suggested by @Bernd_Kurte .
Thanks for the information. That may be what’s happening, but how would I check to see if I have a firewall or VPN blocking local traffic?
On the web portal for my core, it says everything is “OK”, and shows how long it’s been running for.
To dive a bit deeper, here’s an explanation of an incident that just happened, which could give helpful context around the issue.
I was using Roon on my Mac successfully at home, on the network my Core is on. When I left the house and tried playing ARC in the car, it said “core unavailable”. I was able to play my downloaded tracks fine, but couldn’t use any network features. I couldn’t play songs that I hadn’t downloaded, and I couldn’t see lyrics, etc. Of note, I had full 5G bars.
Now that I’m back at home, ARC now says “Poor connection”, and Roon on my Mac is unavailable, with the loading gif showing, and no music content visible to play. When I go into General settings, I see I’m signed in to my account, and it shows my Core. I’m unsure if it normally shows a green circle next to the core or not, but it’s not right now. When I go to the Roon ARC tab in settings, it shows Roon Arc is ready. And as I mentioned, when I go to the web portal for my core, it says everything is “OK”. From previous experience, I know that rebooting the core using the red power button in the top right will probably fix the issue (temporarily), but I’m trying to not do that now, to help troubleshoot.
Of note: I went into my router’s portal for port forwarding, and see that the port for Roon is “Active”.
Let me know if you have any ideas how I can check if there’s a firewall or VPN issue, or if you think this may be something else. Could it be that I’m not using a static IP for the core?
Thanks for all the help!
@Corey_Comenitz, another fellow user here, and just spitballing, but looking at your Roon Database & Settings section shows that your Roon database isn’t using even 1% of your NVMe drive. I have about 1400 albums and 19K tracks and my database is about 1.5 GB on my MacBook Pro. Assuming you scale up a bit, your Roon database should be in the 3 GB range, and if Roon rounds up their percentages, it should be close to the 1% utilized (again just spitballing here).
Do you have a backup of your Roon database? If so you may want to try Resetting your database. Word of caution, I do not use a RoonOS device so not sure what may happen should something occur during the Reset process (which is why a recent backup should be available in case it is needed).
Disconnect ARC for a while see if that helps
I tried both of the ideas above, and haven’t had any luck. I rebooted my core, and everything is working fine again - I just don’t wanna keep needing to do that.
I see that ARC isn’t working at all now when I’m not connected to my home wi-fi network, aside from playing the tracks I have downloaded to the phone.
Could these connection issues be related to me switching my core from my MacBook to the NUC?
Not directly, but how was ARC configured in your network, using UPnP or with a manual port forwarding rule on your router? If the latter, then you may have to adjust the rule’s LAN IP address of the Core to make sure it is being forwarded to the NUC and not the IP address of the MacBook.
So I looked at my router’s port forwarding screen, and weirdly my ROCK is not there anymore… Wut? But I looked at the screenshot I had taken of the settings last week (see below), and it was setup automatically using UPnP. And in Roon I see that ARC’s listening port references the IP of the NUC.
Of note, my ROCK is showing its online and “OK”, and Roon on my Mac is working fine currently. But ARC is only working when I’m connected to my home WiFi network.
At this point, I seem to be having so many technical issues that it’s hard to make sense of. Would it be best for me to do a complete reinstall of ROCK on my NUC, not restore from a backup of my library, and do a clean install of Roon on my MAC, and ARC on my iPhone? If so, how would I delete every single trace of it to ensure a completely fresh install? Would it matter that I’d still be using the same Roon account for the new install?
But also, could it be the networking settings I have set up for the ROCK? How do I check what I should have in the networking section? This is just what was auto-populated.
And here’s the ARC settings from within Roon.
Just a note: you don’t need to black out the IP addresses of devices (e.g. the Nucleus) on your internal (home) network. They are protected by your router from unauthorised access, and you are hiding useful information from the support team.
If your Nucleus is no longer showing up in the router’s port forwarding screen, just check that ARC has been configured correctly in your Roon Core (Settings > Roon ARC).
I appreciate the information, Geoff. Do you mean that all of the blacked out areas in my last post could/should be removed for better assistance from the community, and that it’s safe to do so? Thank you.
Interestingly, my ROCK is showing up in the port forwarding section of my router again. So odd.
Yes, safe to reveal internal IP addresses, and helpful information when trying to diagnose networking issues.
Thank you. I’ve updated the screenshots in my last post to not include the black bars. I’ve added another screenshot as well for the ARC settings within Roon.
Well, there doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary there. Now that Roon ARC seems to be reconfigured in your Core and the router, is Roon ARC working on your smartphone when the WiFi is turned off on it (so that it is just using the mobile network)?
Yes - currently it is all working off wifi and only on cellular data. But I honestly expect it to stop working tomorrow, as that’s been a trend. It hasn’t stayed working. I’ll update if that’s the case. I appreciate the help.
Yeah, as expected, ARC stopped working when not connected to my home WiFi network.
Of note, my ROCK is not currently showing up in the port forwarding section of my router settings.
Edit: ARC is working on my phone again, when not on wifi, and the my ROCK is showing up in the port forwarding settings. Ugh. This is exhausting. What’s happening?
