Initial problem: Network not found on Mac OSX El Capitan

A MacBook Air with El Capitan that is the Roon server for a number of in-house units, will not find the music library residing on a wlan harddrive, unless I first “detect” the network devices by clicking network in the OS X and then find the drive that way. After I have done that, roon always also find the harddrive.

In other words, I do something that updates the OS X network status with respect to available devices, while this “something” operation should have been done by roon itself. There is indeed a weakness in the osx on network detection (it is also very slow), at least compared to Windows.

This something looks like a “empty cache and search network again” type of feature.

Or, is there a setting in the os x that must be properly configured and that roon should check?

I am just guessing, but hopefully roon developers can fix or mask this issue. It’s annoying in 2016, given the speed of light hasn’t slowed down :slight_smile:

I’ve rolled back to 10.10 because of this issue, it’s not a Roon problem.

There’s a bug (stupid change by Apple) in 10.12 that means you have to manually mount/reconnect the drive each time.

Apple have closed the case with the following response:

This issue behaves as intended based on the following:

It was requested by security, you can no longer create items in /Volumes unless root.

We are now closing this bug report.

https://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=4948585099558912

Interesting! I would still suggest that roon should find a way to mask this example on the security paranoia that most definitely struck Apple a few years ago and created a lot of stupidity. It is a completely unwanted feature for 99% of the Apple customers, and still they do it. Idiots.

I believe this is most certainly a major roon problem. There are more connection problems. Here is a snapshot from my "everyday WIN10 pc showing that: (1) the pc may access folders on the roon server (a mac book), and (2) roon configured as remote on this pc demonstrates total incapacity to connect to its roon server on that same macbook.

This timethief is completely destroying the roon experience as it happens time and time again. Roon developers must find a way to mask this problem, or perhaps remove the bug.

If roon cannot see this server for some odd reason, WHY IS IT NOT REPORTED TO THE USER in a proper error message so that we may investigate ourselves what the h… is the reason for the malfunction.

Arrgh, connection problems are just so very annoying :slight_smile:

Note also that the roon server on that macbook can play from “itself”.

Does this persist if you turn all firewalls and anti-virus off on the Windows machine?[quote=“Carl_Henrik_Janson, post:4, topic:16670”]
If roon cannot see this server for some odd reason, WHY IS IT NOT REPORTED TO THE USER in a proper error message so that we may investigate ourselves what the h… is the reason for the malfunction.
[/quote]

It does, as far as I know. If my remote connects and then I turn off wifi, I get an error message about a lost connection.

To get the screen in your screenshot, I need to either install fresh (meaning Roon is not yet configured to run as a remote) or I need to exit the “lost connection” screen and say “connect to a different Core”, like I would if I brought my laptop to a friend’s house who also had Roon. Then, I need to again pick the Core I want to connect to.

In any event, if you are having connection issues and the firewall test I mentioned above doesn’t help, please let us know the details of your network, as described here. Thanks!

Sorry for late reply and thanks for yours. If roon can pay me with a few months subscription for free, I shall gladly help them investigate this bug, rethorically speaking. Roon is a commercial product, but it is not yet mature enough to work across a private home network consisting of devices from MS, Apple, Android-related-companies, etc. This is very dissapointing.

I restarted the Mac server today and then I need to go into the network folder 3 times before it started to recognize the devices on the network (from the operating system level), among them the Win10 machine I am writing on now. This machine may in reciprokal also work on the MacBook pro folders. The machines work as wireless harddrives for each other.

The thing is, that if the Windows Firewall detects abnormal activity, something that is of course completely nutty since roon after all was installed from an authenticated user, then Windows will rescue its own embarrassment by asking for manual confirmation whether to allow the app to work online, or not. This does not happen. Also, there is no report from roon that there is any kind of firewall trouble, and this should indeed be expected to happen were it the case.

It is not helpful to turn off the firewall.

Roon has a major problem in that there is no emergency button for this situation, the only option is to write an IP address manually. I expect a helpful procedure, for example that roon displays which devices on the network it can actually see. There is no “try again”, nothing that can assist the user in distress.

I am able to connect from another Win10 pc, (but only after I restarted the Mac server, which was indeed restarted to check this).

Roon on THIS win10 pc can see the other win10 pc and roon offers to make that a server, but it still cannot see the Mac. I anticipate that I can come back later, after a restart here and a restart there, and report that now all pc’s may connect to the Mac roon server (or core as it is called now).

This is my point, I need to do all sorts of funny walks and spend a LOT of time to keep 3-4 PCs connected in the roon context, even if these PCs are (for the time being) always connected. The family use pc x as server for picture library, and this is used as screensaver on the kitchen for all to watch, etc. IOW, there are no problems on the network except roon, and except the wave of post-steve-jobs security paranoia that has struck the whole of Apple and is causing a severe downgrade of their system.

I will report back when the problem is solved.

SOLVED

Not helpful: What I did today: turned off firewall in core and in remote. This error was not related to operating systems.

Not helpful: Uninstalled/reinstalled Roon while keeping database (because this win10 pc was at one point in history the core, due to connection problems from unknown reasons:-))

Helpful: Renamed the roon folder under /appData… Uninstalled Roon. Reinstalled. Everything ok.

Conclusion: THERE IS some configuration information in the previous roon folder that tells roon to not show the Mac core as an option for core, while at the same time offering other machines with roon installed to become core for this win10).

I have this folder saved and roon can contact me if they would like to take a look at it.

SUGGESTION: There must be a way to connect to roon settings, also before a remote is connected to the core. This is not the case now, hence there is no option to investigate anything prior to succesful config as remote or core. THERE SHOULD be a “scrupolous reset now” option available in the settings. It would have removed the configuration settings in the roon folder that has given me days of investigation work.

roon developers should investigate this issue asap.

Added information: For the situation when the network drive with the music library is available, the way to make roon find it, is not to do a settings/storage/… “force rescan” of the folder in question, as this does not work. The way out is to add a folder again from the same network harddrive. While doing that, one can observe that roon “catches up” and find all the music in that library through the already defined paths.

IOW, there is a watchdog inside roon trying to restore lost paths, only, it is too primitive and ignorant to do programmatically what the user can do manually.

Honestly speaking, this is a roon bug. Please fix it with priority.