2 x Bluesound Node N100 connected via Cat6 ethernet
Number of Tracks in Library
185,374 FLAC tracks
Description of Issue
I have a brand new 2020 MBP with the standard 8 GB RAM as my Roon core… for now. The problem is, Roon is such a memory hog that I cannot do anything else on my computer while Roon is running. When I try, I get an error message. I see that the possible cause is a Plex server running in the background on the same machine. I suppose I could simply close the Plex server, but Roon ARC is so buggy and unreliable that if I did so, I would have no music away from home. In fact, I have walked through the set-up for ARC twice and never once been able to use it remotely outside the home network. I really love the sound quality of Roon, but its cost, combined with its inability to work remotely, has me more and more convinced that PlexAmp is the way to go. In fact, in the process of writing this, Roon killed my system by demanding nearly 10 GB of memory! [see screengrab]. That is insane, and insupportable. BTW, that was without Plex running in the background.
Plain and simple, your music library is too large for only 8 GB RAM. That 8 GB might suffice for your library size on RoonOS or other lightweight Linux on Intel with discrete RAM. But not on Apple silicon SoC with integrated RAM running full bore macOS.
That isn’t quite correct. I have a 16GB M1 Mac and a library that’s a bit larger than the OPs (202K tracks). Roon Server is currently using 3.4 GB of RAM and Roon (running on the same Mac) is using 1.5GB. So that’s a total of 5GB - about half the amount the OP is reporting - so maybe there’s something else going on here. I do agree that expecting a large library to work well with only 8GB of RAM is optimistic, but it should be doable.
I am sorry you’ve had a bad experience with Roon. Having a large number of tracks can cause memory usage to spike during certain periods and especially when your core is being used for other things at the same time. I would be more than happy to look at diagnostics and see what is happening. When I tried, I noticed you have changed your core to a different machine. Are things stable for you now? Please let me know. I am more than happy to try and verify what Roon sees as happening in the background but will need that core to be made active once again to do so.
I didn’t see any posts from you about Roon ARC. If you would like to seek support for your Roon ARC issues, please create a new topic in support complete with the template you used here. We would also need to know your modem and router models so please include that as well. You can @Wes me in your description of the issue to get my attention. I don’t mind. Just remember, more information is best. Screenshots of what shows up when you test the connection under settings>Roon ARC as well as the areas of the router setup you changed would help greatly.
