Intermittent playback stops when app is in background on Pixel (ref#PTMR1B) [Ticket In]

Support
68

Hi Benjamin,

Are you talking about an update to the Roon Server software, or an update to the Roon ARC Android app? If it’s the former, I believe we had established earlier that the issue is isolated to the Android app specifically, so any changes to the server would be irrelevant.

69

Wait, are you drawing a distinction between “Roon” and “Roon Server” as separate pieces of software? Now I’m confused

70

Hi @Dylan_Forbes,

Yes, I’m referring to the latest update to Roon Server. We made some big overhauls to memory allocation, which affects many aspects of the software.

Roon and Roon Server are indeed separate. Roon is the remote app to navigate and connect to Roon Server.

Outside of this, we don’t have any additional information to share at this time.

71

Hi Benjamin,

Thanks for explaining. I was under the impression that the mobile app used to control a Roon Server was called “Roon Remote”, because just calling it “Roon” would be ambiguous.

I’m still confused about your suggestion, though. Why should updates to Roon Remote or Roon Server have any effect on this issue? Don’t we know that it’s entirely a problem with the Android Roon ARC application?

72

Hi @Dylan_Forbes,

Since you mentioned that things improved after a previous release, it seemed possible this issue could be related to the memory fixes that went out.

That was the reasoning behind mentioning updates to Roon Remote or Roon Server. We were looking at the broader software changes because they can affect more than one part of the system, even when the symptoms show up in Roon ARC.

Please let us know if there’s been any improvement on your end.

73

Hi Noris,

Thanks for the response. When I said a recent release had improved things, I was referring to a release of Roon ARC, in reply to Bram.

The issue remains at that level: better than when I reported it two years ago, but still not resolved. (I assume it’s really a combination of several related issues.)

74

Thanks for the clarity @Dylan_Forbes. We still have a ticket in for our team to dig into further, but we’re not able to speak to any timelines for now.

We’re glad to hear things have slightly improved, and we’ll be in touch when our team is able to share new information.

75

Thanks, Benjamin!

76

Just to clarify, this report tracks a constellation of issues affecting both Roon and ARC on Pixel through different mechanisms.

Roon (and to a lesser extent, ARC) rely on sustained, long-lived network sockets and audio sessions that true Android tends to police less flexibly than Samsung, OneNote, and other phones with UI layers.

Pixel is, for better or worse, the canary in the coal mine for new bugs with session retention for Roon and ARC. The team has issued a few smaller fixes over the years for specific battery saver settings conflicts or ARC audio transport bugs on Pixel, but we’ve never fully ironed out the ways in which Pixel (across Android 9-16) can put Roon to sleep. That effort has renewed focus and we hope to bring some actual stability improvements to the Pixel/Roon user experience soon.