Does the issue happen with local library music, streaming service music, or both?
· *Only streaming* music is affected.
Please select the streaming service(s) with which you're encountering playback problems.
· Qobuz
Have you tried logging out and back in again to your streaming service in Roon Settings?
· Logging out and back in had no impact, the issue remains
Do you have an approximate timestamp of when the issue last occurred?
· Less than 15 minutes ago.
What are the make and model of the affected audio device(s) and the connection type?
· Cocktail Audio N25
Describe the issue
For months, I have been having intermittent but not infrequent problems streaming from Qobuz via Roon. This generally takes the form of tracks being skipped when a playlist transitions from a track either on Tidal or local storage to a track on Qobuz but I also have not infrequent instances where the stream from Qobuz fails mid-track and then one or several subsequent Qobuz tracks are also skipped. The Roon UI frequently but not always displays a message to the effect that "Qobuz media is loading slowly" or something similar. At the same time, I have the Qobuz site up on my browser, I use the Qobuz Windows and Android apps on a regular basis (not concurrently with Roon streaming) and never have these problems. I never have this problem with content from Tidal. So something specific about the Roon-Qobuz interface seems broken, at least for me.
Describe your network setup
I run a Windows 10 PC running the Roon Server (AMD Threadripper CPU, 64GB RAM) and stream primarily to a Cocktail Audio N25 which is hardwired on the same single subnet LAN as the Roon server.
I think the next step here is to enable some diagnostics on your account so our technical staff can get some more insight into what’s going on here.
However, before I enable this feature, I’d like to ask for your help ensuring we gather the right information.
First, can you please reproduce the issue once more and note the time at which the error occurs. Then respond here with that time, and I’ll make sure we review the diagnostics related to that timestamp.
Just to clarify, does this also occur with the system output of the Windows computer? Are there any other error messages listed in the GUI than the Qobuz slow media warning (something like “Too Many Failures” or similar)?
The Qobuz/Tidal APIs rely on slightly separate network pathways than the native apps or web players. Sometimes (particularly if the ISP default DNS service has been assigned), the DNS server will fail to resolve URLs for the Qobuz API that are associated with playback.
Please try entering your router settings administration page and finding a setting related to “DNS.” You should be able to assign a custom DNS server there - we recommend assigning either Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or QuadNine (9.9.9.9).
Thanks for your responses. Vadim, I’m not able to “reproduce” the issue on demand, so to speak. The occurrences are arbitrary and don’t seem to follow a pattern that I have been able to discern but I will certainly update the status here promptly upon the next occasion. Connor, I have not seen other GUI messages during these incidents other than the complaints about Qobuz media. I almost never use the system output of the Windows computer so I have no data on that in relation to this specific issue. I haven’t used ISP default DNS servers for years; in fact, I’ve been using 1.1.1.1 with a secondary of 8.8.8.8 for some time.
Thanks for the additional details. One thing we’ve noticed from your note is that you’re mixing Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and Google (8.8.8.8) in your DNS configuration. While both are reliable providers, using them together as primary/secondary can sometimes introduce exactly the type of intermittent behavior you’re describing. Here’s why:
Different routing decisions: Cloudflare and Google may return different IPs for the same service depending on location or CDN. Switching between them can cause inconsistent results.
DNSSEC validation: Each provider has its own policies around DNSSEC, so a query that validates on one might fail on the other. This can look random in your logs.
Cache mismatch: Your system might cache results from one resolver while falling back to the other later, creating a mix of records that don’t line up.
For the most stable setup, we recommend sticking to one provider only. For example:
Cloudflare → 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
Google → 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
This way both your primary and secondary resolvers are synchronized and return consistent results.
If you’d like extra redundancy beyond a single provider, we’d suggest configuring that through a local resolver (such as systemd-resolved, Unbound, or Pi-hole) rather than mixing providers directly.
Let us know if switching to a single provider stabilizes things — that will help us confirm whether DNS was the underlying trigger here.
Okay. I want to point out that my DNS config has been consistent for years and this issue has only arisen in the past 8 to 12 weeks. This doesn’t immediately seem to support the notion that the mix of DNS sources is the root cause of the issue, but in all fairness I don’t know that it’s not, either, so I will set both Cloudflare servers in the router config and look into a local resolver as you suggest. Thanks for the additional input.
Those DNS settings look fine to me, though I’ll see if @vadim has any additional comments to share. The best way to diagnose this would be to take a look over logs to see if logs contain clues, so please do let us know the exact local time + date + track when the issue next surfaces. Also, can you let us know your router model/manufacturer? Are there managed switches in your setup?
Hi @noris There was a recurrence of this issue just a few seconds ago in a transition from a Tidal to a Qobuz track, with a significant gap between the two, and then the Qobuz track dropped after a few seconds and the rest got skipped. BTW I have an Asus RT AX88U router.
Also, after I pulled the skipped track back into the upcoming queue, it was then skipped again to the following track (from Tidal), then I pulled the Qobuz track back and then the Tidal track skipped, the Qobuz track was then skipped again, and then playback resumed with the following Tidal track:
Hi there was just another occurrence of this problem. First, the Teenage Wrist track (from Qobuz) stopped playback after a few seconds after starting, then was skipped. Then the next Qobuz track started, then stopped, then was skipped. I pulled both skipped tracks back into the queue while the following OMD track from Tidal was playing, then that track stopped, skipped, and the two Qobuz tracks skipped again and playback resumed on the following track from Tidal.
Then the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets started playing, stopped, got skipped along with the same following two Qobuz tracks again. And again. I’ve tried three or four times to play one of these Qobuz tracks even once without it being skipped and cannot do so. The UI is showing this:
PS I can play the skipped Qobuz tracks with no problem through the Windows Qobuz app. And I also just had a track from Tidal get dropped mid-playback as well so now I seem to have a growing problem with Roon and these sources.
We’ve discussed this with our senior QA and development teams. The team is investigating some possibilities here and, as soon as that investigation is complete, we’ll be sure to follow up ASAP.
You have our apologies for the trouble here, and we’ve greatly appreciated your patience as we continue investigating this tricky issue. We’ll be in touch as soon as we can.
This issue persists. I find that since about 9:40 PM Pacific (GMT-8) this evening, I can’t stream anything from Qobuz, and this is after applying the Roon update that was released this week. So this isn’t a great situation for me as a principal use case of the solution is badly deteriorated.
Thank you again for your patience while we’ve been digging into this issue with our senior QA and development teams.
Based on our investigation so far, the error you’re seeing (999) is coming from the Akamai CDN used by Qobuz. This usually indicates the connection is being dropped by the CDN rather than a typical timeout or local network error.
To help us confirm what’s happening, could you please try the following test:
Avoid using Qobuz in Roon for 24 hours.
After that, play music from Qobuz continuously in Roon for another 24 hours.
Let us know when the first dropout starts.
This will help us see how many requests are being made before playback fails, and whether rate limiting or another CDN behavior is in play.
We realize this is disruptive, and we sincerely apologize for the ongoing frustration. Once we confirm the mechanics on our side, we’ll escalate the case directly with Qobuz.
Thank you again for working with us on this — the data from your test will be crucial in helping us resolve the issue.
Thanks for your reply. With respect, what you are asking me to do is preposterous. To “avoid using Qobuz in Roon for 24 hours” means, effectively, not using Roon at all. Okay, I guess I can do that, although it’s not “what I paid for” so to speak. Then, I’m to “play music from Qobuz continuously in Roon for another 24 hours”. Well, there are a couple of problems here. One, I don’t have a playlist that emanates exclusively from Qobuz sources that extends for 24 hours or anything close to 24 hours. So I’d have to take the time to try to create one, and then I’d have to play it for a length of time that doesn’t faintly resemble normal usage. I don’t leave my computer on for 24 hours at a stretch or really have the ability to (or interest in) monitoring such playback for that entire time in order to generate diagnostic data for the vendor who has sold me a product that is supposed to work (I don’t recall getting a discount from Roon for being a beta tester of any kind). So I think that perhaps some further analysis is required from your team about how to tackle this problem. As an additional data point, I will note that what seems to be happening over the past 3 days is that after launching Roon subsequent to computer start-up, the streaming from Qobuz is immediately unstable and persists in that state for a varying length of time. If I then shut down the Roon UI and then terminate the Roon server executable from the Windows Task Manger (along with the Roon Appliance and RAAT Server) and then relaunch the Roon application and its related processes (or if I do this 2 or 3 times), the Qobuz stream then becomes stable. Needless to say, having to do this even once is a little annoying. Let me know if this feedback inspires additional options from your team, and thanks again.
Thank you for sharing these additional details – they’re very helpful.
Please note there’s no need to follow the previously suggested steps if they don’t work for you. We’ve already created an internal QA task. For now, I am moving this topic to our investigation queue.
As soon as additional information becomes available from our team, I’ll update you here.
Hi @vadim Okay, I encountered a situation around 21:30 Pacific on Saturday (9/27) where any Qobuz streaming failed almost immediately after starting despite my restarting Roon’s services 2 or 3 times. So after that I only streamed from Tidal within Roon, and then I did the same on Sunday (9/28). So from the evening of 9/27 until a short time ago this evening (9/29), I didn’t try any Qobuz streaming with Roon. This evening, I initially had the same results with Qobuz. Between 21:12 and 21:20 I tried several times to begin streaming one album from Qobuz and each time the stream failed within 20 seconds, Roon skipped to the next track, failed again, etc., then finally just stopped doing anything—no playback, no messages, just endless flashing of the playback status line that one sees when playback is being attempted but not actually proceeding. After another termination and restart of the Roon app, starting at 21: 21 I was able to stream three tracks and then streaming failed again about 30 seconds into the fourth one. Then Roon reported that none of the remaining tracks in the queue (all from the same one album) were “available from from Qobuz,” then “too many failures, playback stopping” and that’s it. Dead in the water as far as playing any content from Qobuz via Roon. Please have your team examine the log data on this and let me know how this can be fixed. Thanks.
Thanks @Robert_Lowe - we’re still taking a closer look into things, and should have more information to share soon! We appreciate your ongoing patience in the meantime.
