iPad control app loses connection constantly

My Roon control tablet a iPad Pro 9.7" constantly loses connection with the core. Roon is playing music on my core/control/output MacMini and the iPad Roon app repeatedly has a white screen “Lost Connection! Roon trying to reconnect.”
The core is connected by Ethernet cable to a new AirPort Extreme ac router. I have zero network problems other than this iPad Roon issue.

Core MacMini late 2012 2.5Gz i5 16Gb RAM NOT SSD OSX 10.11.3
Roon Version 1.2 Build 128

IPad Pro 9.7" iOS 9.3.1 Roon app
Roon Version 1.2 Build 128

1 Like

Hi Jeff,

Everyone’s iPad does this. It is because iOS insists on breaking network connections when backgrounded or after some non-use in order to preserve battery life. This post has an explanation from Mike.

If you are losing connection while using Roon then that may be a different thing, but losing connection after backgrounding or non-use is “normal” and isn’t something Roon can control.

Thanks Andy, but I am listening to music whilst browsing Roon with my iPad. I do not not leave the iPad app or let the iPad go to sleep do to inactivity. It just gives the Lost Connection screen out of nowhere. No other iOS app does this. Jeff

Forgot to add it takes 10 seconds to minutes to reconnect.

That does sound wrong and it’s not happening to me on an iPad Mini 3. Let’s drop a flag for @vova and @mike to look into it further.

Check your Wi-Fi signal strength - it happens to me when I get too far from the AP,

Same for me. Sometimes it can’t reconnect (maybe it would after minutes, but that’s outside of my patience).
It always happens when I closed the app and reopened it maybe an hour later.
I had to restart roon server to be able to reconnect.
Wifi signal strength is perfect, < 5 meters from AP.

I checked the wifi strength using iPad Airport Utility (wifi scanning) and got RSSI -70 dBm in my primary listening room and -52 dBm in another room closer to the AP Extreme. I believe these are OK numbers based on google searches.

If I search for “Bach concerto” and choose Tidal albums it is almost guaranteed to Lose Connection immediately. My 2012 MacMini does not have a SSD drive as I am waiting for a new Skylake model to be released before updating (a long wait). @andybob , do you think an core SSD would help with the iPad remote losing connection?

I can’t see why it should Jeff, but in the strange world of networks doesn’t mean that it won’t. I understand you’re talking about an SSD for the Core OS and database. This is good practice in any event.

Things I like to do with my Wi-Fi, and I don’t know whether they would make a difference here, include:

  • giving all parts of the network, router, Core and Remotes, fixed IP addresses;
  • if using a dual band router setting up the 5GHz band for network audio only;
  • changing channels on the 5GHz band from the default to something less usual (this can make a difference in an apartment where there are other competing 5Ghz signals);
  • disabling jumbo frames on anything that has it enabled.

Otherwise, let’s drop a flag for @mike and @vova. There may be other users with more network skills than I who can also make suggestions.

@Sunrise - Are you running Roon Server or Roon on the Mac Mini?

I ask because Roon Server will restart Roon Appliance if it crashes, and you might be crashing. In this case, the logs will tell us what is going on. @vova can grab those from you.

MacMini runs Roon
When you say crash do you mean Roon or the iOS app? I get the “Lost Connection” screen on iOS even when Roon is continuing to play music on the MacMini (to my hi-fi)

Nevermind, that idea was only good if you were running Roon Server.

I think we need some logs. I need to make sure nothing is happening to drop that connection. @vova can help you get those

Hey @Sunrise, I PMed you yesterday with the instructions how to send us logs.

Yes, I sent the logs.

Is there a fix for this coming??? iOS constantly loses connection while using Roon. Hosting Roon on an iMac, no firewall active in OS X. Using Roon Remote on iPhone 6S and iPad Pro 9.7 both running iOS 10. This is very frustrating considering the cost of this app.

We have thousands of working iOS installs without issues, so this is most likely a local networking issue. Can you tell us more about your setup?

My system does exactly the same thing, constantly loses connection to the Roon core. Connects again if I shut down Roon core and restart it. Very infuriating…what can I do?? Help!!

Hi @sean_newman ---- Thank you for the report and sorry for any frustrations.

We are currently looking into this behavior and are asking anyone who is experiencing these connectivity issues with their remote devices, to please fill out the data gathering survey found here.

-Eric

Same here. I used to have my HP Elitebook 1030 G1 as my roon core and I used it also as a remote. A few days ago I purchased an Intel NUC and installed ROCK. It constantly drops connection on any remote I use(my Samsung Galaxy S8, my wife’s S7 edge, my Macbook Pro). After that I get the screen Trying to reconnect… and it takes from a few seconds to nearly 1 minute to reconnect. My setup is this:
Music is stored on a Synology DS413 NAS. The Synology is connected to an HP Procurve 8port Gigabit at the ground flor switch wich is connected to another HP Procurve 8port Gigabit Switch at the second floor where my audio gear is. On this second switch I have connected both the Intel NUC and the PS Audio Directstream Junior.

The routers in my home are 3 Google Wifi devices(all of them wired to ethernet) one on each floor but this I think matters less since all the audio chain is hooked up in the two switches. Another thing is that all the devices in the chain(NAS, NUC, PS Audio have fixed IP adresses). I do not have other networking issues in my home. Everything works very good. I am an IT system engineer and I designed everything in my home networking wise using good quality components.

I am very pleased with the Roon ROCK core as a concept but I am very disappointed by those issues. When I used a single device as a Core and Remote I didn’t experience this. Maybe once a week the music stopped playing in the middle of a track but that was something I could deal with. This Lost Connection ---- Trying to reconnect thing… is driving me nuts…

Thank you

One more thing I wanted to add. In the past when I had my HP Elitebook 1030 as a core and remote I rarely used any other device as a remote. But when I did use my Samsung Galaxy S8 I used to get this same error Connection Lost ----- Trying to reconnect… but it did not matter because most of the time I used the Elitebook as my remote/core so it did not bother me. Now that I have the NUC as a Core and every other device is a Remote and I get this error so often it makes Roon almost unusable. It has to do with the way the Remote communicates with the Core. It has to be somekind of flaw there.