iPad Remote losing connection to Core

Support
1

Hello All. I have been remiss in not reporting a similar experience with my iPad Air 2 with the latest builds of roon and the remote app. My experience replicates David’sOf late, most recently, and with iOS12 on my iPad Air 2, I have also experienced during sessions when I DJ for my wife who takes massage on Fridays (immaterial as to the day); and for up to two (2) hours, I play music while she’s on the table. BTW: The sonic quality of roon has improved dramatically. I also appreciate the DSP advantage of playing back my library upsampled to DSD128 which so far has worked flawlessly. BUT,
Ever increasingly, during the last 2 hour session, I lost connection between the core and my remote app frequently, or in other words, over the two hours, the lost connection display page would pop up at a random time perhaps, four or five times for up to thirty seconds before recovering. As an early adopter, my experience with roon and the remote app has been just the opposite. It’s happened over the year(s) less than the fingers on one hand if that much. Now for the last two sessions increasing in frequency.
Taking a cue from the previous posts, I have switched my Wireless Router from Apple’s AC 2.4/5.0 to Norton’s Core router and their Security software for both my iMac and Mac Mini. The Mac Mini has always been the computer I have played roon on and where the Core is located. A mid 2011 Thunderbolt 2.7Ghz, dual core, 16GB of ram, with UpTone Audio’s power supply replacing the original Apple power supply and a JS-2 supplying the power to the Mac Mini. The macOS is High Sierra latest build. Learned that I could not update to Mojave. I have never had a Norton Security software of any kind on the Mac Mini until now. I have added it to the Firewall.
iPad Air 2 is connected wirelessly to router. My Mac Mini is connected to the Core Router Wirelessly also as the Core router like the Apple AC is at the other end of the house in what I call my computer room where my latest and greatest new 5K iMac is located. I only have a end point program on the iMac which I have yet to employ.
The Norton Core router is dual band and powerful and is connected to my iMac by Ethernet. Norton’s All my devices are connected to the router, i.e., the Mac Mini, my iPad Air 2, iPhone 6Plus etc and are protected by Norton Security. Again, I have added the software to the Security/Firewall in the macOS’s System Preferences. Someone posted about Sleep mode. That has never been turned on. While I have tested download speeds for my iMac which are 149.94 down and 159.06 upload. OOOps a newer build for Speedtest.net Now it is 141 down, 159 upload, Ping 16 ms Jitter: 3.7 ms, Verizon.
I am submitting this post because of how unpleasant the latest intrusion is and its random nature can interfere with has been an otherwise unsurpassed experience with the remote app and roon builds and which allow me to select tracks in time from my library, interrupted while I DJ for my wife, but of late, if the loss of connection occurs at the least advantageous time, obviously, should the last track end, I have no way of selecting until the connection restore. Again, this could take up to 20-25 seconds. 30 is an exaggeration.
Once again, my system is as follows: Mojave 10.14, iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017); Processor: 4.2 GHz Intel Core i7; Memory: 40 GB 2400 MHz DDR4; Graphics: Radeon Pro 580 8192 MB; Mac Mini: macOS High Sierra 10.13.6, Thunderbolt 27 inch mid 2011; 2.7Ghz Intel Core i7, Memory: 16 GB. Pad Air 2; IOS 12.0; 128 GB capacity (101.38 GB available); Roon Core: on iMac; Version 1.5.00354 (Build 354) stable (64 bit); Roon Remote on iPad; newest version.

As with David’s plea for help and his experience which replicates my own almost or close to exactly if not exactly, how’s that for hedging (smile). And with Lloyd, though I don’t use Windows. I have not reinstalled any of the roon software programs or remote app. I have not turned off the Norton Security software on my Mac Mini. Or on my iPad Air 2. However, I am willing to do so. And I will report back after so doing.

Thank you for any help provided. In answer to dylan’s question re other remote devices, the best answer, i.e., Hue Lights, Logitech Harmony remote, Honeywell Thermostat etc. the best reply is “NO”. Just with roon’s remote app connection.

Enjoy the music,
Richard

From Norton’s website, the Core Router specs are as follows: Norton Core Router at a Glance

  • 1.7 GHz dual-core processor

  • 1GB RAM

  • 4GB eMMC Flash

  • Two USB 3.0 Ports

  • 4 Gigabit Ethernet Ports (3 LAN, 1 WAN)

  • Parental Controls: Time management, Content filtering, Pause Internet

  • Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 5 in

Norton Core™

The Secure Router
Using advanced machine learning and Symantec’s global intelligence network to defend your home WiFi (including every device connected to it) against malware, viruses, hackers and more.

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Excuse the double posting, but I discovered that over a year ago, I posted a similar experience with an Apple AC Router. The different router, different roon build, and the experience also differs in that it only occurred once. Seemed to correct itself. Sequa to a little over a year later, my post above details David’s experience which he reports appears to have cured itself. I on the other hand, am experiencing David’s experience, and it’s only getting worse in the frequency of occurrences. Again, I have not turned off the recently added Norton Security that protects both my Mac Mini for the Core etc. and my iPad Air 2 as the device for the remote app which loses connection periodically. My Aug 16, 2017 post at another thread and this present experience may help or not. Unlike David, I have not solved this lost connection occurrence(s) yet. And want to most urgently and emphatically. Sorry for the double post. Enjoy the music. And my compliments to roon’s DSP upsampling and improvement in sonic quality. I have always been a fan as a life time subsriber from the start of roon years ago (how ever many) skipping the trial period as I know a good thing when I meet up with one. This present problem has me concerned as it portends an intrusion that affects my very experience of a program I thoroughly enjoy.
Best,
Richard

3

Hey @REShaman,

Thanks for reaching out! I’ve moved your post over to it’s own thread so we can take a closer look.

Just to clarify here:

This behavior occurred before you changed your networking setup, and the network change did not yield any different behavior, correct?

Apologies, I think there may have been some confusion here so I just wanted to clarify. By other remote devices, I was referring to using Roon Remote on another device with the same Core. So if you have another tablet, mobile device, Mac, or Windows machine that you can use as a remote, does the same issue occur?

When the connection is lost are other remote devices able to still connect to the Core or do all of them disconnect?

Please give that a try, along with temporarily disabling the firewall on the machine, and let me know if there is any change here.

Thank you!

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Hello dylan,
Sorry just noticed your response to me. Last year August 16, 2017, I had a problem with a lost connection while using my iPad Air 2, which occurred once and stopped after the one experience. I saw a thread about this and responded. Thereafter, I continued to use my iPad Air 2 without recurrence.
After I changed over to the Norton Core router and Security software which is more advanced than a mere Norton Anti-Virus program which I only used for my iMac and NOT on my Mac Mini, I think, because I only use my Mac Mini for computer audio playing and thought Anti-Virus might cause problems (or not). But the new software allows for all of my devices to be protected. Just recently for at least the last three weeks, I began experiencing the lost connection display during my DJ sessions which last for two (2) hours supplying music for my wife. The frequency of this notice increased last Friday. Perhaps three times during those two hours. I have not used my iPhone 6Plus. But will if it can help you help me and report back if the same thing happens. It will take a bit of time because, it just doesn’t trigger the display immediately. It could occur a half hour or an hour into the two hour session. That it happens at all is unusual. I can use my iPhone first and see what happens. Then after that session, report back to you. I can also turn off the Security software as there is a Norton Core App. I will temporarily turn off the firewall. I get what you are asking for so that you can determine what conditions may trigger the lost connection. I’ll do my best to provide a comprehensive set of examples/conditions/results. Thank you for responding so quickly. With appreciation for always great support, Richard
PS Thank you for moving my posts to a new thread. Didn’t want to clutter the Forum with so many threads and scatter the feedback which I thought collectively would help you and other support staff to help us. David appears to have gotten over the losses. Wonder what steps improved his situation.

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Dear dylan,
Sorry for the delay in returning with reliable feedback. I reviewed Norton Internet Security and my firewall on my Mac Mini running macOS High Sierra. Alas, mid-2011 Mac Mini is not compatible according to Apple with upgrading to Mojave. I added Norton Security to my firewall and any other program that I thought could adversely affect a connection between my iPad Air 2 and the roon core on my Mac Mini. Last night over two hours, NOT one disconnect/reconnect occurred. Not sure what the difference that made the difference, but I imagine that any additions to the macOS Security Firewall section helped. In any case,
There were no disconnect/reconnect over the two hours that I was DJ’ing for my wife selecting tracks. I wish I could have been more specific with any changes that I can assure you and other roon users who might also have encountered this problem and were seeking specificity from those of us who experienced random episodes of losing connection with the core. I did NOT turn off Norton Security Plus. I did not substitute my iPhone 6Plus for my iPad Air 2 to determine if the device made the difference. So I gather you can close this thread. Should the disconnections return, I’ll let you know. Thank you for your support.
With appreciation,
Richard

3 Likes
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Dear dylan,
Yikes! The problem two listening sessions ago disappeared completely. That was after I added Norton’s Security Program to my Firewall. roon has long been added there. As you may recall I have had Apple Routers in various models (all of them the best available at the time) and recently replaced the Apple AC 2.4/5.0 with Norton’s Core router (same 2.4/5.0). Also I am a Verizon FiOS customer since time began, and had previously never had a disconnect problem other than once or twice in the years I have been a roon life subscriber (since the beginning of roon’s debut). However,
Last session, I had multiple disconnects. The connection recovers on its own, but this behavior while unusual is becoming less unusual and too often given my uncluttered history with this matter. You asked if I have the same problem with my other iOS devices. In truth, using an iPhone 6+ for a two hour listening session while my wife takes massage is not attractive to me as i create a playlist (not kept) spontaneously as I go along starting with Classical to Jazz to pop to rock for two hours straight. Last Friday, there were at least five disconnects which lasted for several seconds ten to fifteen and then reconnected. Given the session before that one, there were none, I find rather perplexing as to what would make a difference. I haven’t done anything differently with my iPad Air 2, though over time there have been additions of apps so it would be a Herculean task to troubleshoot. And as I find roon’s remote app to be state of the art, no other computer audio program’s remote app comes close, I find this situation so disappointing given how dead on the remote app has been over the years. What to do? Sorry to report the resumption of this issue. Any help would be appreciated.
Best, Richard

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Hi @REShaman,

You have my sincere apologies for the delay here! Since this was working without issue for while since we last discussed, was there anything different that you can think of about this last session?

Were there other devices using the network more than usual? Did you have other apps running on the iPad you didn’t have running previously?

It would be a good data point to know how other remote devices work here. Even if you’re primarily using the iPad, when the iPad disconnects, is the iPhone able to connect to the Core? Or does it also have trouble connecting?

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Dear dylan,
No reason to apologize. No I haven’t tried my iPhone 6Plus given the iPad Air 2 reconnects in ten to fifteen seconds. I guess I will have to experiment by launching roon on a session when I am not DJ’ing for my wife. Given additionally that there is no sequence that I can discern that would account for the disconnect. I’ve had trouble free sessions followed by several disconnects one week later. Clearly something is interfering with the connection that has changed my experience of the remote app given I have been a life subscriber since the beginning and with the release of the remote app, years of no issues. I also have a roon end point (?) on my iMac with the core on my Mac Mini, and there has never been an issue with that, i.e., no disconnects but I don’t use roon on my iMac very often. I am not looking forward to fussing with my iPhone and roon, but if it will help you. Again, there’s no way to trigger the disconnect as it seems random and I have Phillips Hue lights in the room with a bridge in my computer room where the Norton Core router resides next to my iMac. Again, with the Apple AC router, disconnects were rare or non-existent. Perhaps I have too many things going on, i.e., Alexa in the music library. Hue lights in the library, the Mac Mini with roon core in the music library. I am not running anything that I haven’t had running for at least a year other than the change in the router from Apple to Norton. I hate to bother you with a problem that seems so random and difficult to discern what might interfere. I wish there was a log that could identify what causes the remote app connection to disconnect and then reconnect. But apparently since you haven’t ask for any logs there must not be a way to sort this out that way. Perhaps, I will have to live with this disconnect issue which can be tedious but corrects itself every time. in other words the disconnect does not last for more than several seconds. I am not being very helpful to you and I hate to drag you into this issue with such little to go on. Yikes!
Best, Richard

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Hi @REShaman,

Thanks for the update here, and apologies for the continuing difficulties. Since the only change was with the router, it definitely seems like something with the router is causing this behavior. Knowing how the other remotes work (iMac and iPhone) would definitely be a good place to start diagnosing the issue.

There are logs for Roon that can give some insight, but with networking type issues we can see that there is an issue with the connection, but not necessarily the cause of that connection issue since that is caused outside of Roon.

Taking a look at the settings for your router and seeing if there’s anything related to IGMP Snooping or multicast, as well as testing out other remotes, will definitely be our best place to start here for tracing the root cause of the this.

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I had this issue (ipad randomly but consistently losing connection to roon core). Setting router to use IPv6 removed the issue. More than two weeks now…no more random disconnects

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Happy for solutions that resolve random loss of connections between core and iPad using roon’s remote. I did not realize reading other threads how extensively other users were dealing with the same impediment, i.e., loss of connection. And now I am reading how the latest iterations of roon has contributed to a lessening or eliminating of the loss of connection.
I actually have conveniently forgotten about the issue — out of sight out of mind — as for some reason, Norton Core router? Software embedded remedies with 1.6 and its updates, that loss of connection has disappeared. I realize this statement is a summary with no details or an absence of accountability, but, frankly, I have no explanations for the return of a seamless session on a Friday nights when my wife takes massage and I am her DJ for the evening, selecting impromptu tracks as I feel for what works in the moment and unlike in the distant past, I would suffer losses which recovered almost always in time before the last track had finished but needed to scramble to choose my next selection as I had to wait for the return of the connection. That experience has disappeared, and once again, I have the luxury of selecting individual tracks as the titles occur to me in the moment. I have a routine where I start with one genre for a length of time, then switch to another for a period of time, then switch again, and depending on what vibes I intuit, the last period of time can be a mixture. I am so grateful to the team of engineers who have eliminated in my experience the deeply disturbing and tedious interruptions occasioned by the disconnects. Now that they are gone, with roon set to upsample to DSD128, my library (abandoned all streaming programs) supplies at nearly 4500 albums and wealth of tracks to build a playlist in the moment that is not saved for a repeat performance. Although the last session, my wife wished I would have constructed what I played over nearly 2.5 hours for a repeat performance. Thank you for building on roon’s dedication to getting it right and thereby enhancing what my wife and I value most high, to wit: The enjoyment of music. That’s a connection worth cultivating.
Enjoy the music,
Richard