I’m on the latest build of the latest version of Roon. Core is running on Windows 8.1, intel i7-47705 CPU # 3.10 GHz, 16 GB ram, 500GB SSD.
I have a very large library (>500,000 tracks) stored on a QNAP NAS. Everything is connected via ethernet (not wifi).
I have been in the process of importing the whole library over the last few months. Each time I add a sizable chunk, Roon becomes slower and slower to boot up, and more and more inconsistent.
I’m at the point now where it takes a good 5 minutes to fully launch, and then it will frequently crash withing a minute or 2. Sometimes I have to log in again upon relaunch.
I notice that it identifies “X” number of tracks to import and then instead of actually importing them, the number goes down (slowly) until eventually it hits 0 and reports “import process complete.”
The last folder I attempted to import contains 42,316 files. Each time I rescan it, Roon will import a small handful more files, but I can’t get it to import the whole folder…(this is the last remaining folder of my library).
Separate issue: Whenever I try to create a backup, it tells me “folder location unauthorized” or something to that effect.
Hi @Ari_Margolis ------ Thank you for the report and sharing your feedback with us, both are appreciated!
Moving forward, may I very kindly ask you to please provide me with the following:
Please verify the make and model of QNAP NAS you’re working with.
Screenshots of your “storage” tab in Roon.
Can you confirm where the NAS is sitting in the chain of communication? For example:
Router - > Ethernet - > Switch - > NAS
Out of curiosity, during your troubleshooting have you experimented with importing content that was stored locally on the Win8.1 device? If so what was the experience like?
You’ve mentioned the following in your report:
“I’m at the point now where it takes a good 5 minutes to fully launch, and then it will frequently crash within a minute or 2. Sometimes I have to log in again upon relaunch.”
Can you provide some further insight into this behavior? When the application does launch are there ANY processes going on in the application before you notice this crashing behavior? Furthermore, when you say you have to login again upon relaunch is this in the application or at the OS level? When Roon is loaded on to a computer you should only have to log in once unless you are configuring a new install, so I’d like to have a better sense as to what you are seeing.
Thanks, Eric and Evan, for your replies. I ended up disabling and then removing a few of the larger watched folders. After rebooting, I got Roon to successfully index the folder that I was having trouble with when I wrote in yesterday. I also noticed that my solid state HDD was near capacity (had maybe 15 GB of head room left). I cleared off a lot of content there, thinking that maybe the Roon database was outgrowing the HDD on which it was being written???
I’m now re-importing files from folders that I removed for troubleshooting, so far so good, but I have experienced at least 2 crashes browsing/listening to music while re-importing stuff from previously watched folders in the background.
I’ll answer your questions below:
Please verify the make and model of QNAP NAS you’re working with.
Can you confirm where the NAS is sitting in the chain of communication? For example:
Router - > Ethernet - > Switch - > NAS The computer running Roon Core gets ethernet via a Netgear Powerline Adapter. It works great for fast and reliable network connectivity.
Out of curiosity, during your troubleshooting have you experimented with importing content that was stored locally on the Win8.1 device? If so what was the experience like?
I have not tried that.
You’ve mentioned the following in your report:
“I’m at the point now where it takes a good 5 minutes to fully launch, and then it will frequently crash within a minute or 2. Sometimes I have to log in again upon relaunch.”
Can you provide some further insight into this behavior? When the application does launch are there ANY processes going on in the application before you notice this crashing behavior? Furthermore, when you say you have to login again upon relaunch is this in the application or at the OS level? When Roon is loaded on to a computer you should only have to log in once unless you are configuring a new install, so I’d like to have a better sense as to what you are seeing.
Sometimes when I launch Roon, the logo just wiggles for a very long time (5 min +). If I wait long enough Roon will eventually launch and the wheel in upper right corner spins indicating that Roon is attempting to import content. Once the program is successfully open, I have not been able to ID any pattern as to what makes it crash.
Sometimes, the Roon logo just wiggles forever. Other times (most often after a fatal crash), I’ll launch Roon and it will prompt me to log in again (application level). At that point, sometimes the log-in will be successful and Roon will open normally (after a bit of logo wiggling). But sometimes the logo will just wiggle forever and I have to manually close and re-open the app in order to log in and start playing.
Also, could you clarify what you mean re a folder with 42k files? Is that a folder tree or a single folder?
It’s a folder tree. “mother folder”>artist>album>tracks
Hey @Ari_Margolis – glad you made some progress here.
I’d still be happy to take a look at some logs here and see if we can identify any underlying issues. Would it be possible for you to grab the logs for us? Instructions are here.
Is the Powerline Adapter in-between the Core and the NAS? We have traced many, many performance issues to PLC devices, which is why I’m interested in the exact topology here.
500k tracks is a really big library, so I’m not surprised you’re seeing startup take a couple of minutes, but we should be able to get things stable and make sure this is performing properly.
My library is ~350k tracks (so considerably smaller) and Roon’s UI is for the most part instantaneous when browsing my library, searching etc. The only exception is browsing genres which is for some reason slow and at times dog slow where the initial load is concerned.
I’ll make a few suggestions that may or may not help you, but I doubt throwing another 150-200k tracks is going to significantly impact performance in my setup, so there may well be legs in what I suggest:
win 8.1 is a dog. Replace it with Win 10. I’m using Arch Linux
host your files on the same machine that runs Roon Server, at least for the import and analysis. NAS’s are often a bottleneck
get the fastest SSD on the market and dedicate it to hosting your Roon DB. At present your SSD is serving two masters - win 8’s swap file and whatever other bull it gets up to as well as Roon’s database.
import one watched folder at a time
understand that on startup Roon does a rescan of all watched folders looking for changes - doing it across a lan to a nas on a library that size is going to take some time. Keep Roon Server and the NAS running or fire up Roon Server ahead of listening time to let it do its initial scan. The second bullet above will go a long way to speeding this process up.
If the NAS is on the other end of that Powerline Adapter, I bet dollars to donuts that’s your problem. Temporarily move the core right beside the NAS on a fast GB switch and see what happens.
After disabling/removing some larger watched folders, clearing off some space on SSD housing Roon Core, and re-importing everything, I have successfully imported the entire library (568,947 tracks) and everything seems quite stable.
Yes, it takes some time for Roon to boot up, but I wouldn’t expect it to be as nimble with a library this size as it is with a smaller library.
So, everything’s good!
I will eventually run an ethernet cable over to where my core/listening room is, an will probably upgrade the SSD to something larger and faster. Thanks for those tips.
Thank you to everyone who chimed in, I appreciate the support! Roon is awesome.
