I have a large library and it’s been difficult for me to use ARC. Is it possible to set up a small library on a separate server to sync with ARC with the same subscription?
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Yes. You would unauthorize you main Roon server and authorize this second server. This server would be setup to feed Roon ARC which means your main server could not. I guess that doesn’t matter anyway since it’s not working with the large library.
Just put the music files in a separate watched folder for this server. Never sync the two servers. If Tidal and/or Qobuz are causing the problem, don’t use them with this second server.
Of course, your main server will be unauthorized so nobody at home can use it at the same time. That would require a second subscription.
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Thanks for your reply. By “unauthorize” do you mean log out on the main server and log in on the second one?
You click Settings - General - Disconnect from one server, then click Connect to the other. Takes 5 seconds.
How big? I have 31k albums on the server, connecting the ARC to the server for the first time has been time-consuming but after that it works very well.
As mentioned, it is possible if you go through authorizing and deauthorizing every time you switch servers. Deauthorizing is taking place the moment you log in to a new server and confirm.
I found it to be complicated and confusing particularly when Tidal or Qobuz are synched, local albums have to be identified newly and roon backups also have to be kept separated.
The question is: Why a second server? I found it easier to disable those watched folders which you do not want to see in ARC prior to leaving the house. If albums you want to see on the go are spread all over different folders it is also possible to create a new folder like ´ARC albums´ and enable only this one whenever you feel live using ARC.
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Thanks very much for this. Will give it a try.
I think there may be a few ways to do this. I like the idea of a totally separate second Roon server if you can find one at a good price. That keeps your main server working well with no chance something is going to get messed up.
By setting up a second server you mean loading the Roon software? I suppose I could do this on my iMac
Yes, a computer that would run the Roon Server software at home when you are away from home. It would need to be something you would authorize before leaving home and it would be the computer that is setup to support Roon ARC.
D you know how much space would be required on the iMac?
No idea. That would depend mostly on the size of your music library and where you put it.
This is something that would be quite easy to try in about 15 minutes. Just download and install Roon on your iMac and see. Try switching back and forth a couple times from your main Roon server to see how easy or difficult you think this is. Then, if you decide to keep it, just set up a folder for your music files and make that the watched folder and start copying some files to it.
Once you determine you want to go this route, make this your Roon ARC server.
Good plan; thanks
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You would not even need to set up any end-points except maybe to test that it’s working OK. The main thing you would do is disable Roon ARC on your main server and enable Roon ARC on this new one. That would require the port forwarding on your router, etc.
You would also need to delete Roon ARC from your phone and reinstall after you have the new Roon server running with Roon ARC set up.
It would be a new Core instance. If you only own one license, you can only run one Core at a time. So when you connect to the new core, it will ask you if you want to unauthorize the old core.
Couple of things in my experience:
1- You do not need to power down any of the cores
2- Unauthorizing does not damage your Roon db in any way, it works pretty flawlessly. In the summer I do it every weekend: when I go to my beach house I unauthorize the city core, then back to the city and I unauthorize the beach core. No issues.
3- If you are running the Core on a computer (any platform) you could create a virtual machine to run the second core, pointing to the same file location
4- To be able to segregate files without duplicating them, you could create two subdirectories (call them “Main” and “The Rest”) under your “Music” directory, then point the full-library to “Music” and the ARC-tailored library to “Main”. If you do this, you can move albums between “Main” and “The Rest” to add them or remove them from your ARC Core instance.
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I only use ARC for offline listening when I only want to have one device [iPhone] with me. [Otherwise I listen on an AK SP-3000] So all I want to do is to download 20-30 albums on the phone. If I delete the old ARC from the phone, would I lose those albums?
They will be tied to your current server so yes you would most likely need to redownload them. Arc will need to authenticate with the new server instance.
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Yes, you would have to download them again. However, I think that would be the only/best way to switch your phone from your old ARC setup to your new ARC setup.
Isn’t offline content on the phone?
I never download music to my phone, so I don’t know. I think people have said, it has to be redownloaded. Doesn’t sound like a big deal to download 30 albums.