# MAC OS Catalina - Roon core is not accessing my files stored on an external hard drive **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [October 18, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849 "2019-10-18T13:20:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fred\_Schuchhardt](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/fred_schuchhardt/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Fred\_Schuchhardt](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Fred_Schuchhardt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/1 "2019-10-18T13:20:47Z")
Dear support team, May I ask you to provide an indication by when I could expect an update of the roon core software for MAC OS Catalina? Does a workaround exist in the meantime? Many thanks in advance. Best regards Fred ---
**Author:** ![Jon\_Steed](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/jon_steed/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Jon\_Steed](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Jon_Steed)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 2:12pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/2 "2019-10-18T14:12:15Z")
Hi, I’m in the same boat too and am eager to get things back on track. ---
**Author:** ![dylan](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/dylan/32/157733_2.png) [@dylan](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/dylan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/4 "2019-10-18T17:27:34Z")
Hi @Fred_Schuchhardt, Please see Mike’s post here: > [@Roon Core + macOS Catalina](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-core-macos-catalina/79920): > > We are aware of some issues on macOS Catalina related to file access and security. We’re hoping to have a fix live soon, but for the moment we are recommending against updating to Catalina for Roon users who run their Core on macOS. We don’t have any further updates at this time but we’ll be sure to keep you updated as soon as we have information to provide. Thanks, Dylan ---
**Author:** ![Wolf\_Knapp](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/wolf_knapp/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Wolf\_Knapp](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Wolf_Knapp)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/5 "2019-10-19T15:58:01Z")
We need another update from Roon. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Thorpe](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/richard_thorpe/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Richard\_Thorpe](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Richard_Thorpe)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2019, 11:18pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/6 "2019-10-20T23:18:24Z")
It’s something to do with the renaming of iTunes. My HD tracks folder on the same external drive works fine under Catalina. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Thorpe](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/richard_thorpe/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Richard\_Thorpe](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Richard_Thorpe)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/7 "2019-10-20T23:59:24Z")
My last post was wrong my HD music folder is on the internal Mac Mini dirive running Catalina, no problem. iTunes is on an external drive. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Worley](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/bob_worley/32/219725_2.png) [@Bob\_Worley](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Bob_Worley)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/8 "2019-10-21T00:56:34Z")
Although I was frustrated when I learned (the hard way) that Roon wouldn’t access USB music drives in Catalina, I have since used this as an opportunity to do a bit of library cleansing. Several years ago, I replaced the hard drive in the Mac mini that I use exclusively to run RoonServer with a 250GB SSD which will not hold my personal music collection. Upon further thought, I realized that there wasn’t a lot in my ripped/purchased library that wasn’t available on either Qobuz or Tidal, and mostly in higher resolution since a lot of my library had been ripped years ago at lower bit rates. So, I migrated music that I knew wasn’t available in either of the streaming services to a folder in my Dropbox account on the Mac mini SSD drive. I have revisited the process a couple of times as I think of something new, but it has been a relatively painless process. I now consider it to be a logical migration to high quality streaming. I donated over 5000 LPs to the local university library in around 2000, and divested myself of most of my CDs just this past year when we downsized residences. Many of the CDs (about 2500) have better sounding alternatives available to stream. Some do not, but I can’t tell you when I last played a piece of physical media. Technology changes, and I firmly believe that streaming is the future. There is a great deal of music available to stream that has long been out of print, and certainly enough to occupy me for my lifetime. As to artist revenues from streaming vs album purchases, please consider that only since the 1970s have album sales been a primary source of artist income. And even then, artists had to tour to support album releases and most incurred a lot of the costs involved with making records. Prior to that, artists played gigs and relied on radio airplay for popularity and income. There are damn few FM tuners in use today, and they were a primary music source only a generation ago. While I believe that we don’t support the arts as well as we should, the cheese is constantly moving. If you really want to support an artist, purchase directly from them, subscribe to their streaming services, go to their gigs, or send a donation. While I believe that the Roon team’s communication could have been better regarding the Catalina issue (I believe that Roon still professes to support OSX in all versions above v. 10.8 on the marketing website), for me the primary strength/appeal of Roon is bit-perfect playback to multiple locations using RAAT and Roon Bridge and the tight integration with Qobuz and Tidal. YMMV, but for me, looking at the glass as half-full, life is good. BW ---
**Author:** ![Speed\_Racer](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/speed_racer/32/48232_2.png) [@Speed\_Racer](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Speed_Racer)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/9 "2019-10-21T02:58:59Z")
It’s rare there is an album on Qobuz or Tidal that has a better mastering than the CD I have in my collection. A quality mastering is more important than higher resolution. So I would not be happy exchanging my CDs for online content. ---
**Author:** ![aroide](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/aroide/32/67420_2.png) [@aroide](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/aroide)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/10 "2019-10-23T15:03:57Z")
Catalina broke file sharing off external disks in general :-(. I got Audirvana working in the meantime by turning on NETBIOS for samba (Catalina turns this off by default). No reason why I should need NETBIOS for mac to mac sharing. So Apple broke some things big time. Link to NETBIOS info: > Roon support… does the beta Catalina 10.15.1 update fix or is this something deeper? ---
**Author:** ![danny](https://community.roonlabs.com/user_avatar/community.roonlabs.com/danny/32/48349_2.png) [@danny](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/danny)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/11 "2019-10-30T15:05:09Z")
Fix is out. > [@Roon 1.6 (Build 475) Is Live For macOS (Catalina Fixes)](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-1-6-build-475-is-live-for-macos-catalina-fixes/81982): > > Hi everyone, We’re happy to finally release a fix for our storage issues on macOS Catalina. Resolving this issue took significantly more effort than we anticipated, and we are implementing some changes to our development process to ensure this never happens again. We’ll also be crediting Roon members affected by this issue – affected Roon members should receive an email with more details. We appreciate how frustrating this has been for some of you, and we also appreciate everyone’s patience a… ---
**Author:** ![Fred\_Schuchhardt](https://community.roonlabs.com/letter_avatar/fred_schuchhardt/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Fred\_Schuchhardt](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/Fred_Schuchhardt)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/12 "2019-10-30T19:10:49Z")
Dear DEV-Team, many thanks! I am back on stage! It works! Fantastic. Best regards from Munich, Fred ---
**Author:** ![system](https://roon-community-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/original/3X/d/e/deefbd9083c99c82bbf2dd3f873f52a49f5db881.png) [@system](https://community.roonlabs.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 7:10am UTC](https://community.roonlabs.com/t/mac-os-catalina-roon-core-is-not-accessing-my-files-stored-on-an-external-hard-drive/80849/13 "2019-11-01T07:10:51Z")
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