Dear Roon support team,
Since installing OSX High Sierra on my mac mini with an attached network disk on the airport extreme via USB and changing to the SMB protocol, instead of AFP. I am stil not able to find any files on the drive. Please help.
Many thanks for your effort,
John
Hi @John_Vogelaar ----- Thank you for the report and sharing your feedback with us. Both are very appreciated! I have went ahead and split your post out to it’s own thread as the issue you are describing seems a bit different than what was being reported in the other thread.
Moving forward, to help aide in our understanding of this behavior you are reporting, may I very kindly ask you to please provide me with the following information:
Please provide an expanded description of your current setup using this link as a guide. “Things” to be sure you include:
The specs of the MacMini hosting your Roon core.
The make and model of NAS you are currently working with.
Describe how the NAS and MacMini are communicating. Furthermore, please also verify how you are trying to access/mount the NAS in the application.
Are you able to access the NAS successfully outside of Roon via OSX?
You mentioned the following in your report:
I am still not able to find any files on the drive"
-Eric
Hi Eric, I shall try and answer your questions as best as I can:
Version of Roon:
2.Make and model NAS: It is a Western Digital Mybook 6TB USB plugged into the USB port of an Airport Extreme 802.11ac software version: 7.7.8 . The Airport is hardwired to my home network and is connected via a Netgear Prosafe plus 5 ports GS105E. On the airport IGMP snooping is switched on as on the switch( by default I think).
3.The USB disk is mounted via SMB, as is described in one of your support threads, since my problems started after updating to OSX High Sierra. I also have deleted any network passwords related to AFP in keychain. Also I renamed my USB disk directory in a name without any special characters (JohnMusicHD). But cannot see any files on it (Cmd-I shows file usage correctly). If I plug the disk directly in my MBP laptop, then I can see the files are still in the directory. But when I try to connect to the SMB server on my MBP laptop the directory JohnMusicHD is empty.
The content has been transferred from a direct USB port on my mac mini to my home network earlier (and mounted via AFP on the airport extreme, but before OSX High Sierra everything was OK).
I am at a loss what to do next, any help is much appreciated.
Best regards,
John
Hi @John_Vogelaar ---- Thank you for touching base with me and taking the time to provide the requested feedback. Both are very appreciated!
Ok, so this is an interesting observation:
" If I plug the disk directly in my MBP laptop, then I can see the files are still in the directory. But when I try to connect to the SMB server on my MBP laptop the directory JohnMusicHD is empty."
The HD is reporting that it is empty via the OS level as well, correct? Furthermore, if I am not mistaken the WD Mybook is an external HD (please confirm this is the product you are using) and not true NAS in the sense of the word as it does not have the capability to communicate with your network on it’s own, say via ethernet. Thus the need to be mounted to the Airport extreme (If I have this wrong, please due correct me:innocent:).
If I have the above laid out correctly, the IP address you are using in Roon is the one being assigned to the Airport?
-Eric
Hi Eric,
The disk is not a NAS but a WD Mybook 6TB USB HD (not exactly the product you linked to, but this one:
I have reformatted it tp be compatible with Macs (but before OSX High Sierra - don’t know if there is a difference with compatible disk formats…)
It is linked via USB, and does not have an ethernet port. It is mounted via SMB on the IP address (same address as my airport) shown in my earlier screenshot: 10.0.1.2.
Hopefully this answers your questions, and I would be very happy with any assistance you can provide.
Thanks very much
John
Hi @John_Vogelaar ---- Thank you for touching base with me and providing the requested feedback/insight. Very appreciated!
Moving forward, I would like to advise on how to regain the functionality of this configuration but would be curious as to what Apple has to say about this behavior. From your report you have verified that the issue started after taking the update to High Seirra and since that time that the content can not even be accessed from the OS level.
“Since installing OSX High Sierra on my mac mini with an attached network disk on the airport extreme via USB and changing to the SMB protocol, instead of AFP. I am stil not able to find any files on the drive.”
“If I plug the disk directly in my MBP laptop, then I can see the files are still in the directory. But when I try to connect to the SMB server on my MBP laptop the directory JohnMusicHD is empty.”
Clearly, after the update to Sierra something changed here. I would suggest confirming that SMB is being used (as opposed to AFP, which Roon doesn’t support), but since you’re not able to access the content from the operating system at all, I think there may be a more fundamental issue here, beyond how things are communicating with Roon. I’m happy to do a bit more research for you here, but the most logical step might be to get in touch with the support team at Apple, to see if they have advice about why the files can’t be seen at the OS level. Once that’s resolved, I’m sure we can then advise you on how to get Roon to import them.
Also, I would just like to point out that we have seen performance issues in the past related to this type of configuration and with the Apple “networking product” line in general. As pointed out by our CTO Brian, here:
“The Apple AirPort Extreme is extremely bad (they seem to be exiting that business and paying little attention to the issues…I wouldn’t want one in my life). Some “cable company specials” are not great either. This technology moves over time–a first-generation 802.11n router will underperform compared to something more current, simply because the newer ones have more CPU/RAM. If at all possible, make sure your router does 802.11ac. Even if your endpoints are n-only, the bandwidth hungry phones/tablets/laptops are more likely to have ac support, which will get them out of the way a little bit.”
Let me know how you’d like to proceed here, and we’ll do whatever we can to ensure we get this working for you.
-Eric
Hi Eric,
In the meantime I have tried a few other options. I am able to connect via SMB now through the Airport extreme to the USB HD, the directories are visible, but not the files. Since you have mentioned problems with the Apple Airport routers I have decided to use the simple solution, which is to hook up the WD HDD via USB to the Mac mini being used as Roon Core. This has solved my problem for now.
Leaves me one question: can you give me a recommendation as to what type/brand of routers and wifi AP’s to use with ROON to ensure trouble free operation?
Any feedback much appreciated!
Happy Holidays,
John
HI @John_Vogelaar ----- Thank you for touching base with me, I am glad the work around has returned stability to your setup.
In regard to your question of obtaining another router/Wifi APs, I would recommend the advice given by our CTO in the link shared above, in my previous post.
“A Wifi mesh network with multiple base stations from the same manufacturer working in concert, will always yield a strong result when it comes to home Wifi connectivity. However, a single 802.11ac router with a good reputation should do the trick as well.”
Companies like EERO and ORBI are fairly popular but there are of course other options as well (The 8 Best Mesh Wi-Fi Network Systems to Buy in 2017, all depending on your needs and budget of course.
All the best to you and your loved ones in 2018!
-Eric
