macOS Catalina’s new security model broke Roon - how does this happen?

Andy, mercifully, I am not affected by this problem but this, once again, highlights the ongoing failure of the Roon Team to keep their customers informed. The community is “littered” with public criticism of the Roon team and the lack of communication on some quite significant issues for end users.

I have spent 35 years in the communication business and have to say that Roon, at present, are following in the footsteps of bad practice. The technologists need to change practice or employ a communication specialist before irreparable damage done.

Rant over, best. Paul

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Part of the reason I know Roon are working on it is because they have said so.

Would a daily message saying: “Still working on it, no timeframe as yet” somehow be more reassuring ?

Folks might say they want a timetable, but the nature of development and testing is that any timetable is inevitably a hostage to fortune.

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Working on a fix and communicating properly shouldn’t be 2 different things. I would have liked to see an email from Roon about incompatibility issue of Catalina…instead of list of gears that are Roon ready every month.

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Would you also like to get emails about Windows, Linux, Android and iOS potential incompatibilities ?

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Absolutely YES. If it tells customers potential software issues that may affect their system. I don’t need to hear how great it is a new manufacture is Roon Ready every couple weeks.

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Well, I would think it is possible to send an email for users using only MacOS, right?

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I should make clear that I’m not speaking in any way on behalf of Roon here.

I’ve linked the statement by Roon that they are working on Catalina incompatibilities and I think I can also say that it has a high priority. Anything that results in a loss of functionality for a significant number of users will generally have a high priority.

There are two other aspects to this discussion as I perceive it:

  • Should Roon have communicated better after release of Catalina ?

  • Should Roon have done more prior to the release of Catalina ?

In relation to those aspects I can well understand that people who have lost functionality would like reassurance that the issue is being addressed urgently and would have preferred to have received an explicit warning from Roon beforehand.

In both cases I think it is useful for people to set out explicitly what they would have preferred.

In relation to the second issue some consideration of the resources required and consequences of Roon adopting such a course in relation to all supported operating systems seems relevant. The extent of publicly available information about incompatibilities might also be an issue.

It might, for example, be suggested that Roon should test the current Roon release against all major releases of supported operating systems in the week prior to release and warn users against upgrading if there are major incompatibility issues. It sounds like an easy thing to say “Yes” to, but the resources required and opportunity cost of creating and maintaining such a program are not insignificant.

Yes, not all Roon users are avid community participants but they are required to provide an email address when “signing up.” So, it’s easy enough to inform all customers rather than assume they will check the community posts after the event. If major web service providers take down a site for essential maintenance, most, notify customers prior to the event.
In this particular case, advance notification may not have been possible but as soon as the problem was identified a process to notify customers should have been triggered.

“* Should Roon have done more prior to the release of Catalina ?”
Only the Roon team can really answer this. However, in this case many other software vendors were also affected so, IMHO, it is unlikely that more could be done to avoid the “mess.”

As soon as a significant issue is identified an email should be sent to customers to warn of potential operating problems. A low cost and effective method which also offers a good PR experience.

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Hi Andy

Thanks for keeping the communication open and clarifying your are not speaking on Roon’s behalf.

Regarding the communication yep I think Roon should have communicated better: prior would be the best but maybe they didn’t experience this bug even though the new release was on beta for 4 months or so. That can happen.

Now, the thing is when there is a bug that prevent the normal use, I think it is a high severity bug. And for that yes a communication by email, on top of the notice of the forum the day of Catalina’s release would have been better suited.

I hope Roon can take this feedback and maybe adapt their communication for next time.

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I am glad to read some thoughtful and nuanced responses in this thread, notably from @PixelPopper and @andybob.

I would like to add, having followed this forum relatively closely for over 2 years, that there is also evidence of real strengths in Roon’s communication with and support for users and aspiring users.

One only has to follow some of the support threads to see that on many occasions Roon staff go out of their way to assist users in diagnosing, troubleshooting and solving problems, be it in relation to the Roon software components themselves or for wider issues in configuration of local networking, switches, routers, storage, multiple operating systems, Internet connectivity and so on. I have not come across any other software supplier for the end-user market with that level of commitment!

Perhaps the resource and time requirements for this level of commitment do stretch the Roon team?
Perhaps it illuminates Roon as a broadly speaking technogists-led organisation, and a relatively small one?

And perhaps once in a while when there is a particular need for professional ‘mass communucation’ with customers, rather than individual technical support, the scenario doesn’t really play to the organisations core strengths and resources?

Possibly Roon on this occasion believes a certain message is conveyed by silence after an initial statement ('we are working on it with all available resources and due urgency’); but very different ones are received by some (‘we don’ t care about your problem’ … ‘we have seriously dropped the ball and are hiding away’)?

There is much truth IMHO in the line below:

I just hope that with any changes of practice, Roon does not change beyond recognition and will be able to retain its many strengths.

Oh, and I am holding back on Catalina, burned myself with Apple updates too often already. :wink:

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Somewhere over the rainbow.

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I lost my patience and installed a Synologic NAS containing my library… Finally my own music from my library again…

I had the same issue, but after the upgrade to Catalina sharing was not marked, so just by activate (did not select any directories) the smb:// worked as used to … Maybe it helps?

My configuration is a Mac mini with Catalina and ROON endpoint, and a Mac Mini High Sierra server with ROON Core and attached USB / Thunderbolt Raids

If you have not set things up according to Roon’s recommendations, I’m not surprised. A default installation of Roon will look pretty but sound poor. If you actually want great sound quality, read these instructions and follow them: http://kb.roonlabs.com/Sound_Quality

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It seems that there has been some updates in the backround.
Since today morning roon can finally load the music from my external ssd again.
I also have to say that, although I am absolutely pleased with the user experience and the sound quality, this was really a big disappointment for a piece of software that I payed over 400€ for. Hope that happens never again.

Nothing changed here…

@Jan_Willem - There was a minor update from Apple…did you get that? I got it a few days ago and it said nothing about fixing anything like this. But, who knows. I don’t use my Mac as Roon core so I have no idea.

Well I would assume Roon understood the lesson about communicating and would push a notification for an update. Plus a compensation for the people impacted as suggested by some members.

@Speed_Racer I run Roon Core on iMac, so…

The iOS update earlier this week solved nothing.