I have been having terrible connectivity issues with my Roon Nucleus+ since the 1.8 upgrade. I have a considerable investment in Roon with a Lifetime Sub and the Nucleus+ which has been rendered completely worthless by this issue. This situation has persisted since the original upgrade. I had no such issues with all prior Roon versions. This problem has persisted through multiple PC hardware changes, ethernet cables, and network routing hardware. I am unable to sustain a connection longer than 10 minutes to the Nucleus+ Roon Core without it dropping. This applies to all sources; my library on a 4TB internal SSD to the Nucleus+, TIDAL, Qobuz, etc. I have been trying to fix this ever since 1.8 came out and have finally thrown in the towel. Maybe my Nucleus+ is defective? Please help to restore my Roon system to proper working order. I really miss it!
Roon Core Machine
Roon Nucleus+ running software 806
Networking Gear & Setup Details
Ubiquiti Networking Hardware (currently CloudKey Gen 2+ and UCK-G2 Plus. In the process of swapping both to a UDM Pro). All switches are also Ubiquiti. Entire network is connected via Cat 5e ethernet cable. No equipment in the in the A/V system with Roon Core is on WiFi. Nucleus+ is wired via Ethernet directly to a Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD access point/switch hardwired back to the Ubiquiti network gear in a central media panel. Nucleus+ has a fixed IP address. I had the exact same connectivity problems with my prior networking gear which was Netgear Orbi RBR750.
Connected Audio Devices
Primary streamer is a Lumin U1 Mini. It is connected via Ethernet to the same Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD access point/switch as the Nucelus+. It is then connected via USB to a Kii Three Controller. Both devices are recognized by Roon no problem. Lumin U1 Mini has a fixed IP address. I can play library, TIDAL, and Qobuz content directly on the U1 Mini no problem via the Lumin iOS app. This confirms there is no issue with the U1 Mini. I also have a separate home theater system with a Monoprice HTP-1 and several Apple TVs configured on the Roon system. Roon remotes are a combination of iOS devices and a very powerful Windows 10 PC (Ryzen 5900X, 32 GB RAM, and nVidia 3080).
Library Size
Library is approximately 117K tracks
Description of Issue
I have been having terrible connectivity issues to my Roon Nucleus+ since the 1.8 upgrade. This situation has persisted since the original 1.8 upgrade. I had no such issues with all prior Roon versions. This situation has persisted through multiple PC hardware changes, ethernet cables, and network routing hardware. I am unable to sustain a connection longer than 10 minutes to the Nucleus+ Roon Core without it dropping. This applies to all sources; my library on a 4TB internal SSD to the Nucleus+, TIDAL, Qobuz, etc. This happens without fail EVERY TIME I play music via a Roon remote or connected audio device. I have been trying to fix this to no avail ever since 1.8 came out and have finally thrown in the towel. Maybe my Nucleus+ is defective? I am happy to provide any additional information you need to address this problem. I worked extensively with Roon support once in the past to address a nasty issue related to sound drivers on my Roon Core which was running on a PC at the time. I am pretty tech savvy but have been completely unable to solve this latest problem. I see that Roon Core connectivity is a common issue since 1.8 so hopefully this is a relatively easy fix.
I have the following suggestions, to be done separately. These are not solutions but I hope some may yield a useful insight.
Temporarily transfer the Core responsibility to the Windows 10, and if possible let the Windows 10 connect to the network using the same port and the same cable that the Nucleus+ was using. Check the network adapter properties, find Energy Efficient Ethernet and disable it. After a network change you need to reboot the Windows and all related endpoints including the Lumin.
Add an inexpensive unmanaged switch such as Netgear GS105 to connect the Roon Core and the wired endpoints.
In order to further verify the Lumin hardware, please sign up for a Spotify free account, and use Spotify app to play a playlist in repeat mode to the Lumin via Spotify Connect.
While it doesn’t solve your issue - I have a Nucleus, B806 and a an extensive fully Unifi’d network (UDMP) and have no such issues what so ever. So its not impossible to have this working. Only difference is maybe I have Cat6 cables. and I have 3 Lumin’s too…not very different at all.
Thanks Peter. I will give those a try! I am able to play to the U1 Mini from Spotify using the LUMIN iOS app no problem. That option and Sonos have been my backups while Roon is basically useless to me.
Mr Fix It - Thanks! Did you have to setup any Firewall rules or exceptions in UniFi for Roon? Just switched over to the Ubiquiti gear from Netgear Orbi and am loving it so far. Was hoping it would clear up the Roon issues but no joy.
As Bart (he runs Nucleus and Unifi too) said, nothing needed at all in Unifi settings - assuming its just a flat network with wifi on the network segment.
Nothing special other than maybe IGMP on. Your DNS settings and IP range will likely be different but do include 1.1.1.1 if you haven’t already.
Ensure Block Lan to WLAN multicast is disable in wireless network setting as this can stop remotes that are using wireless from discovering endpoints and enable the enhanced gmp in there to. You may need to deactivate the new user interface to see the former. If your not using wireless remotes then you can ignore this.
Update: Tried Peter’s suggestion of moving the Roon Core to my Windows 10 machine. I then proceeded to play an album on repeat via TIDAL through the Lumin for about 4 hours with no issues. Switched back to the Nucleus+ as my Core and got disconnected in short order playing the same album over TIDAL. I can’t even complete a Backup as it always fails with a Core disconnection within the first minute. This is consistent with every Backup attempt. I am really starting to think there is a hardware fault with the Nucleus+. Strange that all these issues began with the initial 1.8 update though? My Nucleus+ is a first gen unit purchased in Feb 2019 and was rock solid until the first 1.8 update when the wheels fell off.
Roon Support - please advise if I should return the Nucleus+ for service.
Have you tried a reinstall from the Nucleus GUI screen? I would try this as 2nd to last resort, last resort being a reset roon database from the same screen - but maybe roon might want logs before that. @support
Since I believe the warranty expired, let’s try other things first.
Save the logs in case support needs them.
Logout Tidal from Roon.
Do the reinstall suggested above. Assuming that does not work, then proceed to:
Exit out of Roon
Navigate to your Roon’s Database Location (under Data folder on the NUC)
Find the folder that says “RAATServer”
Rename the “RAATServer” folder to “RAATServer_old”
Delete the tidal_account file in Database/Registry/Core/tidal_account
Restart the Roon App to generate a new RAATServer folder
Please identify the brand, model and size of the m.2 boot SSD. If it is a Transcend and the above procedure does not cure the problem, please order the smallest capacity version of Samsung 970 m.2 you can find. Install ROCK on this m.2 to test the hardware.
I tried to enable diagnostics on your Nucleus but unfortunately it doesn’t look like it’s reaching our servers. So I can take a closer look at what’s happening here, would you please use the directions found here and send us over a set of logs using a shared Dropbox link (or any other file sharing service)? Thanks!
Thanks all for the suggestions. I did do a reinstall of the OS from the Nucleus GUI just the other day. No effect on the problem. I will try the other suggestions tonight.
Thanks again for everyone’s suggestions in resolving my issue. I REALLY appreciate it!
Per Peter’s suggestion I renamed RAATServer folder to RAATServer_old to force recreation of the RAAT Server folder. Also deleted the TIDAL and Qobuz login files. After that I was able to stream both TIDAL/Qobuz or personal library content for an extended period (many hours) without interruption. So that is an improvement. I think I have done this in the past while battling this issue and the disconnection problems quickly returned. I was still unable to complete a Backup last night with Disconnection in the first minute. So no improvement there at all.
I did take a look at the M.2 drive last night and it is a Transcend TS64GMTS400. My Nucelus+ is Rev A and is the taller case style than the current model. NUC board is a 7i7BNB. Sounds like there have been issues with the Transcend M.2 drive? Is it advised to replace? I am very experienced with building PCs so have no problem working on the Nucleus+. I would be fine with sourcing another 7i7BNB system board and installing that if necessary. I assume I couldn’t drop a 10th gen i7 NUC board in the Nucleus+ case as the ports likely won’t line up?
Dylan looked at my logs and saw drive space errors. The 4 TB SSD I have my library on internal to the Nucleus+ has 9% space remaining. Wouldn’t think that would cause an issue. No idea on M.2 space remaining.
