Migration Issue (from MacBook Air to Roon Rock)

There are apparently many ways to migrate from a MAC to Roon Rock … but I just can’t find the right approach on how to do it correctly. >7000 albums, many edited manually - this information must not be lost!

Please help me!!!

  1. I just managed to create a Roon Rock Server on an Intel NUC 10i7. It has an internal storage SSD of 4 TB - I want to copy my music data from a USB hard drive to it. How shall i do that (path?)?

  2. I made a Roon backup before. The migration instructions says "since this is your first time launching ROCK, you will be asked to log-in when you connect. Instead of logging in, click "restore a backup in the lower left corner“. But this doesn’t show up … So how can I get the backup into my ROCK alternatively?

  3. Shall i first copy the music data or bring the backup to ROCK first?

THANK YOU!!!

Matthias

Are you sure that your Roon client (your Mac?) is actually connected to your new ROCK/NUC? Because the first connection to a newly created Roon Core on a NUC/ROCK will definitely give you a login screen.

In your Roon client, go to Settings > General, and see where the Core you are connected to is running.

Yep, it is connected.
The issue is that i logged in the normal way firstly; means: i did not press this restore from a backup Button.
Can i make this undo/redo?

Thanks

Ah, right. Then you need to reset your new Core to get the login screen again.

Go to the Web Administration Interface (the link is for a Nucleus, but it is the same procedure for a ROCK/NUC) using a web browser and click the Reset button by the Roon Database & Settings section.

Thanks Geoff, will try it tonight when back from work.
Would you recommend copy my music to the internal ssd first or after performing the …restore a backup… thing?

What I would do (and in fact what I’ve just done after upgrading my 1TB HDD to a 2TB SSD for music storage) is:

  1. Reset the Database using the Web Administration Interface
  2. Format the 4TB SSD using the WAI.
  3. Connect to the Core using a Roon client and Restore a Backup at the login screen
  4. Go to Settings > Storage and disable all current watched folders except Internal Storage. To do this, select the 3 dots next to the storage location and then choose Disable.
  5. Stop the Roon Server using the WAI
  6. Copy your music files and folders across to the 4TB SSD from their current location.
  7. Restart the Roon Server using the WAI.
  8. Connect to the Core with your Roon client again. Roon will go through the process of identifying the files from your Internal Storage and match them to your existing Roon library.

Edit: I’ve inserted the necessary extra step to disable existing Watched Folders that would have been restored from the backup if you are migrating from another computer, rather than simply upgrading existing storage in a ROCK/NUC system.

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That sounds absolutely perfect to me.
Will try it … but think copying the music alone will need 10-12h…

My almost 1TB of music took a little over 4 hours to copy…

…but that was because I had to attach my USB drive with the backup via USB 2.0 to my Windows PC. That would have slowed things down a lot…

okay; will report … i have round about 2,3 TB, 7000 albums, all in Flac or ALAC.
I just started restoring the database; after this i will copy the music according to your instructions.

thanks again
matthias

Update: copied music data over night … before moving to job i started Roon Server again … NUC started to work hard immediately … loud noises from the fan … Hope when i come back tonight that my albums on the Rock look like they used to do on the MAC …
Not sure what i will do when i find chaos tonight …

Thanks for supporting me!!!

Probably caused by Roon analysing the audio of the tracks…

Should this not already have been done on the old Mac when i genuinely tagged/imported my music? I thought that all those data were included in the Roon backup that i used when setting up the Roon Rock …

I would have thought so, but I noticed that my ROCK/NUC analysed a subset of my library when I did the HDD/SSD transplant… Maybe the arrangement of files and folders on my backup drive was slightly different to the original HDD.

Hmmmm … I am very exited to see later this evening if my albums look and feel like they did before moving them from ‘Roon to Roon’ …

as i feared … did not work well …lots of albums missing … no idea why, but this failure is shown:

secondly: i do not understand the path shown in the picture above … please watch the internal storage in the next picture … why it displays in my first picture always “itunes1” as the first step while “itunes1” is just one of the thre main folders where my music is storaged is completely unclear to me…?

also: the NUC still seems to work hard, but there is nothing to do … the number of albums does not change. another thing: the orange thing on the front plate of the NUC is blinking like hell (maybe the indicator for the SSD?).
someone any idea what happened?

Last but not least: a lot of tagging does not show up after the scanning in Roon Rock …
i am very sad and disaapointed now …

thanks
matthias

First thing - you need to disable those watched folders - they are not available because their address paths are for your old setup on the Macbook. Now, all those files and folders have been copied to the ROCK internal storage.

From the Nucleus Migration Guide (same applies to a ROCK/NUC system):

Internal Storage

If you’re moving your library to the internal storage of Nucleus there are some additional steps that need to be taken to ensure that you library properly migrates with all edits in place. If you need help formatting your internal storage, please see our article on the subject.

  1. Go to Settings > Storage and disable all current watched folders except Internal Storage. To do this, select the 3 dots next to the storage location and then choose Disable.

  2. Access the Web Administration Interface and stop the Roon Server Software.

  3. Copy your files to the internal storage of Nucleus.

  4. Once the transfer is complete, return to the Web Administration Interface and restart the Roon Server Software.

  5. Roon will go through the process of identifying the files from your Internal Storage and match them to your existing Roon library.

It might be necessary, once you’ve disabled those folders to restart the Roon Server using the Web Administration Interface. That way should ensure that it starts only looking at the Internal Storage.

so i will format the internal storage SSD again and copy the music data again on it (after i disabled the old folders), right?

First try disabling the folders, then restart the Roon Server - if this works, then you don’t need to start from scratch…

already did that - nothing happens - so i start again:

  1. format internal SSD
  2. delete roon database settings

    okay?

thanks again!!

OK, so follow the steps in the Nucleus Migration Guide above. Sorry that you have to go through the tedium of copying your files across again…