Moving database to a new Roon server

just checking:

all my music files are on an external drive.
my latest backup, made from those files, is on my machine in my home directory (RoonBackups).
roon is building the albums from the drive, and indeed, they are showing up.
naturally, some artwork is missing, all my edits to titles &c. are gone.
when the process completes, i should be able to restore all the metdata from RoonBackups, correct?

Stevan, yes, the backup, if recent, should migrate your metadata. A question thougjh. When you set up your new Core, did you select the option restore from backup? If you first restore and then select Storage and point to the location of the music files, the restore should occur very quickly.

If you intended to do a restore, you don’t need to go through the process of importing and analysing the files like what you are doing now.

Instead, when you started Roon from the remote you could just click restore from the bottom of the screen. Don’t login from middle of the screen. I realize the login section in the middle of the screen is so clearly visible unlike the restore button down below which is much smaller.

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thanks - yes, i did what you describe: restore first from the backup, then log in. however, roon then reported 0 albums. when i selected the folder containing the actual music files, they appeared (or are now appearing, one at a time) but without my edits or artwork. it’s not clear to me how to actually restore music files + metadata from backup.

i should add that the music files reside on a drive which contains copies of the files on my original drive (which gave up the ghost). but that shouldn’t make a difference, should it?

Stevan, if I remember correctly, when selecting restore from backup should ask for the location of a Roon backup file, and all of your metadata and edits should be restored to your Roon Core. Then in the restored Core point the storage setting to your files and they should come across as fast as your network and disk access allows.

That’s odd. I thought that restoring the backup would also restore your login credentials, so you shouldn’t have needed to log in again…

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the backup folder (RoonBackups) looks ok to me, it contains the last two backups i made, and roon doesn’t object when i select it for restoration. but that leaves me in the state i described: i need to login, and then, once logged in, i need to select the storage location for the music files. once i select that location, it takes 5-6 hours to reconstruct the 10,000 or so albums i have. and once those albums are reconstructed they’re missing all the metadata (artwork, edits, &c.)

naturally i’m reluctant to repeat this procedure yet again (restore before logging in), since that results in zeroing the albums, necessitating reconstructing them, which in turn seems either to ignore or to wipe out the metadata which has (i assume) been restored!

i must be doing something wrong, but what?

hi robert - thanks, those are exactly the steps i have taken: restore from backup (apparently successful). i point to the storage location of the music files and they do appear, but without any of the edits or artwork. so this procedure is failing for me. i suppose i’ll have to wait for alternative steps to try.

I am tagging @support, maybe they can review what is happening. They will be in the office beginning Monday.

thanks - i hope they can help me figure this out.

I think would be beneficial for Roon users if Roon Labs can make a short video on YouTube on how to do a restore.

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Do you know the size of your backup file?
Do you still access to the “old Roon” in your home computer? If so, can you do a manual backup again from there? If not, in either case, check the size of the database from the Web UI.

In the “Roon & Database Settings” you could see something like “95% of 232GB available.” In this case your database is 5% off 232GB or whatever your harddrive size is shown in the WebUI. Compare that size with the size of your backup files on your computer. If the backup size is not the same or if it is way smaller in size then the backup could be wrong or there was a possibility that you could have just picked a wrong backup file/folder.

As Geoff stated above when you do a restore, you should not have to enter your login and password. Those credentials are already saved in the backup.

i’m not following all of your instructions. i don’t see “Roon & Database Settings” anywhere under the Settings tab for the roon client. i do see that my backup folder is 2.15 gig on disk with 20,451 items. this is for the latest two backups, one from sept 6 and one from sept 8.

i hear that i “should not have to enter” login/pw, but that’s not what i’m getting when i restore.

You need to Access Roon OS WebUI from a browser like Chrome or Edge etc. Use the IP address of the computer that runs your Roon core.

In my case, the IP is 192.168.2.88 as seen in the image above. You could find the IP of your Roon core from the setting menu, Setup, and click “Find”.

It will show you the IP and use this IP address in your browser.

But, remember to do it from your “Old” computer to make sure thame backup size is ok.

You could see that in my case I have 94% free of 232GB. So the database is about 6% of 232GB, roughly 13.9GB. If I do a manual backup (only 1 backup), my backup size is about that size.

Hope this helps.

Regards.

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I could have misled you a little bit. Do you use Windows? My suggestion to check the database size is really applicabke if you use RoonOS (ROCK / Nucleus). But, my previous suggestion to do a manual backup and use that backup as a restore point from your old computer is still sound.

Regards.

my “old” computer is not available, nor is the internal SSD which hosted roon and the music files. what i have is a backup copy of the music files and the roon metadata files.

and no, i’m using a mac to run the roon core.

Stevan, I understand what you mean about a backup of the music files, but what do you mean by the term “roon metadata files”? Is this a Roon backup created within Roon or a backup of all the directories from you Mac that had Roon files in it? Do you have a specific Mac folder/directory labeled “RoonBackups”?

hi robert - i mean the backup created by roon from settings → backup. yes, it’s a mac folder labelled “RoonBackups”. when i select it for restoration i see two time-stamped objects, one from sept 6, one from sept 8. i select the latter, and press “continue”. then i see 1% … 2% … until it finishes. then i am left at the login screen.

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When you login again what does your Core show?

so let me make absolutely sure i’m providing all the necessary information.

i’ve been running the roon core on a salk streamplayer III with my music on an internal SSD for several years. last week i sent it in to salk for an upgrade. in the meantime i thought i’d set up a temporary core on a mac mini. i have a drive with all the music files and a RoonBackups which i updated last week.

i connect the drive, remove the Roon folder from Library, start roon, and restore from the backup. this takes about 30 minutes.

then i relaunch.

the next thing i see is a roon window asking me to agree to terms and conditions.

then i have a choice to Find my Roon Core or Use this Mac.

Find my Roon Core fails (it can’t find it).

so I choose Use this Mac.

then i’m taken to back to the Login screen.

if i log in, i have 0 albums.

if i choose the drive containing my music files, they come up without any of the metadata.

something is bloody wrong.