Hi all.
I spend time in two countries, and have homes in each. Both homes have audio systems that include conventional speaker setups, DACs, Sonos gear, airplay devices etc. I’ve been happily using Roon in the home where I spend about eight months of every year, but would also like to use it in my other location. I’m using an i7 notebook with an SSD drive as the Roon core, which seems to work fine. My question is, if I travel with that noteboook can I maintain it as the core In the other location? I have separate networked music files in each location, so I assume I can just switch over to the files in the new location when I travel and re-index. I also use Tidal.
As much as I like Roon, I’m not yet prepared to buy a second lifetime subscription. Does this plan make sense? Does anyone have a better suggestion? I do have a Synology NAS in my primary location, but my music collection is pretty much duplicated in both places so I’d probably rather not get involved with streaming from my Synology over the 8000 km distance. In any event, the internet provider in one location has fairly restrictive bandwidth cap. Suggestions are welcome. Thanks.
David,
I have a single Roon lifetime subscription and two houses, one in London and the other in the IoW. I have two NAS which back up to each other overnight via RSync so the files on one are identical with those on the other.
You would be able to switch between the two using your laptop easily. I now have a separate NUC in each location which I can share my single subscription between by unauthorizing the one in the remote location whenever I travel.
The benefit you would have is that a single database would reduce the amount of duplicate metadata issues that i have, but I’m hoping Roon will solve this issue soon by allowing cloud-based backups of our library’s metadata.
Thanks for the reply. I gather from your reply that deauthorizing and reauthorizing isn’t too much of a hassle. Would my assumption be correct? Can you deauthorize remotely? For example, when I arrive at my place in Canada can I deauthorize Roon in Brasil from Canada without having to be physically present at the Brasilian core computer?
You can deauthorize without access to the currently authorized computer. This wouldn’t be an issue if you were taking your Core with you.
Thanks. It’s good you know that there’s a workaround should I decide to not take the core notebook with me. I’m thinking about buying a new notebook on my next trip to Canada, so I might leave the existing one behind on that trip.
You seem to be going to a huge amount of hassle to avoid a second license. Horses for courses, I’ve only one residence to worry about but I think if I had your problem I’d go for a second license.
.sjb
To be honest it’s hardly “a huge amount of hassle” to unauthorize one computer and authorize another.
Eventually I’ll probably ante up for another licence. I just want to make sure Roon suits my needs in the residence in which I spend less time before I do that. I don’t do nearly as much listening there. Thanks, everyone, for your help.
If this is a 8 months here and 4 months there scenario then I would just use the unauth option…if its a 50/50 type arrangement on very regular short visits back and forwards then maybe consider 2 lic option. But I tend to agree that the swapping locations and unauth issues are really minor if your stays are longer term and less frequently changing from to another.
Paul.
As I said above, the real benefit of a single licence approach will be when/if Roon introduce Cloud-based database back up. Two licences (unless the databases can be shared) will take considerably more time to manage.
Yes I agreed
It’s more like a few months in Brasil, a month in Canada, back to Brasil, another month in Canada etc. But total time in Canada is three or four months a year. So there will be quite a bit of authorizing/deauthorizing.
Authorising/Deauthorizing takes less than a minute. The hardest bit is remembering your username and password.
I’ve got a similar challenge - current home setup is MacMini as a core (audio stored locally), with several endpoints. I’m potentially working away for a while, so want to migrate the core to my MacBook, taking a single lightweight endpoint.
I get the Authorising/Deauthorising piece, but I’m keen to keep the integrity of my DB with the various edits, playlists, radio stations etc. I plan to clone the music file system from the MacMini onto an external drive, so the relative file paths will be identical, but drive names etc. may be different. If I were to backup the Mac Mini Roon DB and restore it to the MacBook, what are my chances? I can’t see it working. There may be an easy way to achieve what I’m after, any and all suggestions welcome!
Should be fine I moved my core from a Windows machine to a sonictransporter without a problem. Drive names changed but the overall file/folder structure was the same. See the instructions here.
https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_How_do_I_move_my_Roon_library_to_a_new_computer%3F
Thanks Phil, I’ll give it a go.