Not being a networking guy, I’m struggling with setting up an SMB network share to work with Roon for backups.
What I’d like to do is backup the Roon database from a Roon Nucleus+ over my LAN to a MacBook Pro. (Currently, I backup to two SSDs attached via USB to a Roon Nucleus+, but a future core-machine upgrade will not allow me to write to attached USB devices.)
On MacOS Sonoma 14.2.1, I’ve set up a shared folder called RoonBackups on my Desktop under my admin user account. (The full path is Macintosh HD/Users/Rob/Desktop/RoonBackups) That folder is set with full read/write permissions for all.
My desktop IP is 192.168.x.yyy (Masked here, of course.)
If I then go to Roon’s Settings → Backups → Backup Now → Select Location → Add Network Share, when I try to add the network share address, I get errors connecting to that share location. Typically, it’s an “Unexpected Error”.
It might be a syntactical thing, but I’ve tried various combinations of paths, with no success.
smb://192.168.x.yy
smb://192.168.x.yy/RoonBackups
smb://Robsmacookm1pro (<-- not a typo. That’s how it shows up on MacOS)
smb://Robsmacookm1pro/RoonBackups
and also the full pathname to that folder.
Am I missing something obvious, or going about it all wrong? Yes, I have read related KB articles and Sonoma-specific instructions.
Not really a Mac guy. But, I’d start from the beginning and review to verify that you’ve set the share up correctly. When you set up the share you have to give it permissions for users.
Personally, I would suggest just getting an external USB Hard drive, plugging that into your Nucleus+ and setting it as the target for your backups. If you do, remember to re-format it exFAT first before plugging it into the Nucleus+.
I’ve confirmed that the share works across multiple MacBook Pro machines. I just can’t get Roon to see it, or to even accept it as a legitimate target.
If you re-read my post: (Currently, I backup to two SSDs attached via USB to a Roon Nucleus+, but a future core-machine upgrade will not allow me to write to attached USB devices.)
I will not always be using the Nucleus+, and am trying to get things sorted before the new arrival.
I found this a little tricky when I got my Nucleus last year. But I managed it in the end. Be assured: it can be done.
My setup seems very similar to yours.
Am I right in assuming that - at this stage - it’s (only, first) the Folder setting which fails? IOW it’s neither User nor Password because you haven’t got there yet?
If so, have you tried backslashes (Yes, I know, we’re on Macs: but for SAMBA)?
So I’m my case the folder (actually in ~/Music) is entered like this:
\\192.168.x.xxx
At least, that’s what it shows on the relevant screen in Roon; although the notes I made for myself have ‘proper’ slashes .
If I understand the way this works in SAMBA (and I may not… but I’m learning), you somehow don’t need to state the full path. Perhaps the very act of denoting - in your case - ‘RoonBackups’ as a shared folder (e.g. using Cmnd+K in the Finder) seems to be enough. Presumably the SAMBA framework keeps a look table or similar?
So in your case, it might well be just:
\\192.168.x.yy/RoonBackups
And I did find that the credentials are your machine’s. IOW the name of you/your main macOS account and its (macOS account main) password.
I’d be happy to offer what help I can - assuming that someone who really understands this doesn’t jump in first - via DM, if that’s of any use. Good luck!
In testing this morning, I was easily able to Connect to Server from one MacBook Pro to my target MacBook Pro – where the RoonBackups folder is found. I did this two different ways, by connecting via Finder or by using the SMB address.
Having proven that it works and can share folders (at least I think that’s proven…), I went to Roon and tried the following under Add Network Share:
smb://192.168.x.xxx
Result: “There was an unexpected error: Invalid Network Path”
This happened with or without a username/password
smb://192.168.x.xxx/RoonBackups
“There was an unexpected error: UnexpectedError”
Or, with un/pw “Could not connect to share: Unauthorized”
smb:\\192.168.x.xx
"There was an unexpected error: UnexpectedError”
smb:\\192.168.x.xxx\RoonBackups
"There was an unexpected error: UnexpectedError”
At this point, I’m out of ideas on what might be wrong.
you are using the correct format and correct path to access your network share.
a username and password is required, so without it, you get “Unexpected Error” (not the most clear of error messages, I agree, but it is what it is.
with a username and password, you get “Unauthorized”, so this means that the network share has been correctly located, but there’s an issue with the username and password.
Earlier, you said that “the folder is set with full read/write permissions for all”, but have you explicitly assigned read/write permissions to a particular user account?
I’m a Windows user, not a Mac user, but I know that for a folder share in Windows, it is not sufficient to set read/write access to “everyone” - I need to explicitly set the access for an individual user account. And in fact in Windows, I can’t use my Microsoft Account here, I had to create a separate local user account (imaginatively called roon) and use that in the folder share.
I suppose you’ve enabled File Sharing, yes? (System Settings → General → Sharing, slider “File Sharing” to On). Have you also enabled SMB? Click on the “i” next to the File Sharing slider, then click Options… and make sure “Share files and folders using SMB” is On. You might also have to set up a user name and password under “Windows File Sharing”.
I had one small test file in the RoonBackups folder. I removed the folder, tried to let Roon create it (invalid network path), then re-created the folder, told Roon about it, and am now happily backing up… for whatever reason.
Once you’d navigated to your RoonBackups folder, did you actually click on the “Select this folder” button and then Save to get a confirmation screen such as this (where my network backup share has been confirmed):
BTW, you don’t need to scrub out your network addresses - they are internal to your network and not reachable from the public internet. More to the point, millions of people will have the same network address, but because these are in private networks it doesn’t matter.
I couldn’t dig anything up, here or elsewhere. And I doubted that it was a MacOS issue in that the “extra” discs were being reported by the Nucleus+. At one point, I had three references (in Roon) to one SDD.
When all else fails, reboot. I rebooted the Nucleus+ and things went back to normal.
It’s not easy, is it. I too had trouble (which posers here helped me by walking me through the process of assigning a reserved IP address for my Nucleus).
If so, have you thought of posting an exact set of steps with settings to getting it to work, please - so that we can incorporate then, perhaps, in a macOS+SAMBA+Nucleus FAQ?
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