Hello @Joe_Vax
Your screenshots show exactly what is going on, so this should be straightforward.
First, the important bit. 192.168.50.93 is your Nucleus. Your music drive is plugged into your iMac, so that address points at the wrong machine. That alone explains the failures.
Second, the empty folder list in Roon is not a fault. Add Folder only shows storage the Nucleus itself can see: its own internal SSD and anything plugged directly into it. A USB drive hanging off your iMac is invisible to it until you either move the drive or share it over the network.
Third, the two privacy panes you screenshotted do not affect this. Those control the Roon app on your iMac. They do not control what your Nucleus can reach. Please do not spend more time on them.
There is also no Watched Folders heading to look for. It is Settings → Storage, and the section is called Folders.
You have two ways forward. The first is much simpler, so please try it before the second.
Option 1: plug the My Book into the Nucleus.
Move the USB cable from your iMac to a USB port on the Nucleus, then go to Settings → Storage → + Add folder. The drive will be listed there and you select your music folder. No network setup, no passwords, and your music stays available even when the iMac is off or asleep. This is what we would suggest if you do not need the drive on the iMac for anything else.
Option 2: keep the drive on the iMac and share it.
This is what you had before, and it broke because your old drive was in the iMac’s sharing list and the new one is not. To rebuild it:
- On the iMac, please open System Settings → General → Sharing, turn File Sharing on, and click the small i next to the switch.
- Under Shared Folders, please click +, select the My Book drive, and click Open. Set Permission to Read & Write.
- Please click Options and confirm Share files and folders using SMB is ticked, along with the tickbox for your own user account.
- Please note the share name exactly as it appears in that list.
- Please find your iMac’s own IP address in System Settings → Network, then Ethernet, then Details. It will be a different number from
192.168.50.93.
- In Roon, please go to Settings → Storage → + Add folder → + Add Network Share, and in Network Share Location enter the path in this form, using your iMac’s address and your share name:
//192.168.50.x/My Book
- Please enter the username and password you use to log into the iMac, leave Workgroup blank for now, and click Add Network Share. Then select your music folder and click Select This Folder.
If some of our older articles show smb:// in front of that path, do not worry about it. Either form is accepted, so the prefix is not what is stopping you.
A few articles that walk through the same steps with pictures:
One thing worth knowing either way: Roon does not copy or move your music. It reads the files where they sit, which is why the location has to stay reachable. With the drive on the iMac, the iMac has to be awake for your library to work. On the Nucleus it is always available. That is the real argument for Option 1.
Please let us know which route you take and where it stops if it does.
