PC Roon remote stuck at 'Looking for your Roon Server' while iPhone works (ref#GQL5VH)

Support
1

What’s happening?

· Other

How can we help?

· None of the above

Other options

· Other

Describe the issue

I have Nucleus server. My PC Roon remote stopped working yesterday – stuck at "Looking for your Roon Server".
iPhone Roon remote works, and a Naim QB2 speaker, connected on same ethernet network, works properly.
I reinstalled the Roon remote, but it didn’t solve the problem.

Describe your network setup

Standard router/modem. Nucleus connected via ethernet. Nothing change in my computer or network.
Everything was working properly until yesterday.

2

What happens when you click “Find my Roon Server”?

3

Hi @Joel_Ganor ,

Welcome to the forum! I’m looking over your account and it looks like the Nucleus is currently online. Please try ty perform a full reboot of your PC. If this does not help, your firewall settings may have been reset due to a Windows update.

Since you are using a Windows PC, I would verify that both Roon.exe and RAATServer.exe have been added as exceptions to your Windows firewall.

You can use these instructions to add the exceptions and the executables themselves would be located in your Database Location/Application folder path.

I would also add these exceptions to any Antivirus or other Firewall blocking applications you may have and ensure that you connected to your network via a Private network, not a Public one, see this guide for more information.

4

Hi Noris,
Something strange happened.

  1. I restarted my router/modem and my PC remote found Nucleus and I could connect
  2. I removed my PC backup directory and defined it again.
  3. I ran a backup to the PC directory, and it completed successfuly.
  4. Now something strange shows: the PC backup shows separately (Fig.1), and doesn’t show in the scheduled backups view (Fig. 2), and nowhere I can define the backup schedule
  5. After approximately 5 minutes, the PC remote lost connection to Nucleus (Fig.3)
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    Joel
5

Hi @Joel_Ganor ,

Thanks for letting us know that info. Let’s try a fresh Roon install on the PC and see if your issues persist:

  • Create a Backup of your current database
  • Exit out of Roon + RoonServer if running (from taskbar area)
  • Navigate to your Roon Database Location (Just Roon on the PC, not the Nucleus /Data/ folder).
  • Find the folder that says “Roon Server” and “Roon”
  • Rename the “RoonServer” folder to “RoonServer_old” and “Roon” to “Roon_old”
  • Reinstall the Roon App from our Downloads Page to generate a new Roon folder
  • Verify if the issue persists on a fresh database before restoring the backup

Here is the process outlined from a Windows machine:

All Roon_old on Windows

6

Hi Noris,
I did as instructed. I restarted my router/modem, remote worked for 6 minutes and then lost connection with Nucleus.

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Hi @Joel_Ganor ,

Thanks for letting us know. I was able to activate diagnostics on the Nucleus and I am not seeing anything related to errors on it, it appears to be working as expected from what I can tell, meaning this suggest that the issue is on the PC side of things.

Just to confirm, you’ve tried to perform a Roon_old on the folder on the PC? The PC hasn’t shown up at all in our diagnostics system after the resinstall, which makes me believe that the reinstall on the PC didn’t properly go through. If you are able to access your Roon/Logs folder (on the PC) by using these instructions and upload them to the below link (and let us know once uploaded), we can take a look to see if there’s anything amiss.

https://workdrive.zohoexternal.com/collection/8i5239cc05950ac07456889838d9319545a82/external

8

Hi Noris,
I’ve apploaded the zipped log directory.
Nucleus works properly. I access it using the iPhone remote. The problem is only with the PC remote.
Joel

11

Hey @Joel_Ganor,

Thanks for the additional information! Based on the symptoms you’re seeing, and the inconsistency between connection on the PC, I wanted to double-check on the firewall settings and or other anti-virus software actively running on the machine?

What happens if you temporarily disable your Windows firewall? Are you able to maintain a connection?

How is the PC connected to your router/network specifically?

12

Hi Benjamin,
My PC is connected to the router/modem by an Ethernet cable.
My Windows firewall is managed by my antivirus application Norton 360.
a) I disabled both Norton’s Auto-Protect and Smart Firewall.
b) I opened Roon PC remote but it didn’t find Nucleus.
c) I restarted my router modem, and PC remote worked for 5 minutes and then lost connection to Nucleus.
I think that if the problem was firewall related, the PC remote wouldn’t have worked at all after restarting the router/modem.
Joel

13

Hi @Joel_Ganor,

Thanks for the follow-up! Your assumption isn’t entirely correct—firewall-related issues can cause intermittent disconnections rather than blocking access completely. Some firewall rules allow initial connections but then terminate “suspicious” traffic after a period of time. If Roon’s traffic is seen as high-frequency or unusual, Norton 360’s firewall may block it after a few minutes rather than instantly.

With that, Norton 360 may have background processes (like behavior monitoring or network filtering) that kick in after a few minutes and interfere with Roon’s communication.

Based on your above response, it sounds like you maybe didn’t fully disabled Norton 360?

A few additional things to try:

  • Temporarily disable Norton 360 entirely (not just Auto-Protect & Smart Firewall) and test if Roon remains stable.
  • Check if Norton has any network filtering or intrusion prevention settings that could be affecting Roon’s connection.
  • Ensure Roon and RAATServer are whitelisted in Norton’s firewall settings.

Let us know what you find, and we’ll be happy to help further! :+1:

14

Hi Benjamin,
a) I added roon.exe to Norton’s App permissions.
b) I didn’t find any executable (.exe) file in RAATServer directory, so I couldn’t add it to App permissions.
c) PC remote worked only after restarting the router/modem, and after 7 minutes lost connection with Nucleus.

Just for your information, My PC remote worked properly long tome until recently. I didn’t changed anything in my Norton antivirus app settings. It seems to me the problem is somewhere else.

Joel

15

Hi @Joel_Ganor,

Here’s more info on what you’ll need to add to any firewall exceptions if you’re unable or unwilling to temporarily disable third-party software:

It’s certainly possible, but considering you don’t have any connection issues with any other device, and your PC is the only device running Norton, we’ll want to be thorough in troubleshooting this area before anything else. :pray:

16

Hi Benjamin,
I added all Roon apps to Norton’s App permissions.
Remote started working only after resetting the router/modem.
After working for more than 10 minutes I was hoping the problem was resolved, but after approximately 30 minutes remote lost connection with Nycleus.
Joel

Roon firewall exceptions
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17

Hi @Joel_Ganor,

Thanks for the update - sorry to hear the behavior didn’t change much. We’re still not able to connect to the PC running Roon to request a diagnostic report, could you please use the directions found here and send over a set of Roon logs from the PC to our File Uploader?

It may be worth getting in touch with Norton support in the meantime as well. Thank you! :raised_hands:

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Hi Benjamin,
I sent the log files.
Joel

20

Hi @Joel_Ganor,

This initial connection, followed by a disconnect is typically associated with firewall related blockages.

Does this mean you’re not running Windows defender at all? Based on the logs you’ve sent over, we see a change in network reachability from the PC, which leads to a drop in connection with the Nucleus:

Trace: [.NET ThreadPool Worker] [client/roonbridges] network reachability changed, sending discovery query

Followed by:

Warn: [Broker:Remoting] [remoting/remotingprotocolv2] timed out
Trace: [Broker:Misc] [remoting/remotebrokerv2] [Nucleus] Connection dropped: Id: 3050d441-3ce4-4cc0-8e4e-7f0f0cbbf4a0 Name: Nucleus: 10.0.0.6 tcp=9331 tcpv2=9332, http=9330, inet=False, timestamp=11-Mar-25 9:17:36 AM
Trace: [Broker:Misc] [remoting/remotebrokerv2] [Nucleus] disconnect(hard=False)

I wanted to check in on Noris’s comment earlier:

Norton aside, were you able to run through the above as well?

21

Hi Benjamin,

  1. Norton 360 takes over Windows Defender
  2. I alredy added Roon to Norton permissions
    See attached files
    Joel
    Windows Defender
    Windows Defender970×339 68.2 KB

    Norton permissions
    Norton permissions793×514 53.8 KB
22

Hi Benjamin,
With a help from ChatGPT I solved the problem. The solution comprised two main steps:
a) Full network reset of my PC
b) Assigning static IP of TCP/IPv4 of my network connection
Thank you for your support.
Joel

23

Just remember that if you assigned a static IP directly on the device, you may have to change it if you ever change your network setup.

Plus, ensure that you exclude this static IP from the range of IPs that your router assigns to devices. Otherwise it’s just a matter of time until you get IP address collisions that will mess up things and are are difficult to diagnose.

Generally, it is much better to reserve IP addresses on the router. In a normal home network there’s nothing that requires static IPs on devices and can’t be achieved with more resilience by address reservations on the router.

ChatGPT isn’t intelligent and just parrots what it was trained with. The internet is full of misinformation, so that gets parroted as well.