Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)
Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
Description Of Issue
I moved my library (about 127,000 tracks) to a NAS. I am having a dickens of a time having Roon import all my tracks from its new location. Typically, a scan takes about 6 hours but imports only a small fraction of the library (between a low of 1% and a high of about 25%). I have tried three successive scans and still have only about 30% of my music. I have looked at the “skipped” folder, and this is not the problem. It is practically empty (except for blu rays that I scanned at very high rates that Roon seems incapable of playing–grrrrrr).
I am wondering now several questions. Is there a reason why a NAS (QNAP with four SSDs) is more difficult for Roon to index than an external HD plugged into my Mac (where Roon resides)?
Does Roon have a theoretical maximum number of tracks that I have exceeded (Audinirvana, for example, just cannot handle my music)? And – most importantly – is there a way I could scan portions of my library separately, and then stitch the results together? Let me explain:
My Music “folder” contains about 10 large folders based on music genre, source, or even format of the files. Is there a way I could scan in just ONE of these at a time, make sure the formatting is correct, and then stitch it together with each of these mini libraries in turn to form a single library?
Clearly, importing the whole thing at once just doesn’t work with Roon.
Roon has no limitation on the number of tracks it can ingest - performance will vary based on hardware, and local storage will always outperform network storage.
Is your network connection gigabit? Are you sharing from the NAS via SMB3?
I’d try breaking up the shared folders by genre or something along those lines to enable concurrent scanning of various parts of the folder tree. Turn off audio analysis during the scan, it’ll severely impinge import performance from on a NAS. Once import is finished turn analysis back on and let it run overnight when you’re asleep or during day whilst at work. Analysis is only needed if you intend using volume levelling in any event.
Lastly, your lib is definitely not a stretch for Roon, there are folk here with libraries in the order of 600k tracks.
Just add one ‘genre’ folder to your watched folder. Wjen you are happy and ready, yiu can add the next one.
I have 5 subfolders and I also added them one at the time.
Dirk
That is absolutely the same at my side.
I was only referring to the initial setup, where one can specify every directory (disc) at a time.
Once the directory (disc) is added, it is out of your control and completely up to Roon.
Dirk
@Dirk: OK, thanks. I think I see this. But can you explain how this is mapped in Roon itself?
What I mean is this: does just one of your folders (e.g., ClassicDSD) appear in Roon at a time? Or do they all appear together when you list albums?
Is there away to mask one folder (e.g., ModernAIFF) while I work on another (e.g., ClassicDSD)? For example, do I just disable it and then later on “able” it?
What I would like to be able to do is import (scan) ONE folder at a time and work on it separate from the rest. Then, eventually, I would be able to turn some (maybe all?) on and off. Having all my music on at once seems very tedious (if I am looking for a rock album, I don’t want to have to wade through a sea of classical) yet I do not want to lose my metadata.
I think you are saying “This is easy. Just bring them in as separate music folders and then able/disable them as you want.” How does this impact backup?
No, unfortunately for you, this is not what I am saying.
What I tried to explain is how you can do your initial import in different phases.
One everything is imported by Roon, all watch folders are watched concurrently ( can be disabled if you realily want), but all albums/tracks will be in your Library.
You can achieve (more or less) what you want bu using Focus, Tags and Bookmarks
Please read the following topics in Roon’s Knowledge Base
If you have questions after reading, I am happy to help you further on.
I know some will disagree, but problems of this sort is why I always like and recommend having a local copy of your music connected to your main Roon core system. Then use the NAS as a backup for your music not as a primary. Even if you get all the music from a primary library in a NAS loaded into Roon, Roon will still have issues quickly finding new music you’ve added (you’ll probably have to force a rescan from Roon if you want new added music to be visible in Roon quickly) and you’ll have difficulty ever getting your NAS disks to sleep because Roon will have to continue to poll the NAS to see if there is new music because NAS’ aren’t great at telling systems like Roon that new files have been added.
Thanks, Gents. This is helpful. Still, I have a couple of questions:
(1) Why is it that Roon simply misses so many files when scanning? Again, they are not ending up in the “skipped” file. It seems that multiple forced rescans just moves me asymptotically towards getting my library indexed. Perhaps breaking it up will help a bit.
(2) Why is it that Roon sends to the “skipped” folder files that were ripped from Blu Ray? Other players I have do not seem to have a problem; they recognize the files and play them.
(3) I already see Craig’s point. It makes the money I invested in a NAS seem a waste when I could have just bought a second external as a backup. I am sure, as well, that we soon will have all our music on 8 Tb micro SD cards, anyway.
The key difference is that the NAS communicates with Roon over the network instead of USB. Can you describe your networking setup? It is possible that there are communication issues between the two
No, there is no limit to the number of tracks you can import into Roon. Larger libraries may experience performance issues if the Core machine is not powerful enough for the database size, but there is no specific limit.
Yes, as noted above, you can add each folder individually in Settings > Storage and let the import occur. The folders will always be separate in Settings > Storage, but all of the media from these folders will appear in your library in Roon.
What is the reason listed for the files being skipped in Roon? You can learn more about this here.
It’s hard to say just yet why so many are missing. Can you verify the following so we can better understand this issue:
Prior to moving to the NAS, did all of these files show up properly in Roon?
When switched to the NAS, did you remove the existing folder that was showing up in Roon?
Can you share a screenshot of both the import windows and Settings > Storage?
