Playback failure with 'Too many failures. Stopping playback' error on Roon (ref#QNLAL9)

Support
1

What best describes your playback issue?

· Music doesn't start when I press "Play"

What type of Zone is affected by this problem?

· *All of my Zones* are affected.

Does the issue affect all file formats?

· The issue affects *multiple/all* file formats.

Does the issue happen with local library music, streaming service music, or both?

· *Both streaming and local* *library* music are affected.

Do you encounter any playback errors with the "System Output" Zone?

· The System Output has the same problem as my other Zone.

Do you have a complex network setup?

· Both the device and RoonServer are connecting to a *single router*

Please try rebooting your router.

· No, I'm still having trouble

Do you have an approximate timestamp of when the issue last occurred?

· 12:39 pm on Saturday 23rd May, New Zealand Time

What are the make and model of the affected audio device(s) and the connection type?

· Prism Sound Titan connected to Roon client PC via USB.

Describe the issue

Too many failures . Stopping playback

Roon Core Machine
Operating System: Linux distribution Open Media Vault
Model: Intel NUC11TNHi5
CPU: Intel Core i5-1135G7
RAM: 8GB
SSD: 512GB
Connection to LAN: Ethernet
Roon version: 2.66 (build 1658)
Networking Gear & Setup Details
Roon client on Windows 11 PC, roon version: 2.66 (build 1658)
Modem/router Deco X53-DSL
VPNs, proxy servers, or enterprise-grade security: No
Connected Audio Devices
Prism Sound Titan connected to PC via USB.

Library
Tidal
<4,000 tracks stored on the Roon Core machine.

Description of Issue

If I click the Play Now button:
playback does not progress beyond 0:00;
and error message 'Too many failures. Stopping playback' is shown.

There was no problem when I last used Roon a few days ago, though I may have had a recent Roon software update. Apart from that I can't think of anything else that might have changed.

The problem is specific to Roon. Other audio sources, such as Tidal, work fine.

The problem occurs both with streamed albums and albums in my file system.

I've tried other audio sources in Roon for my audio interface. None helped, though ASIO shows no error message while still freezing at 0:00.

Describe your network setup

Modem/router Deco X53-DSL, connected to Roon Core and client machine via Ethernet

2

Correction. Roon works fine on my iPad. Only my PC is affected.

3

Hello @Simon_O_Rorke,

Thank you for the detailed report and for verifying that everything works perfectly on your iPad. Since the issue is completely isolated to the Windows 11 PC, and the playback freezes at 0:00 with the “Too many failures” error, this indicates that Roon’s audio engine on your PC is unable to initialize or communicate with the Prism Sound Titan driver.

Given that you recently had a software update and other apps (like the native Tidal app) can output sound, it’s highly likely we are dealing with an Exclusive Mode conflict or an ASIO driver hang.

Let’s try to clear this up with a few targeted steps on your Windows PC:

1. Reboot Both Devices (The Clean Slate) Before changing any settings, let’s clear any hung background drivers.

  • Turn off the Prism Sound Titan.
  • Restart your Windows 11 PC.
  • Turn the Titan back on and let it connect to Windows. Do not open any other audio applications (like Tidal, web browsers, etc.) yet.

2. Check Windows Sound Settings (Exclusive Mode) Make sure Windows isn’t allowing another background process to lock the device:

  • Press the Windows Key, type Control Panel, and go to Hardware and Sound > Sound.
  • Under the Playback tab, find your Prism Sound Titan, right-click it, and select Properties.
  • Go to the Advanced tab.
  • Uncheck “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device” (just temporarily for testing). Click Apply and OK.

3. Configure Roon Device Settings

  • Open Roon and go to Settings > Audio.
  • Disable the current Zone for the Titan, and then re-enable it.
  • Click the gear icon (:gear:) next to the Titan and select Device Setup.
  • If you are using ASIO, try switching the “Audio Device” setting from ASIO to WASAPI (or vice versa) to see if the issue is isolated to a specific driver protocol.
  • Ensure Workaround for devices that don’t report capabilities is toggled to Yes (sometimes high-end pro interfaces handle capability reporting differently than consumer DACs).

4. Windows Firewall Check Since Roon pushes audio over your local network from the NUC to the PC, the Windows Firewall might be blocking the audio engine after a recent update.

  • Search Windows for “Allow an app through Windows Firewall”.
  • Scroll down and ensure that both roon.exe and raatserver.exe have both Private and Public networks checked.

Please try playing a local file after these steps and let us know if the track progresses past 0:00!

4

Problem solved. Your troubleshooting steps pointed me in the right direction. Thanks!

It was already unchecked, something I had recently done in an attempt to solve an audio problem unrelated to Roon. I immediately suspected that was the problem. But first I went through the rest of the troubleshooting steps, just in case something else might help.

As the problem was then not fixed, I went back to Control Panel → Sound (mmsys.cpl) and enabled ‘Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device’. That solved the problem for Roon’s Titan WASAPI audio device. It was not necessary to also enable ‘Give exclusive mode applications priority’.

My sound system in Windows overall seems to be working fine. I think I had already solved the unrelated audio problem with a different fix.

Roon is still not working with the Titan ASIO audio device. As previously reported, though ASIO freezes at 0:00, it has never shown the error message. So something different is going on there. However, that is a problem I don’t need to fix.