· Time and time again: the start of the track is skipped
Tell us about your home network
· The server is connected via Ethernet, the boxes via Wifi
I hadn’t used Roon much for a while, so I hadn’t had any problems with this brilliant piece of software. Now things have changed, and the old problem has immediately resurfaced: at some point, Roon decides that I don’t need to hear the beginning of a track and simply starts playing a little later. Or it decides that a track is unnecessary altogether and skips it without further ado. The problem isn’t reproducible. Once it’s happened and I jump back to the same point, it usually carries on without a hitch until the phenomenon occurs at another point.
Is there any hope that this problem will ever be resolved? I don’t think it’s really too much to ask that I expect software, which after all costs a fair bit of money, to work without a hitch and not just now and then when I’m lucky. (I also don’t think it’s too much to ask that I want to use Roon primarily as a tool for listening to music, rather than wasting my time speculating about possible causes and fiddling around with potential solutions that usually come to nothing.)
EDIT: Now for something new: I can’t use Roon at all anymore. When I click on a track, it does show that it’s playing (the little flickering icon next to the title), but nothing actually plays. After a while, a message appears saying that Roon has lost connection to the device. Or sometimes it doesn’t. It’s impossible to predict. In any case, nothing plays at all. In other words: I can no longer listen to music, at least not with Roon. (As is so often the case.)
Is there anything I can do? (I don’t want to look for other software, because that’s too much hassle and just leads to other problems. I just want to listen to music.)
Hi @Werner_Hintze, the symptoms you’re describing point to a playback path or network stability issue rather than a simple track-specific problem.
Since you’re now seeing playback start but no audio, along with the occasional device connection loss, the first thing we should check is the network path between Roon Server and the playback device. Our Networking Best Practices article covers the setup we recommend for reliable Roon playback, including wired vs. WiFi placement and where connection issues tend to show up.
In the meantime, please try these two things:
Restart the playback device and Roon Server, then try the same track again.
If possible, temporarily connect the playback device by Ethernet instead of WiFi, or move it as close as practical to the access point to see whether the connection loss and skipped starts change.
If you can also note the exact local time + date + track the next skip or disconnect happens and let us know, we will enable diagnostics and can review that window from our side.
· Once more: Tracks start not with the beginning We’ve discussed this issue here quite a few times already. Each time, the discussion ended with the fact that, after some back-and-forth, no further response was forthcoming. Now I think it’s time to raise the matter again: when I listen to music on Roon, the start of a track is frequently skipped, and sometimes a track is skipped entirely. My setup has changed significantly since then, but the problem remains exactly the same. I’d be interested to know whether anything can be done about this, or whether Roon’s view is that it’s enough for me to pay my subscription, but that there’s absolutely no need for me to actually get what I’m paying for. Or is there perhaps some news on this? To get this out of the way straight away: I can connect to the server via Wi-Fi or Ethernet; I can even have both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connected at the same time – it makes no difference. It doesn’t work and has never worked since I signed up with Roon.
It would be helpful if you could reply to his questions so Roon support have this information available when they resume support activities after the weekend.
I’ve already restarted the devices and the server many times. That doesn’t fix the problem. Incidentally, it isn’t track-specific. When it’s happened and I play the same track again, it almost never happens again. But it happens again shortly afterwards with a different track.
The problem occurs equally on devices connected via Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
Today I experienced the problem at 11:23 and at 11:33 (perhaps a few minutes apart).
We’ve discussed this with our senior QA and development teams. The team is investigating some possibilities here and, as soon as that investigation is complete, we’ll be sure to follow up ASAP.
You have our apologies for the trouble here, and we’ve greatly appreciated your patience as we continue investigating this tricky issue. We’ll be in touch as soon as we can.
I think I’ve given this answer quite a few times before on this matter. But nothing has been resolved. So I don’t expect it to be resolved this time either. But thank you very much for your kind words. They are a great comfort to me.
We have real answers for you this time, on both symptoms.
Both are specific to Sonos, and neither is caused by anything on your side. Your network, your equipment and your settings were never the problem, which is why it made no difference whether you connected by Ethernet or Wi-Fi. You were right to keep raising this.
The lost connection messages. Under certain conditions, Roon was misreading a response from the Sonos speaker as a sign that another app had taken control of it, and stopping playback as a result. Nothing was actually wrong with your network. This one is fixed, and the fix will reach you in a future release.
The skipped start of tracks. This is the one you have been describing for the longest, and it is a genuine defect. On Sonos, every track change works differently than on other devices, and the speaker is not given the information it needs to prepare the next track in time. So the next track begins already part of the way in.
That also explains why playing the same track again usually works, since the second time it is not coming out of a track change.
This second one is understood but not yet fixed, and we are not going to give you a date we cannot stand behind. What we can tell you is that it now has a clear, identified cause, and R&D is working on it
I see. Very interesting. How many years did it take before someone addressed these problems? Seven? Eight? Or ‘only’ five? And how many years will it now take to fix the known bugs? Will I live to see that happen?
We have added this info to the investigation ticket. The ticket has been submitted for developer review, meaning that this may take some time to be reviewed.
There aren’t any additional details needed at this time, so we will go ahead and close the thread for the time being, and if any other questions arise after the developers have reviewed the case, we will re-open the thread and reach out once more.
Thanks again for your report, and thank you in advance for your patience as the ticket progresses through the development queue for review.