As this thread has been open a while I have been playing with a number of configurations to attempt to fix this and other issues.
It may not be clear from my original post but I have tried have the core directly on the iMac, on a MacBook Air and on Docker on the iMac and a Linux Debian based VM.
My current set up is a ROCK VM on the iMac and this has proven the most stable.
All these variations have had this issue intermittently so that tends to eliminate it being the Core machine (as two variants of VM plus the iMac have been tried and a separate install on the MacBook was tried still getting this same issue).
So this suggests it is something happening on the network and maybe specifically with the Qobuz connection.
Things I have noted:
This only affects playlists with Qobuz content
If the playlist has been saved as a local copy the issue still happens
Occasionally one playlist with Qobuz content may work but the other Qobuz based playlists wonât
This issue sometimes just happens after an extended period (say 12-36 hours)
It appears to always happen if the VM is restarted - I am not sure if this is true if I was to run Roon Core directly on the iMac - I can then clear the issue as detailed disabling re-enabling Qobuz service
Going to Settings > Services and editing the Qobuz account settings, disabling and re-enabling always seems to fix this.
So it does seem I can reproduce this on my system by restarting the VM.
Hello @Marcus_Russell, my apologies for the delay. Could you please reproduce the issue one more time and reply here with a timestamp when you do? Iâd like to collect a fresh set of diagnostics for our QA team from after youâve made the DNS change.
I have just replicated the issue. I restarted the ROCK core at 11:13 BST and after the restart the GUI issue was present. As above going to settings, disabling Qobuz then re-enabling it fixed the issue - till the next restart I suspect.
I am not sure whether you have access to logs etc but will PM you with links to support file and RAAT and Server logs
Ok I could move back to running Roon Server on the iMac, restore a back up of the Roon ROCK instance to that , shut down the VM Rock pro tem and proceed from there?
I donât have any hardware I could run ROCK on as a non VM
Would that be useful in terms of testing?
Hi @nuwriy
I have now tried this and it exhibits exactly the same behaviour.
I.E. all works fine until the iMac (in this latest test running Roon Server) is restarted for any reason. After that the playlists icon doesnât work.
As before going to settings >> services >> Qobuz, disabling the service and re-enabling sorts the issue.
Hi @nuwriy
I can add to the above - if I restart Roon Server (without restarting the iMac) I get the same behaviour so have to disable and re-enable Qobuz
Hello @Marcus_Russell, could you do this one more time with the iMac core and provide a timestamp of when you reproduced the issue? Iâd like to compare log traces from the previous core to what we see now. Also, is it possible to connect to a mobile hotspot from your phone or another network? Iâd like to definitely rule out a potential networking issue.
Hi @nuwriy
Ok have recreated this on the iMac RoonServer - time stamp a restart at approx 10/27 10:03
I will send dropbox link via PM
I will now try with a mobile hotspot.
I am having other issues with RoonServer on the iMac so will revert to my ROCK VM after this test and I will also try the mobile hotspot on that as well and report back.
I have now successfully had RoonServer up and running on the iMac using a personal hotspot and I still see exactly the same behaviour. This seems to confirm it is not the network.
Will now try on the ROCK VM
OK I forgot the ROCK VM is using bridged networking and that doesnât seem to play with a hotspot so I canâr run that test but I think as I have demonstrated its not the network with the RoonServer iMac set up so I think we can safely remove the network as a consideration.
Hello @Marcus_Russell, I wanted to confirm a few items for the QA team. So far, you have experienced this issue on ROCK VM and the iMac as the core. Youâve also tested this on your home network and a completely separate network (via hotspot). Have you tried the MacBook Air as the core on your home network?
The reason I ask is because weâre seeing traces in the logs that point to a networking issue and I wanted to confirm what weâve tested already.
Hi @nuwriy
I tested this in the first instance - I mentioned this in the original report.
Also if we have used mobile hotspot doesnât that indicate it is not a network issue?
As the issue only seems to affect Qobuz playlists or ones with Qobuz content it seems to indicate that the issue is on connecting to the outside world rather than the internal network.
Maybe if you can share what those traces in the logs indicate it might just bring something to mind.
As I see it the fact that it only occurs on start up of the Roon or ROCK server suggests an early try for a Qobuz connection which fails for some reason? And there is no retry which could automatically correct the issue (where as I have to manually intervene to fix the issue)
I guess if RoonServer or ROCK start before the network connection is ready that might be a clue BUT if I restart the ROCK VM (and the iMac network adapter is obviously ready for bridging in this situation) then I still get the issue. But if running on RoonServer the issue only arises after the iMac is restarted.
The community does list quite a few issues which seem to relate to Qobuz and network stability and just wonder whether there is some small issue just not quite visible here.
My core and Synology NAS are wired to the same switch which itself is wired to my router. I guess there could be some kind of issue with the switch so I have ordered a replacement - Iâll saw out the NAS network cable as well and the switch cable (already changed the iMac cable.
Iâll let you know if any of that works. / or not
OK I have now replaced the local switch (between the iMac and the router and also feeding my local NAS and I also replaced the network cables for the NAS and the local switch.
Restarting the ROCK VM, as before, triggers the issue.
As I said before if running RoonServer on the iMac restarting RoonServer does not trigger the problem but restarting the iMac which is running RoonServer (which was et to load automatically) does trigger the issue.
So it seems to me that this is an issue during starting up the hardware?
And it only relates to the streaming service.
It might be worth me trying a Tidal subscription trial just to test if it does the same thing with Tidal?
Hi @nuwriy
To try and push this on a little I signed up for a Tidal trial.
I added a Tidal playlist to my favourites so that I have a tidal playlist in addition to my Qobuz playlists.
The same issue arises with Tidal as arises with Qobuz. I.E. after a restart the playlist GUI issue occurs. What is interesting is disabling or Re- enabling EITHER service fixes the issue for both services.
OK I think I may have found a fix and that at core it was as you suspected a network issue.
Whilst everything seemed stable running ROCK with the USB/Ethernet connection or wifi I could not get the built in ethernet connection of the iMac to work stably.
I spoke to Apple who on the second attempt to diagnose suggested I reset the SMC
To reset the SMC on your Mac, you would simply power off the Mac and disconnected anything thatâs connected to it.
Wait 15 seconds, then plug the power cord back in. Wait 5 seconds, then press the power button to turn on your Mac.
I tried this and this fixed the issue with the Ethernet connection on the iMac - so I checked ROCK to use this ethernet connection since when I no longer get the issue with the Play button being unavailable.
This applies whether there is a local copy of the playlist or not.
For Tidal the button wonât work unless the playlist has been copied locally but knowing that makes it easy enough to manage.
So I suspect whatever the issues were which required the SMC reset may have affected all network connections at least to some extent which may explain why you were seeing a network issue.
So it may be worth adding this as a potential fix for network related issues on Mac machines.
Hello @Marcus_Russell, and thanks for the update! Iâm going to add this information to our internal tracking so we have it for future use. Please let me know if the issue returns.