Problem Running Roon Remote on MacBook Pro

That post was from me. I apparently logged in with an older account.

Thanks for the info, @Jeff_Steele!

First, may I ask that you once more try deleting the RAATServer folder from both machines? Please give this another go and let me know if you’re still experiencing this behavior.

After some discussion with some of the other support team, we believe that we will need some additional feedback from the technical team. We think that reinstalling the OS may be resolve this, but first we wanted to check with the team. I have filed a report with them and will be sure to update you as soon as we receive their feedback.

Thanks,
Dylan

Hi @dylan

I deleted the RATServer folder from both machines while Roon was not running on either machine and restarted Roon. The machine_id is still the same on both computers. Can you please ask someone how the machine_id is created so that I can try to change it?

Have you tried making a new user account on the new Mac, say user TESTME, and then running RoonServer under that user on the new Machine? I could be wrong, but, I think the issue is that Roon keys off the actual user account of the machine and you’ve basically cloned that.

@Rugby

When I tried to install Roon as another user, it wanted to replace the existing Roon. So, I did this on my remote machine (which is the old core) because that seemed less risky. Indeed, running Roon as a remote from another user account worked. So Roon must get the machine_id from the user account. When I went back to my regular account and tried running Roon, it went back to how it had been showing the wrong local audio devices. So, while this is interesting in providing diagnostic information, it is not a solution.

I’d still like to see how Roon gets the machine_id (which now appears to have nothing to do with the machine, but rather the user) so that I can see if that can be changed for my regular account.

@Rugby @dylan @support

I just did a test on the new core machine by creating a second Administrator account, deleting my normal account but saving the home directory, and then recreated my normal account, using the original home directory. This did result in a new UUID being created for my username, which I hoped might fix the problem. Unfortunately, it didn’t correct anything and the same problem continues.

So, I’m back to requesting information on how the machine_id is created.

@Rugby @dylan @support

Any more input? I would really appreciate learning how the machine_id is created.

Hey @Jeff_Steele,

Apologies about the delayed response here. I had a meeting with the team to discuss this, and I wanted to reach out regarding their input.

Roon uses information from the OS to keep track of devices and the way that things were migrated to the new Core has the system confused. Since the OS is essentially identical, Roon sees these devices as the same.

This is a rare situation that we haven’t encountered before. We spoke with the development team and they’re investigating, but we aren’t sure that it’s possible to change the way Roon is identifying your devices.

A fresh install of MacOS will almost certainly resolve this. If that’s something you’re able to do, this is definitely the easiest path forward.

Thanks for your patience here Jeff, and sorry I don’t have better news here.

Kind regards,
Dylan

@dylan

Thanks for getting back to me. I can erase the computer and restore from backup, but without knowing what Roon is relying on to create the machine_id, the restore might restore those things as well. In that case, I’ll be right back where I am.

@dylan

I just had another idea. What if I upgrade one of the Macs to the Mohave Public Beta? I know Roon has an issue requiring manually giving it Accessibility permission, but otherwise works. But, will that change the OS enough to convince Roon it is a different server?

Hey @Jeff_Steele,

I spoke with the team about this, and they’re confident that a reinstall of the OS should do the trick here. The information we look at to identify the device from the OS will be different, so this will work for you.

Thanks,
Dylan

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Hi @dylan

I’ll try this today. Thanks!

@dylan

This weekend I erased the drive of my new computer – the computer that is the current Roon core. I then restored from a backup. The problem I am having continued – both the new Roon Core and the old Roon Core/New Roon Remote showed the same machine_id and the new Roon Remote did not show local audio devices. I then reinstalled the OS on the new Roon Core. The same problem continued. So, none of this has made a difference.

I have repeatedly asked for information about how the machine_id is created. Can you please find an answer to this?

Hey @Jeff_Steele,

Apologies for the confusion here, Jeff. In order for this to work you will not be able to restore from a backup. The backup contains the same OS information that was previously causing the confusion. In order for this to properly work you’ll need to completely install a fresh version of the OS not from a backup.

Thanks,
Dylan

@dylan

I did a fresh OS install after restoring my data. Obviously I have to restore my data.

Why is it that you can’t explain more clearly how the machine_id is created? This is really frustrating that you won’t explain that so that I might have a chance to change it. I’ve spent a lot of time on this and haven’t gotten anywhere.

@Jeff_Steele, was this ever resolved for you?

I believe I am having the same problem as you now after setting up my old machine as a Core.

I see no audio devices for the the client Mac and the devices shown as “this mac” are in fact connected to the core.

The end result I have no access to local audio ports on the new Mac running remote.

@skingers

Wow, I had almost forgotten about this nightmare. The good news is that I eventually did solve the problem. The bad news is that I don’t remember how. Try this on your client machine:

  1. open your “Terminal” program (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal);
  2. in your home directory look for a file named “.rmembid” (cd ; ls -a .rmembid)
  3. if that exists, renamed it (mv .rmembid .rmembid.bak)
  4. restart Roon.

I am not sure if this is the correct fix. I remember that when I found the solution, it was a very easy fix and I was extremely angry with Roon Support’s failure to tell me about it.

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@Jeff_Steele

Brilliant - that was it. Works fine now!

Thanks so much, your persistence on the machine ID issue is what stopped me from doing a clean install which would have been a major hassle.

Yes, this works perfectly. Anyone who gets a new Mac and uses Apple’s Migration Assistant to populate the new machine from an old one needs to do this. I searched for several hours to find this post. It should be in a faq or something since Migration Assistant is so obviously useful.