Just to add my interest in this topic. I seem to have a very similar problem. Everything was fine with V1.6, but since upgrading to V1.7, my remotes have problems finding the core on startup.
I have ROCK running on an NUC7i7BNH, connected via wired ethernet to my network and I use either an iPad Pro or MacBook Pro as a remote. I usually stream to a SOtM sMS200 Ultra also connected via ethernet cable.
I have noticed that using the button to restart the software on the ROCK web browser seems to resolve the problem eventually, but it’s a pain and wasn’t necessary with V1.6
Can you please provide some more information regarding your network setup? What is the model/manufacturer of all your networking gear and how is the Core, iPad and MacBook connected to the network? Are they both on WiFi and only ROCK is connected via Ethernet? Is there any change if you plug in the MacBook Pro via Ethernet as a test?
My Router is a BT Home Hub 5, but I also use a Netgear switch for the ethernet connections.
My iPad and MacBook are both wireless.
I’m not sure if connecting the MacBook by ethernet would help, but the problem has only arisen since v1.7. With 1.6 everything was fine.
Once up and running, ROCK is stable. It’s just a bit of a pain to get started and I tend to leave it turned off until I want to use it. As I said earlier, restarting the ROCK software using the button on the web browser seems to do the trick. There must be something different about how ROCK is starting up that is preventing the remotes finding it straight away. Under V1.6 everything worked like a charm. I have made no hardware or setup changes at all.
Thank you for sharing those network setup details, this helps a bit.
Just so you are aware, we strongly recommend against ISP-provided routers, as we have often seen issues in the past with such devices, as mentioned in our Networking Best Practices Guide.
With that said, I would be interested to know what the behavior is like if you connect your Macbook via Ethernet to the router, as well as the ROCK, completely bypassing the switch from the equation. Can you give this a try?
I will try a direct ethernet connection, but this will involve moving equipment around from various rooms and have to wait until I get a chance.
I am however confused as to why you think this is network issue when everything was fine with V1.6. Is there something in V1.7 that my BT router won’t like?
By way of an update, I have now noticed that if I wait longer after turning on the ROCK before starting the remotes, they tend to connect ok. It could simply be that I now need to be more patient with the start up.
V1.6 seemed almost bullet proof by comparison. Very fast to boot up and it didn’t seem to matter in which order things were started. It just worked.
How long after turning ROCK on do you have to wait before you are able to connect? I usually leave my ROCK running all the time, and I just tried rebooting on my end and I’m able to connect within 2/3 minutes.
Once your ROCK has been powered on does the connection appear to be consistent across your Roon Remotes?
There have been quite a few changes “under the hood”, so I can’t say why exactly this behavior is only occurring now, but what I can say is that often times ISP-provided routers have a poor multicast implementation, and multicast traffic is required to be properly passed through for Roon to work properly.
I just tried starting up a couple of times. I started the app on my iPad first and got the “Lost Connection. Trying to reconnect.” screen as expected. I then started ROCK and timed how long it took to appear.
The first time it was 3minutes 20 seconds and the second it was 3 minutes 30 second. I can’t say how long V1.6 took to start up, but it certainly seemed quicker…
Once started everything is stable on the iPad and MacBook.
If this is the answer then it’s not an issue for me. I’ll just wait a few minutes after startup.
Other than that everything is good, so thanks for your help and feel free to close this thread.
Kind regards
P.S. Starting the app on the MacBook first, ROCK took 3 minutes 35 seconds to appear.
3 minutes 30 seconds is a bit on the longer side of things, but it depends on how large your library is. I wonder if there is any additional information in your logs.
Can I request that you reproduce this issue and then manually send me a copy of your Core logs by using these instructions?
The best way to get them over to me would be via Dropbox / Google Drive, but if you don’t have either service, just let me know and I can provide alternate upload instructions.
We’ve recently released RoonOS (Build 186) which includes changes that should improve this behavior. Please give it this a try and let us know how it goes!