Problems playing Qobuz Streams

Support
1

Hi guys,

I have similar problem that I described already in the Qobuz section of this forum:

Roon Core Machine:
iMac (2017, i7, 4.sGHz)

Network gear
Fritz!Box 7590 AX (latest model) but the problem arose already with my previous Network gear, which was an Apple Airport Extreme. I thought it might be a Router problem, since the Airport was quite some years old but the new Fritz!Box did not solve the problem. I extended my Network by two Fritz!Box repeaters to a Mesh network and the iMac is connected by Ethernet cable to one of the Repeaters in the shared Mesh network. The internet speed is in the order of 30-40 Mit/s

Connected Audio Devices
a) Bluesound Vault 2
b) KEF LS 50 Wireless II
c) the iMac itself
the problem arises with each of the three devices

Number of tracks in library
< 10k

Description of issue
Randomly Qobuz streams do not start. Sometimes they play without issues for 3-4 songs, then they stop after hopping to another song. Then it will take 20-30 minutes before the stream continues. The problem started in May. Before it worked for months without any problem. No change of hardware/software on my side…

Idea:
Meanwhile I asume it must have something to do with the cache. On my iMac Roon creates a big folder in the library/Roon directory, called „Cache“. There are two separate subfolders here named „qobuz“ and another one with qobuz in its name where I forgot the exact name.

Anyway - deleting of the „cache“ folder sometimes solves the problem - at least for some minutes before the problem with not playing the Qobuz contents starts again.

The cache/qobuz folder in the library contains another folder with a long encrypted name. If I copy that folder (I can’t see a file within that folder) from a running/well working session later into the cache folder again (during an interrupted session) it starts to work again.

So I don’t know the details but I asume that there is a certain issue with that file in the cache that sometimes prevents to load the Qobuz content via Roon. Maybe that might help yout technical experts to figure out the problem?

Thanks for your help and best wishes,
Stefan

2

The Support team ask that issues are first reported in separate threads, rather than piggybacked onto existing Support threads. So I’ve moved your post to its own thread. Thanks.

4

Hey @Stefan_Janssen1,

Thanks for writing in! If possible, can you please reproduce the issue, share the date and time of the issue, and please use the directions found here and send over a set of logs to our File Uploader?

Thanks!

5

Hi Benjamin, OK - done!

I reproduced the bug (in fact, this time QOBUZ songs again did not start to play at all). I uploaded the log folder as zip file as you described in your instructions. The name of the zipped folder is: “Stefan_Janssen1_Logs.zip”. The latest log file in there is this one: “Roon_log.txt” and it also contains the latest blocking of QOBUZ content from this afternoon: July 29, 15:11 (CET).

Thanks for your help and best regards,
Stefan

7

Hey @Stefan_Janssen1,

Thanks for sending those over! I see a few odd errors popping up around the time you try to play music from Qobuz. Ff you haven’t already, I’d recommend you attempt to clear your Tidal/Qobuz cache as well by following the steps below:

  1. Quit Roon (or RoonServer)
  2. Find and open your Roon or RoonServer folder
  3. Locate and delete only the cache folder ( Roon/Cache )
  4. Restart Roon

With that, do you have any additional ISP-based network guards active? For example, Xfinity offers a service called “Constant Guard” that has caused similar issues with users in the past.

Another thing to test out - have you tried to play Qobuz to another zone in Roon, such as one of your iOS zone outputs? Can you play a 192 stream there without issue? I’d also test out playing from the system output of your Mac as well - if you haven’t yet.

I’ll be monitoring this thread for your reply. Thanks! :+1:

8

Hi Benjamin,

thanks a lot for your reply!! In fact, I already deleted the Cache folder several times. Sometimes it helps for a few minutes but not always. I just tried again and there was no improvement at all.

I don’t have any ISP safety guards activated. As mentioned before Qobuz through Roon worked without any issues until May 2023. Then I did not change anything on my side but suddenly it stopped working (meaning that sometimes it works for 2-3 songs and then stops again…)

Of course I have tested this on all my zones and also on the Mac output directly. The problem appears to be the same - independent from the zone output and independent from where I control the Roon core (e.g. directly on the iMac or from my iPhone…)

It’s a mystery to me… unfortunately it really destroys my previous very good experience of QOBUZ via Roon…

Best wishes,
Stefan

9

Hey @Stefan_Janssen1,

I think a good next step in testing would be to see if the issue reproduces on a fresh database. I’ll share the steps to follow below:

  • Create a Backup of your current database
  • Exit out of Roon
  • Navigate to your Roon Database Location
  • Find the folder that says “Roon”
  • Rename the “Roon” folder to “Roon_old”
  • Reinstall the Roon App from our Downloads Page to generate a new Roon folder
  • Verify if the issue persists on a fresh database before restoring the backup

With the fresh database, you can skip adding any local files for now. All you need to do is reconnect and resync your qobuz account, and test to see if the issue persists.

Thanks, Stefan!

10

Dear Benjamin,

I followed carefully your procedure described above and re-installed Roon on my Mac. Then I tried to play songs from QOBUZ and - unfortunately - the issue persists - no improvement at all … ;-(

I now waited already for 15 minutes to play the first song from QOBUZ - it just doesn’t work… It is even worse than before because formerly after 5-10 minutes the stream started to play in most cases but now it seems that it doesn’t work at all anymore.

Best wishes,
Stefan

11

Hey @Stefan_Janssen1,

Thanks for giving that a try! Feel free to restore your recently saved backup in that case.

As a next step, I’d like to test out chaing your DNS settings on your iMac core machine. Please head to:

System Settings>Network>Advanced>DNS

Take note of the DNS settings you currently have. Then, update them to either Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and let me know if your issues persist. :+1:

12

Dear Benjamin,

I saw this hint already in earlier threats on this QOBUZ issue from other users with the same problem and tried to “play” with the DNS servers already before without success.
Now I tried again and it doesn’t change anything. The DNS serves doesn’t seem to be responsible for the problem…

But thanks for this. Meanwhile I already think about forgetting my 240 bugs invested to the annual QOBUZ subscription and think about ordering one from TIDAL, where this Roon problem is not reported yet. QOBUZ and Roon somehow do not seem to speak to each other unfortunately…

Unless you have another idea?

Cheers,
Stefan

13

I suggest you trial Tidal first to see whether the same problem manifests itself there…

15

Hey @Stefan_Janssen1,

After reviewing a freshly pulled core diagnostic, we’re seeing some odd errors and behavior - mainly a reoccurring issue in trying to mount your shared library folder. Here is an example:

8/11 20:44:40 Trace: [storage/streaming] [Qobuz] sync force=False
08/11 20:44:40 Trace: [roondns] flushed 40 last-known-good entries
08/11 20:44:41 Warn: [roon/cifs] mounting failed: mount_smbfs -N -s -o nobrowse '//stefansvault2/shared' '/Users/stefan/Library/RoonMounts/RoonStorage_cc0ef93e434c4789007af0ef3352a31b1cf8b627' [rc:68, output:mount_smbfs: server connection failed: No route to host]
08/11 20:44:41 Debug: [roon/cifs] Mount deleting: /Users/stefan/Library/RoonMounts/RoonStorage_cc0ef93e434c4789007af0ef3352a31b1cf8b627
08/11 20:44:41 Warn: [roon/cifs] failed to connect to CIFS storage: Host is unreachable
08/11 20:44:41 Info: [broker/filebrowser/volumeshare] Volume's CIFSMount's availability changed: False
08/11 20:44:41 Debug: [broker/filebrowser/drive] availability on drive's volume changed: False: VolumeShare[networkpath:\\stefansvault2\shared,mountdir:<null>]
08/11 20:44:41 Info: [broker/locations/directorystoragelocation] drive availabilitychanged: False, FileBrowser.Entry: \\stefansvault2, shared : \Music (it was False)

Your diagnostic report is full of these errors repeating over and over again, which may point to a bigger network issue altogether. If you completely simply your network setup, and hardwire your core directly to your router, does the same issue occur?

To confirm, you are able to play audio from the Qobuz web player without issues?

16

Dear Benjamin,

thanks a lot for looking into this such detailed. I see from the time stamp that you extracted the logs yesterday (Aug 11 at 20:44). Here it is clear that my shared library folder can’t be mounted since we are on on a short vacation presently and I switched off my whole Hifi setup Friday morning including the Bluesound Vault with my library. Only the iMac with the Roon Core is still running.

Regarding my home network you are right that this could be easier but I use a brand-new AVM Router with 2 repeaters and the network is setup as a “Mesh” network. The core is then hardwired to one of the repeaters and the connection speed is in the order of 40-50 MBit/s, which should be more than enough.

The QOBUZ Webplayer works without problems but lately I noticed that the QOBUZ Desktop App also revealed some problems. I never noticed that since I never use this App on my Mac.

If you think the network might be a problem there could be a solution: within 2-3 months we will have another Internet provider who supports a glas fibre connection and the I will be able to connect the iMac core directly to the Router. Presently this is not possible.

Maybe I have to wait for that and try again?

Thanks a lot and best wishes,
Stefan

17

P.S.

if the Bluesound with the library is switched on there have never been problems to play the library files from the Bluesound through Roon. That always worked. The issue occurs only by playing streams from QOBUZ.

20

Hey @Stefan_Janssen1,

Thanks for the information! I hope the short vacation was restful :pray:

This could certainly add a level of complexity to things. I have a few things for you to try:

  1. Test out disabling all but one wifi band within your router settings, and see if the same issue occurs.
  2. Test out adding priority within your network traffic to both your iMac as well as Roon through your Fritzbox. Here is a step by step on how to do both:

Let me know how things go. :+1:

21

Hey Ben,

  1. adding priority:
    this I already did quite a while ago, it doesn’t seem to have any influence.

  2. Wifi bands:
    I tried this last night (I switched off the 5GHz band and worked with the 2.4GHz only). Here I found some effect: in my Zone#2 (my KEF LS 50 Wireless II) the QOBUZ streams played as they should do :+1:t2: and I could play for 30 minutes of test all songs that I tried.
    Then I tried to play songs in my Zone#0 (this is the output of the iMac (Roon Core) itself). And here I found the same failure as before. The songs did not start to play…
    The KEFs are hardwired to my Repeater #1 and the Mac is hardwired to Repeater #2. So maybe this makes the difference? If I find the time I will try the same with working on the 5GHz band only.

Are there any other consequences working with only one WiFi band permanently?

Best wishes,
Stefan

24

Hey @Stefan_Janssen1,

Thanks for the report!

The only thing to keep in mind would be the compatibility with your devices. 2.4Ghz is more compatible with older devices, so if your all your devices are compatible with 5Ghz, you should be find to leave 2.4Ghz turned off, or vice versa. :+1:

25

Hi Ben,

I just want to let you know that finally I could solve the problem now. Yesterday I received my glassfibre internet connection at home and I could optimize/simplify my home network significantly. My router is now directly wired to my Roon core (iMac) and all audio gear (Bluesound Vault with the following DAC and amplifier as well as my KEF LS 50 Wireless II) is now also connected per Network cables, not per WiFi anymore.

In addition the Internet speed has been multiplied by a factor >10 from 30 Mbit/s to 500 Mbit/s. All those measures together made the problem disappear. All Qobuz songs now directly start to play through the Roon interface - no problems anymore.

Thanks again for your patience and your (and all others) attempts to help me.

Best wishes,
Stefan

1 Like
26

I’m glad to hear it @Stefan_Janssen1! Happy listening :notes:

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