I have installed Roon Core on a Mac Mini connected by USB to my DAC in the living room. I am now using the iPad Mini as the Roon remote control and am (mostly) running headless. When I need to access the Mac Mini, I view it on the main screen over HDMI and use the bluetooth keyboard and track pad. Previously, i used the same configuration with Apple Remote controlling iTunes through Audirvana.
Now I am finding that the iPad Mini is draining very quickly - usually a day or less, when previously several days. Is there a configuration for the Roon Remote on iPad that I have wrong - perhaps it is continually polling the Roon Core on the Mac Mini even when not in use?
perhaps it is continually polling the Roon Core on the Mac Mini even when not in use?
Roon does not do background activity on iOS–shortly after backgrounding Roon or sleeping the device, iOS suspends Roon, and our code is no longer allowed to run.
This is fairly typical for iOS apps (and a big part of why iOS devices get such great battery life)–there are only a few situations where apps are allowed to consume resources in the background, and Roon doesn’t fit into those profiles.
The setting @Ratbert mentioned could drain the battery by keeping the screen from sleeping when the app is in the foreground, but if it is, you’d notice that Roon is keeping the screen awake, too. That setting is really meant for people who have an iPad in a wall mount with continuous power, or a similar appliance-like situation.
For what it’s worth, I have an iPad Mini 2 that I charge about once a week, and I use Roon frequently on it.
Has anything else changed recently that might explain this battery usage?
Many thanks Russ and Brian, yes that sorted out the problem. I had deactivated screen lock so I could use Roon continuously, without realising that also deactivated the sleep function on closing the smart cover. I have it now set on 15 minutes so I am not always having to re-enter the pass code while Rooning, but the screen lock works and battery life is back to normal. Nick