I guess you’ll have to treat Roon as outside your LAN from now on. It is a subscription-based service after all.
If there’s any takeaway from this backlash, it’s that there’s no vinyl revival going on.
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I take it you don’t frequent Steve Hoffman Music forums. The existential crisis there is that MFSL one step records had a “secret” digital step in what was thought to be pure analog $150 records. So happy I moved away from vinyl in about 1986. 
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Lots of subscription based services allow you to have local stuff that’s still accessible without external internet. I can watch Netfix movies offline, I can access all my local music with my Plex system even if the ISP is down (but sadly the Plex can’t stream to my hifi DAC)
I bought a lifetime subscription and the main reason I did that was so that I could have it forever to play my local files, even if I cancelled other services. - I never even dreamed that that would become explicitly blocked if Roon itself couldn’t access the outside world, and for no legitimate reason.
What I’ll have to do is find an alternative to Roon.
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Count me in as one of many who isn’t happy about the internet dependency to play local files. We shouldn’t have to choose between mobile access and offline playing of local files via a soon to be unsupported software version.
Also, some years ago Roon stated that should they go out of business, they would kill the internet/calling home to verify license dependency so users could continue to use their Roon cores for local files, albeit without metadata updates.
With the apparent plans to move core functionality off our cores and into to cloud, I suspect that statement from Roon is no longer correct. This bothers me because the assurance I could continue to use this software (not so cheap software at that) was a significant reason I bought a Lifetime license back in 2017. At least I made it past the break even point, I guess.
Lesson learned; “Lifetime” means whatever the company wants it to mean at any time, and subject to change at any time.
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Votes are certainly racking up on the Feature Suggestion thread, but I’m still not holding my breath. Don’t get me wrong, 2.0 with offline access would be great, but the “mood music” seems to suggest that this won’t happen.
I can only assume that Roon developers want to be able to build up functionality for the future that requires a constant internet connection. Clearly that’s not the case at the moment. Obviously search doesn’t work on offline 2.0, but it would appear that the only reason 2.0 stops working offline is because it needs to “check in” with the servers in order to function. I’m still wondering if this could be altered. But, as I say, I’m not holding my breath.
Even when online search might not work, filtering albums or artists based on the database should work.
Even Google phones and iPhones which are inherently online in nature still has an Airplane Mode and could work in Airplane Mode. Can you search things online when in Airplane Mode? No, at least not that I know of. But, you could still browse, search, open or read on a document that you already downloaded to the phone, and you could even work on a document and then synchronize later when the phones are back online. We need that Airplane Mode.
You have it. On ARC.
This is an absolutely terrible design. We have regular Internet outages, and one of the primary reasons I stopped streaming direct from Tidal/Spotify and built my own offline library is so that I could play music when the Internet is out. Now despite having all of my music locally, the software provider forces it’s local software playing local music to access their hosted servers. This is a mind bogglingly stupid move on Roon’s part.
FWIW, I just cancelled my account and will be figuring out an alternative to this. Roon is proving they want to be the Apple of the network streaming world. Damn the consumer, we’ll make whatever decisions we want despite public outcry against them.
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Dear Danny,
I knew this answer would come out. I was writing my last few sentences about ARC and that that was not the answer. But, then I deleted what I have typed and posted what I posted. So, here we go.
First of all, even with ARC, if the core is offline, ARC does not work unless you have eveything downloaded to your phone. And if you don’t have anything downloaded, direct streaming from Tidak or Spotify could be better, simpler and definitely more reliable.
Second of all, I am an audiophile. I want to listen to music through my good stereo, not though my crappy sounding phone or iPhones. Sorry nothing personal to phone users. Whenever, I travel I bring my iBasso with a recent sounding IEMs. But even then the sound is very crappy compared to my home stereo. And now, whenever I’m home and the Internet happens to be off, which is the time that I might be more inclined to listen to music, I cannot do it anymore. ARC is the proposed solution. In fact, in that scenario I don’t know if ARC would not work since it is tied to the core and the core does not work without Internet. And if it does work (with downloaded materials), it still sounds crappy through my phone/mobile/DAP compared to listening to my stereo.
So, like what I have said before in one of the other thread, and I am going to say it again: we have a chicken and egg problem. But this time, whenever the Internet is out, we have no chicken and no egg.
Plus, you missed my point that even the phone who inherently online in nature can still work offline. It is somewhat an analogy. So some people could interpret it differently.
If you want another analogy, I have one also. It is some entries above this one.
Best regards.
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This is the analogy I posted before
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Turned off the auto renewal of my Roon subscription. I invested more than $900 in a Roon-recommended NUC because Roon promised to be a perfect audiophile solution for in-house, LAN-based music streaming of my own FLAC-based music collection, which it was. I also put dozens of hours and effort in uploading and readjusting images for Valence so the product would be even better.
18 months later the company pulls the rug out from under me without providing an adequate explanation for this design shift. The answers on this forum and the attitude that comes with them, the sarcasm, the derision, only add insult to injury. This comes as a big disappointment.
I still hope the team can provide a better answer and will consider re-introducing this core functionality.
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Plus Mobile Fidelity now uses Digital files to build their Direct-to-Disc creations nowadays…which makes Vinyl a silly way to go considering playback connivence of digital…Ya know, kinda of like not being able to listen to Your Own Rips without the internet… if they put everyone’s PRIVATE library in the cloud…isn’t that theft?
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Or - it is as if you purchased a DVD player and a bunch of DVDs, then the manufacturer pushes out a firmware update to the DVD player requiring you to have an active Internet connection to play a DVD.
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Danny, I don’t understand. On ARC? So if Internet goes down, then you copy the files to your phone? Bearing in mind that I have 16GB on my phone compared to 2TB on my NAS, I seem incapable of understanding how this is a solution. As Hogio pointed out, I too want to stream direct to my high quality renderer rather than using my phone.
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I don’t know what a NUC is but I purposely avoid purchasing manufacturer-specific streaming servers holding FLAC files. I’m happy to purchase a manufacturer-specific renderer, for example, PS Audio, Meridian, NAIM, Linn, or whatever. Therefore, I purchased a heavy-build Synology array which has ample power to run Roon and a host of other services.
I was responding to this comment:
He wants “airplane mode” for the phone that has already downloaded stuff in advance. ARC gives him that.
I was only addressing this one point of his. I’ve already addressed (above) why we did this for 2.0 and why we created 1.8 Legacy for those that require offline access. I have no more to say on that subject, but I am here reading most posts, as I do on this site as a whole.
Different people have different problems. Some are real, some are theoretical, and some are problems we did not consider. It’s important to understand these distinctions.
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Danny,
I’ve addressed the issue I had with downgrading to 1.8 Legacy with @Jamie who has now passed it along to @Noris at technical support. The upshot is that downgrading to 1.8 Legacy using my Synology NAS does not work because Roon is unable to access any folder on the NAS. I’ve checked permissions, backed and created a new RoonOnNas folder, I’ve even accidentally deleted some files inadvertendly while removing what I thought was a virtual share but happened to be my physical Roon library. The 6 weeks window is ticking away as well which creates a new level of anxiety to get it to work. So, unless Roon’s technical support can help with this issue, the option of downgrading to Legacy 1.8 isn’t there. Thanks
If and when my internet at home or my mobile network goes down I read a book. I may even decide to talk with the wife about the weather. Take the dog for a walk. Play with my kids.
Do I get annoyed when the internet goes down. No. That’s just part of modern life.
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Danny,
In my analogy above, downloaded files on the phone = downloaded files in the NAS / Hard Drive / Local Files.
Regards.