Roon 2.0 and internet connectivity [it's just like 1.8 now]

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1215

I wasn’t talking about the licence check, I was talking about what you referred to as Roon “(hitting) a cloud-only API call”

And yet each and every time I’ve actually used Roon 2.0 offline, attempting to search has NOT resulted in playback stopping. It just presents a zero return.

What you’re saying seems to be all theory and no practice. Have you got an actual real world use example of Roon’s fault intolerance stopping offline playback? Playback does stop but I, and others, have got more than enough tolerance to last short internet outages.

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1216

Don’t you mean, “Hey, Zeus!”? :grin:

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1217

It isn’t actually. Roon has stopped working in all cases after some time. You are correct that the probability of a 1-minute blackout resulting in a failure is low, but it should be zero.

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1218

Particularly when it still performs very poorly on the latest build “with internet search”. Still regularly finds things I’m not looking for, and not what I am. Comes up with some truly mad results sometimes and more often just places more obvious results lower down the results list.

If you’re really intent on removing what many see as fundamental functionality (offline playback) at least actually improve the stated goal of doing so. At the moment, this is lose-lose from my end.

7 Likes
1219

internet went out last night, thought alright, that’s fine. I need some wind down time anyway.

Got a bottle of whiskey, situated my self in my reclining sofa and boot up Roon.

Except Roon 2.0 didn’t boot up. Because it needs the internet access.

Looks like I am going to need install another backup software in case of internet issues.

JRiver, we meet again, old friend.

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1220

Requiring an Internet connection to listen to local files is totally unacceptable.

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1221

Remember to vote

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1222

Thanks. Voted.

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1224

Which goes to show what many here have pointed out - many users only discover this functionality is missing when they actually run into internet downtime. So we cannot assume that the number of voices here represent all those who would actually want this restored.

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1225

Agree. My provider, dropped internet on Christmas. I am a lifetime member. What was surprise that roon stopped working with local files. I have mobile internet for phone, but can’t set up it for roon core.
Would be nice to have this feature

1 Like
1226

This always required internet is the reason I’ve just cancelled my trial and won’t be purchasing a lifetime license or subscribing to roon.

I think the always on internet connection and roon not functioning without it needs to be made clearer on the pricing page, not tucked away on the hardware requirements in the faq links.

With Roon 2.0 I think less emphasis should be made about being able to play local music files and more about it being a subscription cloud service to enhance metadata, search and music recommendation.

I have made conscious decisions when adding automation and smart capabilities to my home to choose products that operate fully, locally without needing internet connections and cloud services.

I have no problems with buying subscriptions to streaming/cloud services when I consider them non-essential, eg video on demand, streaming music, but in the same way I’m not putting the ability to control my heating, lighting in the hands of a server on the other end of an internet connection, I’m not willing to put control of being able to play my local music collection in my own home at the mercy of an internet connection and cloud service I don’t control.

I understand the benefits of central cloud search algorithms on aggregated listening data and simplifying license enforcement, but without graceful fallback to allow me to keep running my local server, including restarts, with reduced features so I can play my local music files without internet, then roon is no different to any other cloud only smart device/online service and should be advertised that way, because it isn’t really a local music server anymore. It’s a cloud service that happens to have a server/gateway component locally.

21 Likes
1227

Well said. It took a u-turn somewhere and put local stuff on the back burner. Which is ok I guess, but in the process local tasks which should not be slow, have slowed and become dependent on an internet connection which shouldn’t be required when all the files, content and caches needed for local tasks are a few folders away on the same hard drive as the core.

:thinking:

It appears the new implementation of search has more negatives than positives from the perspective of a non streaming service user.

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1228

I’m coming very late to this party. Thing is, I hadn’t realised Roon 2.0 needed internet connection until, well, pretty much 30 minutes ago. And I should have, because I experienced the drawback as early as last October.

We were in our home in France when we got hit by a long internet cut - they were doing some work on the line at the time. With no internet, it felt like a good time to just put some music on and read a book. I tried to turn on Roon, but it asked me for my login. It made me a bit mad at the time, what with my music being unavailable - or at least more difficult to access - when I really needed it, but thought it was because I just hadn’t connected for too long or something like that.

Got another cut today, and same result, which is when I came to check if something had changed. Imagine my surprise…

Not sure what I can say. Obviously, I’m angry, but pleading for a reversal won’t change anything: Roon devs have been going in a certain direction that fits less and less with my listening habits and “workflow”, and unless a large majority of users are like me - with a large offline collection, only mild streaming habits and living in a rural area - that’s not gonna change. I’m just not the target customer anymore, so my voice has no weight.

I would say one thing to the Roon people, though: you have never been transparent about upcoming changes and how they might affect your existing user base. Each and every time, it’s the update, then some people finding out how it makes their use of Roon more difficult. I understand why you make the choices you make - well, most of the time, sometimes it just seems silly - but I wish you were a lot more open about your future plans. ARC was a requested feature, and it was great to see it implemented, and so were better searches. But I don’t think many of us thought it would come with always-online as a cherry on top.

I joined back in 2017 with a lifetime subscription, but ever since the emergence of Tidal and Qobuz, you’ve been focusing on that while the simple stuff I care about is still not fixed. Do I still have to click like a madman to reorder tracks on a poorly identified album - rather than say, being able to do a simple drag? Why yes, I think I do. Not having an ongoing subscription means I can’t really slam the door, but believe you me, I wish I could.

19 Likes
1229

Where I get stuck is finding a reasonably equivalent competitor, with similar functionality that’s not tied to a hardware platform. For instance the Innuos Statement and the Sense app are a compelling option. But, it’s a $16K USD option that’s based on an expensive piece of H/W. With Roon lifetime, my cost is relatively confined based in my decision on how far I want to take the server and music storage. If I could build my own Statement-like server and license Innuos/Sense, I would most likely already have a demo setup and being tested.

2 Likes
1230

This is what it feels like …

Woke up today with the forum down and offline.

When this forum was down today is what it is like when then internet goes down for Roon 2.0.

Frustrating isn’t it. While I can understand the many reason for where Roon 2.0 and beyound wants to go, it makes absoulutly no sense to require their program to have internet just to play our local content. While I get that ARC is awesome, it cannot justify the few it pertains to just to have the rest of us be downgraded.

Imagine if Roon from the beginning always required internet for local content, then this would be a Feature Request for offline play just like the offsite remote access was requested. I also do not believe that their user base would have grown as fast as it did with a always on requirement.

How long is it going to take for someone with Roon to realize that it can be both ways going forward?

–MD

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1231

Ok, I’ll bite… ARC → Airplay → DAC??? Really bro? And BTW, it only acts as a backup for tracks I downloaded to ARC. Really? Are you serious?

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1232

Silly stipulation.

Why the heck not?

We all (most) have local files. Why in the world would ROON even consider this to be outside the requirements for use whether internet is active or not?

The specifications and requirements gathering of this simple delivery needs serious consideration.

And if this is required then implement it across all builds even ones prior to V2. 0

Really silly.

6 Likes
1233

At the minimum, we should at least have an option to go off line for a period of time if connection can not be found.

For example, 2 weeks with monthly subs, 1 month with lifetime sub if license abuse and data base sync is the concern.

To say not too many users complaint is rather miss leading, I would bet 90% of the user doesn’t even know Roon 2.0 need consistent internet connection to function, till their internet is cut off.

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1234

This to me is a contradictory statement. How are you resilient to internet outages and not guarantee resilience at the same time?

I completely fail to understand how having some basic playback and text-search capability offline is restricting you from doing sophisticated things online. I do know about software development and I have also clarified many times here what I think might be difficulties for you guys to undo architectural decisions when you started v2.0. But your argument that it hampers your progress are at this point as devoid of all logic as Bob Stuart’s “As the artist intended”.

6 Likes
1235

The Zen Mini runs the same software as the statement for considerably less than that. If all your doing is network playback you don’t need a statement as you can play to your existing UPnP devices via a plugin and you can use squeezlite just like Roon bridge on computers, sbc’s and some streamers support it.