OK so I think the best solution for me right now is to just run 1.8 Legacy on an older laptop for the occasions I know I’ll be without internet access, or in case of unexpected outage. Unfortunately, it looks like this was upgraded to 2.0 at some point (remote, not core). What’s the best way to roll back to 1.8 Legacy just on this one machine, please?
Follow the steps to downgrade in this article:
Will this still work? Seems even the old laptop is running the latest build… 2.0 (build 1148) production… I see that the ability to roll back was lost on the latest update?
Yes it will work, but you will be starting with a fresh 1.8 database; a version 2.0 database is now no longer backwards compatible.
So if I use a couple of months old 1.8 backup to revert to, is there a way to re-sync the catalogues afterwards? In fact, what happens going forwards when using 1.8 Legacy on one device and 2.0 on the rest? Are the two databases forever and always separate entities and don’t sync, or is there some way in which the other knows what’s going on under the same account?
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Correct. You are accessing the same music folder location and all curating that is being done on each version will not be reflective to each other because you will have 2 different databases with 1 single source music library.
The intent of the 1.8 legacy backup is, I want to listen to my local music now fix for when the internet is down, hopefully not for long and then back on 2.0.
Some folks are just going to stay with 1.8 legacy because of the internet policy.
–MD
Well, Yes as MikeD mentions, but, also not the whole story. It is true that the listening stats between the two will not cross over. Nor will any local edits, playlists or Tags.
On the other hand, if you add an album in Qobuz in one, it will show up in the other, since that information is also synced to Qobuz and back. Same if you make changes to playlists IN Qobuz (not Roon), the Qobuz playlists will be the same for both instances.
Also, if you add your Roontags to your actual files, then both will read and apply them equally. I always put the tags I want to keep in the files, that way if I ever have to rebuild from scratch, the tags will just get imported.
Thanks for the clarification and trying to help.
I get that streaming content (in my case Tidal) will sync, but that’s not relevant to the issue at hand, because streaming services wouldn’t be available if the internet was down, or if I’m off-grid anyway. This is only about local file playback/organization (which is apparently exactly what wouldn’t sync?).
Have to say, the more I try to find a solution to this within Roon, the more messy it seems it all is for something I feel should be/used to be very simple.
What are Roontags, please, and how would they be used for this purpose?
Separately, it seems very weird to me, that the suggested solution moving forwards to play local content when offline is actually ARC, which is the mobile app, and not the Roon Core at home.
Having trouble getting my head around this.
And not a very good solution at that. Navigation of offline local content in ARC is extremely limited. My mobile data plan is limited, so mobile streaming much isn’t an option for me. With ARC offline being so limited, I ended up just deleting the ARC app and closed the open port on my router.
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I’ve used ARC, and quite like it for actual streaming when the connection is fast enough.
My issues with using ARC as an offline playback solution when streaming isn’t available are:
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Doesn’t work with my Meridian network card, as it’s only available on mobile devices, so useless for internet outage at home if I want to use the main system.
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Mobile device only means not enough storage in the devices for long term off-grid listening, and ARC doesn’t support external storage.
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No EQ. I find this essential for headphones at home or out and about and it’s a USP of Roon to me. (This limitation applies to ARC when streaming is available also).
So it’s not just about the 2.0 no-internet choice affecting the odd internet outage, it affects functionality we’re used to and limits the situations in which we can listen to music through Roon. This limits the usefulness of Roon overall.
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Arc does to an extent but when my internet went offline yesterday, Roon Arc wouldn’t even launch because it was trying to find the server so i could not access the offline files stored within arc app
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I like it too and this, I feel, is a key point. Up til now Roon was, for me, fulfilling this core requirement of being an appliance-like experience, which just did what it did, mostly very well, where and when I wanted it.
I’ve now spent a fair bit of time in the last few days, too much in fact, trying to get my head around what’s happened here and then try to find options and find viable alternatives for a couple of scenarios where Roon used to be appliance-like and no longer is. Now it seems to me like the only way to reliably have offline access, especially with EQ, etc., would be to invest in other premium playback software (e.g., Audirvana, Amarra) on top of my premium Roon subscription, for scenarios in which Roon used to work fine.
Needless to say, that is not ideal to me, and doesn’t fit what I’ve always thought Roon was about, at its core (no pun intended!).
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In my testing, ARC worked very well for streaming (I had it set on the lowest quality, which still sounded fine for my use; on walks using iPhone and Apple earbuds).
I now have to worry about Roon. This is the worst thing you can say about a piece of software in this day and age. Period.
Those with Nucleus or NUCs are particularly badly affected as these units do not support any other playback mechanism. If you connect your DAC to your Nucleus via USB, you will literally have to disconnect it and connect it to something else you would have to set up. If you connect to a RoonReady streamer, you would literally have to figure out a way to serve your files to the streamer.
I am still stupefied by this architectural decision by the Roon team. More importantly, I am sure that given the prevalence of cloud APIs, there are well-established mechanisms in software design to allow for non-fatal fallback to some form of local operation - albeit less featured operation.
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A NUC is a computer and can be repurposed to run anything. Same for Nucleus, albeit too expensive as a generic computer for what it can do.
Really??? You just blew my mind! Never thought of it. Jeezus.
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Never underestimated a NY’ers sense of humor. Thanks Miguel, my first good laugh of the day.
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Nucleus/NUC users generally run ROCK. In the case of an internet outage, etc., it can hardly be expected that users temporarily reformat/repurpose from ROCK to Windows/Mac, etc. just to play back music?
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Well, not really. We could ssh into the NUC/Nucleus (@danny please provide the credentials), find where the music files are mounted, and use the command line to play each file. Simple.
You don’t need ssh, the locally hosted files are shared by RoonOS using SMB. That share will still be accessible if the internet is down.