Roon app freezing and music playback issues with Tidal connection (ref#GL6ER9)

What’s happening?

· I am experiencing freezes or crashes

How can we help?

· I am experiencing freezes or crashes

Other options

· Other

Describe the issue

Quite a few. Roon search didnt work, app freezes, music stops playing, app freezes need to reboot. Music plays then cuts out. Tracks say cant connect to Tidal, app freezes again, music cuts out, and thats the never ending circle I have

Describe your network setup

I have Roon core on a dedicated server that is connected to the router via ethernet, , I have a Wiim ultra connected to 2Kef speakers, the rest is Sonos products. I have 1 WIFI extender in the house. Internet wise I am connected to Sky my ISP


Its My life is an example of many tracks that cant connect to Tidal

ISP speed 463mbps download
82 upload

Excuse my ignorance what details do you need
I’m running roon rock on a dedicated machine

As you can see this is another issue today in that the Mac app is not connecting

Roon Support is going to want to know the details of the Roon server computer. A dedicated machine could be anything. It may or may not be the source of your problems.

I cant upload a video here but Roon App on my macbook just keeps trying to connect, it connects for 2 secs and then I get waiting for roon server, so its not working on my macbook

Are the details I have provided above what they would want to see?

One thing to add also is that whilst the Core is connected to the Router I also have a mesh network that is connected to the router.
None of the Roon software connects to the mesh its purely a separate network that I use for my Peloton.
I dont know if that helps

Thats just the app that I sometimes use to connect , but I mostly use my phone

Apologies if I haven’t read correctly, but where is your Roon Server/core? I see that you are running ROCK, but I can’t tell on what?

Hey @David_Pullum,

Thanks for writing in and sharing your report, as well as all the information provided so far.

We were able to enable diagnostics on your Roon Server, and saw repeated HTTP response status code 401 Unauthorized errors around Tital playback. This typically indicates that TIDAL’s API is rejecting the request to retrieve playback information for the track.

To confirm, you’re only seeing this with Tidal content, correct? If you set up a direct hardwire connection from your Roon Server machine to your primary router, and attempt Tidal playback to the system output of one of your remote devices, do you experience the same issue?

Are you able to play Tidal content outside of using Roon?

This may be a different issue altogether. Do you have issues accessing Roon Server from your mobile device?

On the Mac, can you confirm Roon is listed as a proper exception in your system firewall? Here’s more info on that:

Thank you!


Please note that Roon staff will be out of the office on December 24th-26th & January 1st in observance of the Christmas & New Years holiday period. Additionally, we will have limited staff available on December 27 & 30/31st . Thank you for your understanding. :pray:

Hi Benjamin, thanks for your time in responding. You will have to bear with me as I’m not technically minded
Yes, the errors I get are all when trying to play tidal. Even when playing the track I can see on the signal path the Streaming % of the song and then the % disappears and the song stops. Nearly every song has an error regarding not finding on Tidal

If I stream Tidal direct to my endpoint from Tidal I dont get the issue.

the firewall on my mac is turned off and to be honest I dont understand that part of your message and would prefer to get the music playback sorted before I look at that aspect of it

Just to add
With my limited knowledge

All tracks played from the hard drive attached to the core play flawlessly

When you say this

To confirm, you’re only seeing this with Tidal content, correct? If you set up a direct hardwire connection from your Roon Server machine to your primary router, and attempt Tidal playback to the system output of one of your remote devices, do you experience the same issue?

My core is a stand alone box with room rock and is hardwired via Ethernet to my router at all times

Have you tried setting 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 as your dns server in your rock’s network configuration? I think you will then have to reboot it to get it to take effect?

Is your roonOS on the rock up to date?

Thanks for your reply , yes its up to date
I will look into changing the dns server however I am technically illiterate,
Am I looking to change the dns on the router or roon rock?

Specifics on the DNS change in this thread.

Just an update on Christmas day, yes I’m quite sad.
The problem is definitely Tidal playback as I have been playing Radio Paradise most of the day via Live Radio and not one issue with connection

As soon as I play from Tidal I get drop outs

I am still having issues and as an update when I am experiencing these problems Tidal is processing at 5.5x, the playback is intermittent and then it crashes and I get the " Can not find on Tidal "

With little to no support from Roon Ive decided I want to listen to music and not spend all my time troubleshooting it. So I’m cancelling my subscription.

Such a fantastic software, I mean I really love it, but if I cant get it to work and there is no support whats the point

Hey @David_Pullum,

Sorry to hear your issues persist!

It’s unclear if you were able to test out updating your DNS settings - was this something you’d be able to try? It often time helps increase the connection speed with upstream services specifically like Tidal and Qobuz.

Let me know if this is something you try out! :+1: