Roon app loses connection to Nucleus One frequently (ref#WXEPXS)

Support Nucleus Support
1

Select your Nucleus model from the list below

· Nucleus One

I'm having trouble with my Nucleus hardware

· Other

Select the option that fits best

· The Nucleus boots up and I can connect to it in the Roon app without issue, but I have a question about configuration/storage/attached devices

Describe the issue

The roon app on my laptop keeps losing connection to the Nucleus One. This has happened MANY times in the last 4 months. But when I look at the Nucleus on the internet portal it is there and running. If I reboot it then the app will find it. If I restart just the OS then it does NOT fix the problem. I am running Version 2.1 (build 271). I reinstalled the OS 19 days ago. ACTUALLY, I just rebooted and it did NOT solve the issue. I cannot see it on my Mac laptop OR my iPhone

2

Hi @Kerry_Farrell,

We are not able to see your Nucleus One in our diagnostic system. Please try to perform an Operating System reinstall (top left button in your WebUI screenshot) to see if that helps, since you mentioned it’s been 19 days since the last reinstall. Let us know how it goes!

3

I tried to reinstall and it changed the IP Address. Then, when I opened the new IP address through the browser view it said it had been running for 4 days?! I reinstalled AGAIN and it seems to know what day it is now…or whatever. Check it out and see if you can find it.

4

Hello @Kerry_Farrell

Thanks for trying that. We still cannot see your Nucleus One in our diagnostic system, so we need you to send the logs by hand.

How to get them. You are on a Mac, so:

  1. Quit Roon on the Mac first
  2. In Finder, choose Go, then Connect to Server
  3. Enter smb://NUCLEUSONE/Data and connect, using Guest as both username and password
  4. Open the RoonServer folder and find the folder called Logs
  5. Right-click Logs and choose Compress
  6. Rename the zip to Kerry_Farrell.zip

Full instructions with screenshots, in the Nucleus Server section:

Then upload it here, and please use this link rather than the one inside the article, so it reaches us:

https://workdrive.zohoexternal.com/collection/nocvrfc5b2ddab55140af8640f1d7ce13291e/external

Reply here once it is uploaded with the time you did it and the username, so we can match it.

Please send the whole Logs folder rather than individual files. Errors often appear in an earlier log than the one covering the moment you noticed.

One thing that stands out, and it may be the real thread to pull. Your Nucleus has never appeared in our diagnostics, across all of this. A healthy Nucleus reports in to us regularly on its own. That it never has suggests it cannot reach our servers at all, which would be a separate problem from the app not finding it, and possibly the same root cause.

So please also tell us:

  • Does your router run any DNS filtering or ad blocking, such as Pi-hole, AdGuard, NextDNS, or a built-in content filter?
  • Is the Nucleus set to a static IP with a DNS server entered manually, or is it on DHCP?

If something on your network is blocking the Nucleus from reaching out, that would explain the diagnostics gap directly, and it is worth ruling out before we read the logs.

5

Logs uploaded at 9:05AM Eastern Time.

Nucleus is on DHCP

No Filtering or Ad Blocking that I can see

6

Hello @Kerry_Farrell

Thanks for the logs. They tell us something useful, though not what we expected.

Your Nucleus looks healthy and your remotes have been connecting to it normally. Across the 25 days covered, the server records remotes connecting successfully every single day, between eleven and twenty-seven times a day, with one failure in the whole period. It has run continuously with no crashes.

So the problem you are seeing did not leave a trace on the server. That is actually informative: when an app cannot find the server, the server has nothing to record, because from its side nothing happened. It means we need to look at the clients rather than the Nucleus.

Two things we did find, and one is worth acting on.

Your router restarts itself weekly. It is a TP-Link Archer A7 v5, and the logs show it disappearing and returning with a new identity at around 3am your time on 3, 10, 17 and 24 August. After the restart on 24 August your Nucleus was given a different address, moving from 192.168.0.165 to 192.168.0.166.

  1. Open your router at 192.168.0.1
  2. Find the DHCP settings and the list of connected devices
  3. Reserve the Nucleus’s current address, 192.168.0.166

Then the weekly restart cannot change it.

What we need next, and this is the important part. Logs from the Mac itself, taken after it happens, plus the time.

  1. When the Mac cannot find the Nucleus, note the date and time before you reboot anything
  2. Quit Roon on the Mac
  3. In Finder, choose Go, hold the Option key, and open Library
  4. Find the folder called Roon, open it, and compress the Logs folder inside
  5. Upload it here with the timestamp:
    https://workdrive.zohoexternal.com/collection/nocvrfc5b2ddab55140af8640f1d7ce13291e/external

The Mac’s own logs will show what it was looking for and what it got back, which is the half of this we cannot see from the Nucleus.

7

OK! 10;15am it failed and I uploaded the logs under my name

8

Reopened Roon and uploaded logs again. BTW I did reserve the IP address in the DCHP as you suggested

10

Hi @Kerry_Farrell,

Thanks for uploading the logs and for reserving the IP address in DHCP.

The logs show the Mac disconnecting without much additional detail, so we should take a look at the network setup next. Is the Nucleus One connected directly to the router? What is the model/manufacturer of all your networking gear (switches, router, etc.)?

Also, does this happen on multiple Roon Remotes, or only on the Mac? Let us know what you see there.

11

Yes it is connected directly. The router is TP LINK Archer A7. That is connected directly to the cable modem. I only access the Roon device through this mac and my phone. When my mac cannot connect neither can my phone. But, I CAN see the roon app through the internet page even when I cannot control the device with the remote app