Roon Arc (2.0) cannot download from Qobuz

In the post Roon ARC - All your music, everywhere you go it says “There’s no need for any awkward back-and-forth switching between streaming apps, either – Roon ARC integrates your streams from TIDAL and Qobuz and makes them accessible via one app, just like at home.”

I upgraded to Roon 2.0 (ARC), installed Roon ARC on iPhone (IOS 16.0.1). Logged in, selected Roon Core. Under My library I select Playlists, but when I click on (…) by the playlist.

I get a x or x tracks are unavailable for download (playlist is a mix of local and Qobuz files).
If I create a Qobuz only playlist I don’t see a download option.

Is this because Roon Arc cannot connect to Roon Core - settings → Roon ARC → failure seen after testing (so this is a cloud service that needs a DNAT?)

I am seeing this error.
{
“connectivity”: {“status”:“NetworkError”,“status_code”:504,“error”:“error: Error: ETIMEDOUT, response code: undefined, body: undefined connected? undefined”},
“external_ip”: {“actual_external_ip”:“x.x.x.x”,“router_external_ip”:null},
“natpmp_autoconfig”: {“status”:“NotFound”},
“upnp_autoconfig”: {“status”:“NotFound”}
}

Following up I created a DNAT (TCP), this link from error screen was useful: https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/arc-port-forwarding#Still_having_issues

I know see “Your Roon Core was automatically configured and has been confirmed to be securely accessible by Roon ARC”. Above error no longer.

With that said restating Roon ARC on iPhone, still have the same issues.

You cannot download tracks in Roon arc from qobuz or tidal. The streaming services don’t allow that for anything other than their own app.

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that’s now what their post says. See above. @Roon_2.0_ARC_Support for clarification.

Feel free to wait all you want. I’m not sure what their post says, so perhaps you can refer to it here.

From the FAQ:

Yes, you can download local content for offline listening with ARC.

Simply go to any local album or playlist and click the download icon in the top right.

The keyword here is local content. Qobuz and Tidal are not local content, they are streaming service content.

As it seems Room ARC can’t make Qobuz content available offline.

From my point of view, this is a major limitation compared to a native Qobuz App.

Thus, I would NOT consider Roon ARC a substitute for my Qobuz App. Unfortunately!

Even further, as we use Roon at home by the whole family, I was hoping ARC would solve the problem of multiple Qobuz accounts (every family member needs a single one to use it mobile simultaneously) that have to be merged into a family roon library.
As a Qobuz App is still mandatory to listen streaming service titles offline, the issue persists.

Overall, Roon is still favouring a single user with his disc collection. Streaming is just partially integrated into the usage concept.

Sorry Roon, also Roon ARC only delivers partially. :pensive:

4 Likes

post above says
Roon ARC - All your music, everywhere you go it says “There’s no need for any awkward back-and-forth switching between streaming apps, either – Roon ARC integrates your streams from TIDAL and Qobuz and makes them accessible via one app, just like at home.”

I can see that I am reading too much into the above marketing jargon. “integrates your streams from TIDAL and Qobuz and makes them accessible via one app”. This works you can play both to your device, wether you are at home or remote. You can only sync local media. It doesn’t say this directly.

Shame that you can’t sync but likely some API/license issue. I also wish that sync’d music via Qobuz would transfer when you change out iPhones as it’s a pain to sync with Qobuz (slow; needs app open…)

Agree… Will largely stick with Qobuz app when on the road… Or dowloads of music Qobuz doesnt have…

I use EQ with almost all of my playback and having those tools available on the go is super valuable along with being able to use Roon as my main music tool. ARC is a huge benefit to me and getting it for no additional charge is a delight.

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I had seen a similar error and was able to resolve it by adjusting my home wifi and broadband set up. I’m on Verizon FiOS but use Google mesh WiFi for the WiFi portion in my home. The standard FiOS configuration uses the Verizon cable modem as the main household router. In my old configuration, I had the Google router connected to an ethernet port on the Verizon cable modem router and Verizon router WAN port was connected to the ethernet cable that goes to the Verizon utility box that connects to the wires coming into my house. In that configuration the Verizon router handled all of the dynamic IP assignments including the assignment to the Google mesh WiFi router. This results in a double NAT problem that doesn’t prevent the network from functioning but will prevent Roon ARC from working.

In my new configuration, I connected my Google mesh WiFi’s WAN port to the ethernet cable that goes to my Verizon utility box and connected the Verizon cable modem WAN port to the ethernet port on the Google WiFi router. In this configuration, the Google WiFi router performs all of the dynamic IP assignments for the household WiFi and provides dynamic IP to the Verizon cable modem router. The Verizon cable modem continues to provide dynamic IP addresses to the various set top boxes. In this configuration Roon ARC works properly and I don’t get the error message that you saw.

Nevertheless, ARC could be much more valuable, with some more features. Although I can see licensing is an issue.

On the other hand, Ronns USP is to ease the management of your music library. Yet Roon does not serve as our full music service for the whole household.

It certainly is a major limitation, one that the streaming services conveniently impose themselves. They don’t allow third party apps to download their music. There’s nothing Roon can do about that.

Enno Vandermeer addressed this in a Darko interview.

The constraint actually originates with the labels, the music publishers.
The don’t let the streaming services enable download with third party apps, apps they don’t have a contractual relationship with.

I agree with most commenters.

If you have a mixed library of Qobuz streaming and owned music ARC is absolutely useless as the integrated view on your music is lost while not connected to your home network. Roon choose the wrong approach which is complicated, energy inefficient and a terrible user experience. Open port to access home network necessary all the time as well as CORE running 24/7 plus decreased network security.

They should have set up the mobile ARC App as a mini (duplicate) CORE running on your mobile device mirroring your main CORE and automated syncing when your mobile device is connected to your home network . And why not? Newer iPhones have more processing power than the average PC plus with Roon 2.0 they have anyway a native Apple Silicon CORE application in place.

Very disappointing. I don’t see any reason why I should not just continue using my mobile Qobuz app. Most of my purchased music is anyway available on Qobuz so the gap is minimal.

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I think they could have solved it differently; see below my other post.

“They could have”?
It is not a technical limitation, it’s a contractual licensing limitation.
The domain of lawyers, not engineers.

You can’t download streamed content on regular Roon either.

The licensing topic is probably correct, but the Qobuz streaming from the ARC app should work without having ongoing CORE access if they would have set it up differently. That would already be a big improvement in my view.

Using Roon ARC, you can stream your own music files from your server and Tidal or Qobuz from their servers anywhere, anytime. Use WIFI at home and cellular away from home. If you want to download your own music files to your phone to save on cellular data you can do that.

Tidal and Qobuz do not allow downloading their music files to 3rd party apps due to licensing restrictions. If you don’t want to use cellular data with Tidal and Qobuz, then download to their apps and use them. That has not changed. Or, download and use Apple Music.

Yes, that is how it streams.

ARC does access the Core for the database, to drive the user interface, to know what you have, music, artists, playlists, favorites, tags…

But Qobuz music streams direct to ARC.

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