Roon ARC and popup on the Android phone when I plugin a headphone adapter

It coincided that today Roon ARC was updated and introduced USB DACs support for ARC Android version and I bought a USB-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter. I don’t know if this USB DAC support causes it but every time I plug in the adapter I get this message on the phone:

“Open Roon ARC to handle Headphone adapter?
This app has not been granted record permission but could capture audio through this USB device. Using Roon ARC with this device might prevent hearing calls, notifications and alarms.
Cancel, OK”

My understanding is this adapter has a DAC and somehow Android associated Roon ARC with the connection of DACs. In Roon ARC settings I have “Enable USB Driver” disabled.

I believe it’s not Roon ARC’s fault but rather an Android feature. Does anyone know how to disable that message? It’s very annoying as it pops up every time I plug in the adapter. And I am afraid I will miss Cancel and press OK. And then “Using Roon ARC with this device might prevent hearing calls, notifications and alarms.” The phone is Pixel 4a.

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I received an email from Roon announcing this feature. The email states:
“Go to your settings page in Roon ARC and select “Enable USB driver.
When you plug in your USB-connected audio device, you’ll be prompted to allow Roon ARC to access the device.”

Except in my case USB driver is disabled in the app and I still get this popup every time when I plug in my USB-C-headphones adapter. Please see if there is any way to disable this popup if the user is not going to use the USB driver with Roon ARC. I have to act on this popup every time I connect my wired earphones to speak with someone on the phone.

Hello @support or anyone. I wonder if there is any word on any way to disable this message on Android. It’s really getting in the way of my day-to-day phone use. “Enable USB Driver BETA” option is disabled in my Roon ARC app. The app is the latest version. The email advertising the bit-perfect playback on Android has this sentence “Android users can turn on the USB Driver from their Roon ARC settings.” But in my case it has always been disabled yet my phone always offers to use it by a message I cannot just ignore.

I just tried to enable and disable the USB driver in the app. Tried pressing OK on the message (I was taken to the app directly). I closed the app. Still when I plug in my headphone adapter I am always presented with the message I described in the OP. Even if the USB adapter is disabled in the app.

I have the same problem when I plug in an USB DAC (FIIO KA3). If I click OK, roon will abort. The workaround is to plug in the DAC after start playing a song in ROON. If you plug in the DAC after that and ignore the message, it will continue to play. However, Roon ARC does not understand the capabilities of the DAC and plays just at 48kHZ even if the audio file is at a higher resolution. I think this feature still needs to be worked on.

I am not sure if your problem is the same. At least you have an intention to use Roon ARC. In my case a prompt that I have to always act on is associated with Roon ARC when I have no intention on using it.

Hi @G_P,

Thank you for your patience. With the last several ARC releases, the team has made both major and incremental improvements to Android functionality and DAC compatibility.

The behavior you initially reported was expected for the build of ARC you were using when initially posting. ARC receives a list of available supported DACs from Android, so the OS is prompting ARC here.

Are you receiving this message with the same frequency on the most recent build? If so, we will confirm the intended behavior and potential workarounds with the ARC development team.

Hi @connor,

Thanks for the reply. I can say that I got the message I described in the OP 100% of the times when I plugged in my head/earphone adapter before and I always get it now with the latest build of ARC. I just tried 10 times and it popped up 10 times. If the phone is locked/off when I plug in the adapter when I unlock it the popup/message is there. In ARC settings “Enable USB Driver” is off but it doesn’t make any difference.

It would have been nice if certain DACs could be excluded from interaction with ARC, so they won’t cause this popup. I don’t know if it’s possible. I use this adapter purely for calls as more and more modern phones lack normal 2.5/3.5mm jacks. It’s interaction with ARC is undesirable.

This problem is still occurring for me regardless of the “Enable USB Driver” setting. This thread is 29 days old and would have been closed tomorrow without any updates from support. Is the problem solved for everyone else? Are there any updates from support that I missed?

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I still have to press “Cancel” every time I use my headset to talk on the phone. “Enable USB Driver” setting is off, and I never use the phone with a DAC. Latest version of Roon ARC.

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Commenting to keep this topic from being closed. I have Roon Arc installed on my Pixel 6 Pro, to which I connect wired headphones via a small, inexpensive Apple USB-C DAC dongle. I do not have the USB driver turned on in Arc-- I tried it once when the feature was first released, but it didn’t work with the Apple dongle and would cause the app to crash. Despite this, I now get the ‘record permission’ alert every time I plug the DAC into my phone, which is extremely frustrating whenever I’m trying to listen to a podcast or watch something on Youtube rather than listen to music.

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New version of Roon ARC and no changes.

I have had this same problem since installing Roon Arc, which continues to this day every single time I plug my phone into the auxiliary input in my car. Please do not close this thread until you’ve solved the problem.

Replying to keep this thread open. Still the same issue to this day.

And how does it work when Arc runs on a DAP?

It doesn’t ask for confirmation or anything, ZX-707 (android)

Hi @G_P,

We haven’t forgotten about this issue, although we recognize how long this thread has been open without a conclusive response. Here’s the situation:

What you’re experiencing with the 3.5mm input is expected behavior in Android and UAPP will show the same behavior. That said, there is work we have planned that can help mitigate this popup. I’ll try to get a firm timeline for when that will take effect.

In the meantime, please be aware there are two high-priority bugs with USB DACs on Android in ARC that are separate from your issue, but given your setup, you may see symptoms. Please see here: Periodic Disconnect from USB DACs in ARC and here: Roon ARC Build 182 Crashing with Certain USB DACs on Android [Investigating]

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Thanks for the update! Just to make sure, when I had a phone with both 3.5mm and USB-C the popup only appeared when a DAC was plugged into USB-C, no popup with 3.5mm. I guess that’s expected.

I have a feeling it’s an Android feature. Maybe it’s not possible to disable it.

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