Roon Arc Consuming Excessive Mobile Data During Music Playback (ref#SX0LCE)

Support
1

What’s happening?

· I'm having trouble with Roon ARC

What best describes your issue with ARC

· Other

Describe the issue

Roon arc just used 6gb of mobile data for an hour of music. That's way too much.

Describe your network setup

Roon running ona NUC

2

In the UK, mobile data upload and download are part of the mobile data allowance.

6gb does seem rather a lot I do admit.

What mobile device is Arc running on?

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At 192/24 as FLAC it would be about 2.4 GB, so if uploads from the Nucleus are included (really??) it would be 4.8 GB, not so far from 6.

@Graham_Ridgway what are your streaming settings in ARC and what resolution did you stream?

1 Like
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Good point @Suedkiez :+1:

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The device is a OnePlus 9 mobile and the streaming settings were set to balanced. Not sure what that means. Have set it out bandwidth optimized and will try again.

Not sure what to expect with those settings.

Music is either coming from my connection if ripped CDs or Qobuz.

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OK, this should mean 320 kbps over cellular, so the source file size / resolution should not be causing 6 GB per hour

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Just tried again. Set roon arc playback to the lowest setting. Listened to about 90 mins, used 7gb mobile data. Can anyone in roon support help please?

Is this the right place to get support from roon themselves?

Thanks!

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It’s the right place but it will take a bit until the topic reaches the front of their queue and today is the first workday since you opened the topic

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I turn off all editorial sources and set Download quality on CD quality. I’ve never seen usage as high as that.

When using my Dell XPS 15 Roon server away from home, I use about 10gb per day running the full blown Roon. I might use high definition unless it looks like I’m going to run low, then I switch to CD quality.

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Ah, cool, lost track of weekdays as I’m on vacation!!

1 Like
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Any thoughts please Roon support?

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Hi @Graham_Ridgway,

Thank you for your post.

Diagnostics indicate two factors that are likely contributing to the high mobile data usage.

First, there are connection errors in ARC logs while downloading content from Qobuz’ servers, prompting the buffer to redownload portions that have failed or are corrupt. Additionally, there are address resolution failures with upstream servers essential to ARC’s functioning - these requests are additionally re-firing after failing.

There are also indications that local content in the OPUS format, and accompanying metadata, have corrupted during downloading to ARC’s cache.

None of this will skyrocket data usage in the acute sense, but if ARC has remained in a poor connectivity state for several days, it’s possibly the cause.

When was the last time you synced ARC with your RoonServer machine on your home WiFi?

Do you see any errors presented in ARC when attempting to play back local content?What about image load failures?

Lastly, what can you describe about the phone’s connectivity? Are you currently in a rural area? Are you using a VPN on the phone?

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Firstly thanks for the detailed response.

I’ll try to answer the questions…

I’m not sure what syncing arc on my home network means. Is it just running it or a specific function to undertake? I’ve not knowingly done it!

In ARC I have been seeing a lot of “unavailable” reported for tracks. Just logged an issue about that. Nothing else I can see by way of errors.

No VPN in use on the phone. I am in a rural area but seem to have good 4G coverage. Enough to use phone as a hotspot for Teams video meetings (unrelated to ARC use).

This evening I have run up ARC, but an not playing anything. I’m using Qobuz direct. So far it’s used 4.4GB in a couple of hours just sitting idle, not playing anything.

Looks like something untoward is going on

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Hi @Graham_Ridgway

Might be worth posting a screenshot of where you’re seeing this data use.

Also, do you have the apps background data use setup to limit use

Also, do you have the apps battery mode set to optimised or sleep (I forget the correct name, or is it set unrestricted.

Has this high data use started since you have been holiday? Abroad maybe?

1 Like
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Great follow-up questions @Menzies-Old - @Graham_Ridgway it’s interesting you mention you only open Arc and have it running in the background, not taking any action.

Based on a recent Roon Server diagnostic report, we’re seeing a fair amount of mobile syncing happening in the background around the time you shared your more recent report. I’d be curious to see the results of Menzies questions above.

Also, do you have Smart Downloads enabled?

We’ll be on standby for your reply! :+1:

1 Like
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![Screenshot_2024-08-10-07-29-18-92_f477f0d1f9efd6499236910aab472e51|223x500](upload://86y1AAcKDsyUhfWo4D72c0R

That might or might not come out as screenshot! I pressed the pic button. It’s reported in the standard android mobile data usage under settings.

I’m on vacation in the UK where I live anyway and tried to use roon arc on mobile.

I only use it sporadically anyway so it may or may not have used a lot of data in the past.

I’m afraid I don’t know the answers to the other questions as I don’t know where to find the info. I’ve never changed any of those settings so they will be as default.

Does that help at all?

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Hi, back from vacation now at home so have my home network to use as well as mobile data. I’m keen to get to the bottom of this as I won’t be able to use Roon ARC if it uses that much data. Hopefully the uploaded screenshot works. I used 21GB and played about an hours music. Also as above it used data when not playing.

I’m hoping that there are more diagnostic steps we can take.

As an aside, I am wondering if this is related to the other support ticket I logged (ref#81RSYQ)
relating to tracks marked as unavailable in Roon ARC. Now that I have tried on my home wireless Roon ARC plays those albums fully without issue.

Screenshot_2024-08-11-13-39-15-41_f477f0d1f9efd6499236910aab472e51
Screenshot_2024-08-11-13-39-15-41_f477f0d1f9efd6499236910aab472e511080×2412 115 KB

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Hi @Graham_Ridgway
Have you disabled background data usage for your mobile? Since I don’t have a OnePlus but a Galaxy, I can’t give you the path, but it should be easy to find out. For my Galaxy, I generally disabled background data usage for apps not in use, and only set a few exceptions.

Background Data: What It Is & How to Restrict It.

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Hi Axel, I haven’t, but I can! I’m not sure how it’ll help the main problem though of ARC using loads of data?

Also what is background data usage in Android? Does it just restrict data usage to an app when it is in use? Wouldn’t that stop ARC playing with it’s not the app in use?

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Just looking further, ARC has used 19.47GB in the foreground and 1.89GB in the background. So it’s definitely predominantly a foreground data problem.