I'm trialling Roon and have installed Roon ARC on my phone (a Google Pixel 8a). Frustratingly, tracks which Roon ARC has smart downloaded simply stop playing every so often (multiple times per track). I suspect the issue may lie in ARC not backgrounding properly as the tracks tend to restart after I focus back on the app (although not immediately) and the app doesn't appear as a player shortcut widget on the lock screen. This is only a somewhat educated guess though! Needless to say other audio apps on my phone work fine. I would really like to have this issue resolved before I commit to paying for Roon as it makes listening to my library on my phone impossible and is a deal breaker.
Describe your network setup
Not applicable here as I'm using Roon ARC (in places with no mobile signal as well as with mobile signal), but the music shows as Smart Downloaded so is presumably locally stored on the device.
Thank you for your post. First off, the team will happily extend your trial if you’d like, so you have a chance to try the system out for the full trial period after you’re done troubleshooting.
We’ve examined diagnostics from the associated ARC instance and have a few follow-up questions to pin down what’s happening.
First off, when is the last time you synced your ARC instance with the RoonServer machine on WiFi? Have you uninstalled/reinstalled the app at any recent point? We ask because ARC is logging authorization errors that usually only occur after about two weeks of consistent offline activity.
How many tracks have you Smart Downloaded in total, and how much of the phone’s storage remains available according to both ARC and the operating system?
Are you using any DSP profiles in MUSE when this background playback stoppage occurs? What about headphones, Android Auto, or other endpoints - does it occur if you just play to the phone speakers?
We see ARC and the Android OS failing to agree on an available output for the audio engine, but there can be various causes for that condition.
Does this issue reproduce if you have Offline mode toggled both on and off in ARC?
We just released a hotfix for an issue related to backgrounding in Android. If there’s additional work we can do to stabilize background performance on Android, you can expect a fix soon. We’ll examine diagnostics again once we see a response here. Thank you!
Last question - do you have an approximate timestamp, or the name of a track that was playing - when this last occurred?
The good news is I now can’t replicate the pausing, on headphones with ARC set to offline or online mode. The other thing I’ll note is that the now playing widget has appeared with ARC showing on the lockscreen - both encouraging signs.
As for your questions:
The day the issue occured, I would have probably synced in the morning before going to work, and the pausing happened on the train to work, half an hour later. If ARC doesn’t sync in the background, it would have been the previous day or at the earliest the day before, which is when I installed ARC (and set up Roon) for the first time.
I’ve not uninstalled/reinstalled the app, and it’s been on my phone for a maximum of three days.
I’ve got 52% storage free (67 GB used of 128GB) according to the phone, and 57 albums downloaded in total, with Smart Downloads set to 5GB of storage space. Arc says 56.6 GB free of 109.7GB total.
All I’ve got enabled is volume levelling. I’m using Bluetooth headphones.
I was playing Pulses or Section Pulses by Steve Reich when this pausing happened, for sure. A few other tracks too.
Thanks for letting us know that the issue has subsided and those additional details! We’ll mark this one as solved, but if the issue returns, please uncheck the solved solution button and let us know the exact local time + date + track and we’ll look over the logs once more. Thanks!
I can't work out how to untick the solved checkbox as suggested, but this issue has come back: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-arc-intermittently-stops-playback-on-google-pixel-8a-ref-ta6rf8/284802
I now understand that ARC isn't pausing the music, it's simply cutting out the volume while the track continues playing. This happened in all cases below.
I've got a hopefully helpful breakdown of events:
6 November 2024 Offline mode enabled
18:44 GMT - sudden silence Love Supreme Part 3 - 4:24 Track was playing when I refocused the app Pressed play, pressed pause, it started playing again
18:46 GMT - sudden silence Love Supreme Part 3 - 5:44 Track was playing when I refocused the app Started playing again by itself while I was writing this, around 6:13
18:50 GMT - Turned off offline mode
After Part 3 finished, a different Coltrane song from another album unexpectedly started playing
18:51ish GMT - I started playing Part 4
18:54 GMT - sudden silence Love Supreme Part 4 - 1:30ish Track was playing when I refocused the app Went back to 0:35, track started playing again almost immediately
18:56 GMT - sudden silence Love Supreme Part 4 - 1:53 Track was playing when I refocused the app Silence continued despite pressing play and pause a few times Track started playing again by itself at 2:34 as I was writing this
18:58 GMT - Sudden silence Love Supreme Part 4 - 3:50 Track was playing when I refocused the app Track started playing again by itself at 4:34 as I was writing this
There was another silence at 19:00ish but at that point I'd given up.
Needless to say it makes ARC unusable and ruins Coltrane quite thoroughly!
Describe your network setup
N/A
I was listening on a pair of Bluetooth headphones.
This also happens quite consistently and is presumably connected: I just started playing Loveology by Regina Spektor, and the track made no sound despite playing until about 00:27. It started making sound at that point, then cut out again at 1:39 (this is all around 19:10-19:11 GMT).
This happens to me, on random occasion. I’m on Pixel 8. I’ve noticed once in a while, if my phone went into lock mode, it’d stop playing. Moment I’ve unlocked and in the app, it will continue playing where left off. ONLY solution that I’ve found, is to “App info” > “Force stop” then restart the app, then it’s working as normal again. But of course, eventually it will repeat the same thing over again. Sorry didn’t keep track of how many times…but it is a pain.
I guess there’s no fix suggested for this? I’ve chosen not to start paying for my Roon subscription until this is resolved - quite disappointing as I feel like it had huge promise otherwise as an app!
Thanks so much for your patience while our team continues to investigate your issue further!
You have my apologies if this has been glazed over, but do you ever experience the issue when using other endpoints, not your usual Bluetooth headphones?
What happens if you disable all DSP? Are you still experiencing this issue over both wifi and cellular data?
We’re seeing some hiccups from Arc logs with reaching your Roon Server - have you made any changes to how it’s connected to your router/network? See if you can set up a direct ethernet connection from your server to your primary router, at least while we continue to troubleshoot.
