I want to use the Roon ARC app for when I travel by flight. Otherwise I use Roon at home only. I refuse to open my home network up to the internet for any reason what-so-ever.
I want to be able to have Roon ARC connect from my iPhone over my local LAN wifi to my Roon Core and download music for access during flights. As it is I must fall back to iTunes(Music) which means metadata loss of play count, ratings, etc.
(Separate Topic) Am already pretty miffed that there is no support for importing iTunes(Music) metadata (play count, ratings, last played, when added). 20 years of metadata. All of this could be gleamed from an xml export. Even an exposed API so that a simple shell script could scrape and import this data.
And as a bonus also…
The documentation usage should clearly state first and foremost that this only works with WAN access setup. (I lost an hour figuring that out.)
There should be information regarding security audits of the software stack for the WAN only access method.
Also a stated policy regarding notification of exploits, software updates.
What is Roon’s stance on damages if this public listening service were to be compromised?
For ARC to work it has to sync with your core at home at certain times therefore your home network has to be accessible to it from outside your home. ARC does not work indefinitely offline in any way it was never designed to work independently of your core for long periods. How long this period is seems to be not known, but I have it stop working and lock out my local files many times until it could sync back home.
You can download files whilst on you lan and ensure you put it in offline mode when out and about. This will allow it work offline for a time until it needs a resync back home. Then if it can’t it can result in your downloaded files being unavailable.
Or, you can do what many of us do is setup a VPN to access your home network securely. There are choices, one that seems popular is Tailscale but, you need to be able to leave a device on 24/7 in order to access the network. For me, it’s my NAS, other use a RasPi.
I use my NAS as an Exit Node so all my traffic goes through my NAS and appears that I’m actually at home accessing my local network. Currently ARC works ok, I don’t have the fastest internet… But, all in all I can stream my music.