Please list the make and model of your modem and router?
Virgin supplied superhub
Do you have any additional network hardware, like additional routers or managed switches?
Yes - netgear switch
Does your network have any VPNs, proxy servers, or enterprise-grade security?
Yes, Tailscale, no others
Connected Audio Devices
iPhone and several Meridian audio end points
Description of Issue -
What is the exact port forwarding error message you see in the Roon Settings → ARC tab?
I was struggling to connect Roon arc on my phone to my Roon server.
Last week, I downloaded circa 100GB of music to my phone whilst on my home wifi.
This week, I’m on holiday.
Tried connecting to my home Nucleus server and:
it was unable to connect, with that being the error message
On disabling remote connection, Roon refused to address the locally downloaded music
On investigation today, it appears that the Tailscale Auth key has expired for my Nucleus server.
Issues as I see it:
Roon doesn’t monitor the Tailscale Auth keys. If we as users are obliged to use Tailscale, shouldn’t Roon add the functionality to manage the keys and also give advance warning?
The Arc app now refuses to let me listen to my locally downloaded music. Frankly, that’s rubbish design
I can’t manage the Tailscale key remotely. Why not? If I’d been posted to say Singapore for 6 months, how would I possibly manage my home server? That’s a definite oversight on the design of Arc, which (IMO) should include the capability
I’m a lifetime subscriber to Roon and happily sing its praises (usually). Please give your design team a bit of a talking to about user friendliness.
It is recommended that you disable Auth Key on specific devices that need to stay permanently authorised, just to avoid a situation like this. I had this happened to my NAS storage and a remote Mac which was my subnet router - that was a pain… But, my fault for not double checking them. If I remember correctly, there is a 3 month default limit, until you need to re-authorise.
So now - I disable key expiry where it would be inconvenient for a machine to expire: my exit nodes, subnet routers, and the NAS/Apple TVs that sit here at home.
All of this is handled within your Admin Console within Tailscale.
Thanks. I understand the solution, just frustrated about losing access to my downloaded files and with the faint hope that Roon might improve the current functionality as suggested earlier.
It’s a bugger that it’s happened at a crucial time when it’s most needed. Typical… But, your post still stands with your other points. Let’s hope for improvement!
Hi @Mr_Sukebe,
Thanks for reaching out to the Roon Labs Technical Support team.
I’m going to escalate this issue to our developers for further investigation. While we don’t have a concrete timeline for a response, we’ll be sure to follow up with you here as soon as we receive any updates from them. Please note that if a change is needed, it would ultimately fall under a feature request.
Now back home.
Resolution of the Tailscale issue was dead easy. Login to Roon on my home system, Find my server, Login to Tailscale and press a button. That’s positive.
That has restored my Roon Arc connection.
Of course in the meantime, Roon Arc on my phone has decided that this is a new connection, and has promptly decided to ignore the 100GB of music that I’d put on there. So I have to download it…again.
I know that Smart downloads will happily pull that 100GB down, but that’s not the same as pulling down a curated set of albums, which takes some time.
Here’s one thought, is it possible to tag a bunch of albums using Roon, and then have a button in Roon Arc that can choose to download those tagged Albums, i.e. a bit like using a playlist?
Thank you for the update. We are glad to hear that you were able to resolve the issue with Tailscale
That’s unusuall the ARC can download the files again only when the Core ID is changed. Have you moved yur Roon server to the new device?
This is not a current feature of Roon, I would recommend also posting your suggestion in the Feature Suggestions section of the site.
Our product team and developers keep a close eye on that category, so that’s definitely the best place to propose a change like this and get feedback from the Community.
That is not how ARC is designed to function. The ARC authorization token is set to expire one months after its last communication with the Roon Server over the local network (LAN). This behavior is by design and, once expired, requires the device to reconnect to the same local network as your Roon Server in order to reauthorize.