· I’ve followed the instructions to create the Docker and everything seems fine. It’s disabled the old Roon app version. Roon client told me there were 2 installations, I removed the old one and pointed it to the new one, hooked up to Tidal and everyone seems fine. Except, that it has been adding music to my Library since over 16 hours (171k tracks) and the round circle is still going. It’s picked up my Tidal albums, but has not picked up my Tags nor my Live Radio stations.
I’m not sure that it has restored from my Backup as opposed to rebuilding the database. I have an SSD drive on the QNAP called DataVol2 where the Roon Backup resides (about 65GB). I don’t know if it is using it. The system is working but currently slow. I read in the instructions:
“Performance is poor
Confirm that the /Roon mapping points to SSD-backed storage when possible. The Roon database should not live on a spinning disk if you want the best experience.”
How do i do that mapping? When I go Settings → Storage, I see the music folder, where all my Music resides. I don’t see anything else there.
If I go to Setttings –> Backup, it currently shows No Scheduled backups. If I click the last one to find the backup files, I get the path NAS →some disk icon→/ which gives me folder listing of system files (style bin, boot, dev etc) and Music, Roon and RoonBackups folders. Clicking on RoonBackups gives me an empty folder. However, through my Apple interface (Finder), reading the Roon Backup folder I have data in there. Probably the Roon interface and the Apple one are not looking at the same thing.
Clicking on the Roon folder, gives me 2 subfolders: app and database. Clicking on the Database folder gives me RoonGoer and RoonServer. If I click on Roonserver, it doesn’t like it and tells me not recommended to proceed. If I click on RoonGoer, I get Database and Logs folders.
Sorry for this very longwinded post, but I am proceeding a bit blindly here as I am far from being an expert.
How do i make sure the Roon database is sitting on the SSD? How do I restore my Tags and Radio stations?
The first folder path you have to insert when composing the docker, is the path to roon application and its database. Per default this sits under the /share/Container folder. You can check in File Station, if /Container folder is mounted on the SSD volume, or alter its location in general preferences of QTS > Shared folders, in case it is not.
If you had a previous installation of roon on the same machine, you have two different folders for Roon-backups. Roon in the container can only access the one which you have defined per the third share path when composing the docker. If that one is empty, you can copy the whole data sitting in the old RoonOnNAS path under RoonBackups, into the new one, so roon can see it from the container.
Once you have copied the Backup data, you can go to Settings > Backups > Find Backups, choose one from the new folder and hit Restore. It will take some time, compose a new database from the backup, and all your tags, playlists and radio stations will reappear.
On the SSD volume, I have the Container folder, which also has in it Roon, Roon-Backups and container-station-data sub-folders. So that part checks out. I can see that the Roon-Backups folder in the container is empty, so that explains why Roon can’t find a backup.
Also on the SSD, I have a separate Roon Backup and a separate RoonServer folder, which I presume is from the old application ? I seem to have a whole bunch of backup files. Under the Room Backup folder, I have a bunch of folders with long folder names of the type 14e0ce9-50… under which there are another bunch of folders, the latest of which is labelled xx and is dated before I did the upgrade to the container. Is this the last backup file?
Shalli copy every thing from the old Roon Backup folder to the one under the container, or just the latest folder? I’m uploading a pic of the directory structure for ease.
I would suggest to copy everything from the old Roon Backup folder that is belonging to backups, like all of the ´149e0c…´ folders, plus (important!) the file on the same hierarchy level named ´roon_backup_root´.
To answer your question: you need to copy everything from the old Roon Backup folder, not just the latest one. Roon uses an incremental backup system. This means all those folders with long hash names (like 14e0ce9…) and the roon_backup_root file are interconnected.
If you only copy the latest folder, Roon might not recognize it as a valid backup.
Here is the safest step-by-step way to do this:
Stop the Roon container in your QNAP Container Station. It's crucial to do this before copying anything to prevent any read/write conflicts while files are moving.
Copy the entire contents of your old backup folder (all the hash-named folders AND the roon_backup_root file) into your new Container/Roon-Backups directory.
Start the Roon container back up.
Go to Settings -> Backups -> Find Backups in Roon, select the newly populated folder, and run the Restore. Once it finishes, the massive re-scanning will stop, and all your tags and live radio stations will be back.
One quick troubleshooting tip: Since you are on a QNAP and managing files via Mac's Finder, sometimes file ownership/permissions can get a little mixed up. If you start the container and Roon still sees the backup folder as empty, double-check via QNAP's File Station that the copied files have the correct "read" permissions.
Let us know how it goes!
I’ve copied the entire the entire thing and now Roon sees the backups. I have backups going back to 2017! I am attaching the screenshot of the most recent backup listings. Before proceeding with a restore, can you kindly confirm that I am looking at the right thing, and I am restoring my last database?
In the affirmative, does that mean I can delete some of the old backups?
That looks perfect! You are looking at the correct list, and yes—you are seeing your Roon backup history.
To answer your questions:
Restoring: Yes, you can proceed with selecting the most recent entry from that list (May 11, 2026) to restore your database. This will bring back your tags, playlists, live radio stations, and library edits exactly as they were before the migration.
Deleting Old Backups: Yes, once you have successfully restored your database and confirmed that your library looks correct, you are free to delete the older, unwanted backup folders to reclaim storage space.
A small tip: Before you delete the old ones, ensure that Roon is fully stable after the restore. Once you are confident that everything is working, you can safely remove the older folders from the Roon-Backups directory.
Go ahead and trigger that restore—everything should fall into place shortly!
Thanks again. I’ve restored and it has everything right … except it can’t find my music files on the server anymore. The path is defaulting to the container, but my music is on another volume. I attach picture of the path shown. The funny box is the container where Roon resides now. It does not let me go back to the root to chose another volume. The old path was CemilGandurNAS>QNAPTVS-473>Music>G-Raid>iTunes>Music. There are others too but following the same format.
How do i enter those? It is absolutely refusing to let me go a step above the container level.
If I try to enter a new Network share location as advised by the Roon Help, I get an Unexpected Error message, as per screenshots. I also used the NAS IP address instead of the name with the same results.
Ok, I’m not sure what I was doing but I have solved it. I had to remap the drives within Roon and now it sees it. The container volume paths are set correctly with the music volume going off the main path /share/Music whereas the database path is fixed at /share/Container/ .
I think there needs to be a correction in the KB article. .It says":
The music folder is missing
Confirm that the QNAP host folder exists and is mapped to /Music inside the container. In Roon, use the container path, not the QNAP host path.
That is not correct. If you need to have the database (and Roon) on an SSD drive for improved performance, you cannot have the music inside that as well. Generally, SSD are much smaller than the music collection for a NAS user.
Finally, I would like to thank you Vadim, Alex_h, Benjamin and Arindal for handholding me through the process and being patient with my questions and lack of knowledge.
@Cemil, thanks for confirming everything is up and running, and glad we could help you get it sorted out!
You did an awesome job figuring out that Docker volume mapping quirk for your music folder - keeping the database on the SSD and the audio files on your main storage is exactly the optimal setup.
Now that your tags, radio stations, and library are fully restored, you can finally sit back and relax. Enjoy your music!
Glad to hear you got it sorted out! Just to clarify the point you raised about the KB article — the note about using the container path in Roon’s Storage settings is correct and refers specifically to the music folder mapping, not the database. The database path is configured in the Docker Compose file and is separate from where your music lives. It is perfectly normal — and in fact recommended — to have the database on a fast SSD volume and the music on a larger spinning disk volume. These are two independent mappings.
