Roon does not play Albums with semicolons in the folder name

[Theodore_Huber]

Is there a tool to easily find a double-byte character in the folder name? Such as hex-edit?

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

@Theodore_Huber

All other albums from tidal play well on my side too with the roon synology nas. So the problem still persists with the hidden special characters.

All other albums from Tidal are not in AAC format

[Theodore_Huber]

If I Import the cd as described as flac files on to the synology nas, it first does not play but when I remove the semicolon in the folder name it does play. so there must be a hidden character in the Folder Name.

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

There seem to be two different issues:

Your local file may have failed because of the semicolon or a hidden character.

Then you said that the Tidal still doesn’t play, but it does for me. This particular album is in AAC format in Tidal, so the cause could be that you didn’t install the necessary codec for AAC on your Synology.

[DDPS]

Yes, @Suedkiez , 100%. Thank you for adding this to the thread, as it was all getting confusing.

[Theodore_Huber]

@Suedkiez I assume you also have Roon server installed on a synology NAS and have listened to the AAC album through tidal - right?
And yes, you may be right with the missing ffmpeg installation on the NAS server, but we are still guessing. My assumption currently is, that there is a bug in the roon server software which cannot handle hidden characters in album folder names (see the title of this thread).

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

You can simply test your assumption by

1. Playing any other AAC files and checking if those play.
2. Install the ffmpeg codec as per the instructions for Synology.

But if you didn’t install it, then it’s not there, as IIRC Synology removed AAC support from their built-in codec due to some legal concerns about the licensing. There are a hundred threads on the forum if you search for Synology and AAC.

The file name issue may exist but may also be a completely separate thing. Hence, rule out the AAC support question and you will know more.

[DDPS]

@Theodore_Huber

Is there a tool to easily find a double-byte character in the folder name? Such as hex-edit?

You can take an approach like I mention in:

A Roon on (Synology) NAS Primer

Here’s a bit of extra detail that I thought I should add to this thread, but I thought it might be too much to add to the original post: When Synology Audio Station encodes some “high byte” characters during playlist additions, it uses characters that Roon doesn’t like. These characters are, in hex encoding: \0xF025 \0xF020 \0xF029 \0xF028 \0xF022 I try to look for any odd characters when ripping music with dBpoweramp, but I forget or overlook them or they may be invisible, and I have a …

You have to determine the characters you are looking for. Those are common ones, though, that cause troubles.

[DDPS]

@Suedkiez

But if you didn’t install it, then it’s not there, as IIRC Synology removed AAC support from their built-in codec due to some legal concerns about the licensing. There are a hundred threads on the forum if you search for Synology and AAC.

I am going to sound like a self-promoting broken record, but one can look at A Roon on (Synology) NAS Primer

[Mark_Sealey]

@Theodore_Huber

Is there a tool to easily find a double-byte character in the folder name? Such as hex-edit?

Since you use Macs, you’ll be able to install and run BBEdit. You’d copy and paste the folder name (or file name) into BBEdit, which would then allow you to perform just such a dump, in hex - and should reveal any such rogue characters.

[Theodore_Huber]

Thanks @DDPS I will try that this weekend!

[Theodore_Huber]

Thanks @Mark_Sealey I will try that this weekend!

[DrClaus]

It streams fine in roon for me from both Tidal and Qobuz.

[terzinator (Chris)]

@DrClaus

It streams fine in roon for me

yeah i think we’ve determined that it’s an AAC file incompatibility with synology, not the semi-colon…

right?