Roon fails to load music library and detect DAC/AMP on iMac (ref#JBMJMS)

Support
1

What’s happening?

· Other

How can we help?

· None of the above

Other options

· Other

Describe the issue

Roon has suddenly removed my entire library, and it won't load any music located in my iMac's hard drive. It also won't detect my DAC/AMP.

Describe your network setup

Standard wifi router from Spectrum.

2

Did you try out:

3

I don’t have MacOS Sequoia; I have MacOS Ventura 13.6.9. I tried looking to see if a firewall was on, and it isn’t.

4

And what shows if you click the red triangle with an exclamation mark in it?

5

I get this message.

Screenshot 2025-06-02 at 2.13.30 PM
Screenshot 2025-06-02 at 2.13.30 PM1880×682 70.5 KB

6

So nothing that seems to be related to your current issue. I’m sure official support will soon reply here too and hopefully have some further ideas for you.

7

Thank you for at least offering some solutions! It’s a weird one for sure. I recently was charged the annual fee, and after that, seems like my account doesn’t work properly. I wonder if it’s related…

8

Hi @aeromaniac,

Thanks for taking the time to write in and share your report! We’re not seeing any errors in relation to your subscription - if you haven’t yet, please stop Roon Server from running, and reboot your Mac. Let me know if you see the same issues after rebooting and powering everything back on.

If you do see the same issue, could you please head to your Roon Settings>Storage and share a screenshot?

We’ll be on standby for your reply!

9

Hi there,

How do I stop my Roon Server? I just have this as the screen:

Screenshot 2025-06-06 at 9.23.23 PM
Screenshot 2025-06-06 at 9.23.23 PM1920×1395 43.1 KB

10

Hi @aeromaniac,

You can stop Roon Server from the top bar on MacOS. You should see the Roon logo up there. If you click it you’ll see the option to quit.

If you don’t see the logo in the top bar or run into any other trouble let us know. We’re happy to help!

11

Hi, thank you for the tip. I went ahead and quit then rebooted my computer with the same issue. Here’s a screenshot of the Storage section of Roon Settings.

Screenshot 2025-06-12 at 11.25.42 AM
Screenshot 2025-06-12 at 11.25.42 AM1576×652 54.5 KB

12

Hi @aeromaniac,

Thanks for the screenshot! Can you confirm the ‘Music’ folder still holds your local library?

We’re also seeing multiple instances of Roon Server tied to different Mac’s - can you confirm you’re on the proper machine that contains your library?

With that, did you by chance use Time Machine or any other third-party backup/restore service across your Mac’s?

13

Hi,

I can confirm the “music” folder still holds my library. I haven’t used any Time Machine or third-party back/restore services other than Roon’s own restore when I transferred my account from my macbook pro to my current iMac last year.

What’s peculiar about this situation is that Roon won’t see any devices connected to my computer. I can’t find my iFi iDSD Signature or even my iMac’s Core Audio in devices.

Even weirder is that when I click on Qobuz or Tidal, the websites populate. However, when I click Library, none of my Qobuz or Tidal library saves show up.

Let me know if you need more info.

14

Hey @aeromaniac,

Thanks for the follow-up and additional information! Since restarting Roon Server didn’t help, let’s see if clearing the database cache may help. Steps to follow below:

  • Exit out of Roon
  • Find and open your Roon database
  • Navigate to /Library/Roon/Cache
  • Move the contents of the /Cache folder elsewhere, like your desktop
  • Try restarting Roon and verify if the issue still occurs

We’ll be on standby for your reply!

15

Hello, it didn’t result in anything new. I went ahead and moved my cache folder contents to a different location. You can see that the Roon Server icon is on.

Screenshot 2025-06-13 at 11.33.03 AM
Screenshot 2025-06-13 at 11.33.03 AM1920×1335 48.7 KB

16

Thanks for giving that a try @aeromaniac!

From a diagnostic report, we saw an error pointing to corrupted or invalid image metadata in Roon’s internal library database—specifically, an issue when deserializing (decoding) image data for a performer, album, or track.

Could you next perform a disk check on your Roon Server machine and report the results? Here’s how to run Disk Utility on a Mac:

Open Disk Utility:

  1. Click the Spotlight icon (top-right corner of the screen), or press Command (⌘) + Spacebar.
  2. Type “Disk Utility” and press Return.

Run First Aid (Check for disk issues):

  1. In Disk Utility, select your startup disk (usually named "Macintosh HD") in the left sidebar.
  2. Click the First Aid button in the toolbar.
  3. Click Run to begin the disk check.
  4. Wait for it to finish—it may take a few minutes depending on the size of the disk.

Let us know the results - thank you! :raised_hands: