Roon on QNAP TS-251A - Help Guide

[Chris_Rowe]

Alright. For experts, you’ll look at some of this and think, ‘Duh, of course that would cause a problem’, but for newbies, there some things I think are good to know.

I’d consider myself have above average tech knowledge, but it’s taken a while to get this things working with Roon in a stable fashion and I think there’s a few obvious things people should check before diving further into settings.

Out of the gate, the specs of my NAS are below minimum recommended requirements. This doesn’t seem to be posing an issue so far.

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)

QNAP TS-251A
Celeron CPU N3060 @1.60GHz
8GB RAM
Firmware 4.5.1.1450

Version : 1.7 (build 710) stable
QPKG-Version : 2020-10-30

Roonserver is running on SanDisk SDCZ880-128G-G46 Extreme PRO 128GB USB 3.1

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

Netgear 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch, GS316
Netgear Orbi RBK50 Router
Netgear Orbi RBS50 Satellites (Qty 2)

QNAP and all Orbis hardwired to switch

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

Dell PC - Windows 10
iPhone X - Firmware 13.6
Apple Airport Express A1392 - Connected via wifi - Firmware 8 or 8.1 (78999.12)
Apple TV
Marantz 7005
Oppp 205

Airport, ATV, Marantz and Oppo are all hardwired to switch

QNAP Port Trunking

Regarding my QNAP set-up. It allows for connecting two ethernet cables and Port Trunking to increase throughput. I thought I could take advantage of this feature simply by connecting the two cables to the switch. Don’t laugh. Now, in general use (file transfers, back-up, streaming, etc.) this didn’t really matter. I didn’t have the advantages of Port Trunking, but things still functioned normally. Once you introduce Roon things got confused. Effectively, the path to the core was always changing between two IP addresses. I’ve now got Port Trunking set-up correctly and that has helped.

Set Port Trunking on your QNAP NAS to increase the bandwidth via 802.3ad...

QNAP 4.5.1 AAC and ffmpeg issue

This is a known issue with the latest version of QTS. There are a couple of workarounds for this. @crieke is the man to help you get this figured out.

Roon Server on QNAP QTS 4.5.1 Situation

Hello everyone, I was trying to figure out an issue with QNAP’s QTS 4.5.1 in the last days. The situation with QTS 4.5.1 is, that it is shipped with a version of ffmpeg, that does not support AAC decoding/encoding, which results in the inability to play AAC encoded files or radio streams in Roon. [qts-4.5.1-ffmpeg] Today I received a message from QNAP: Our RD team has told us the way to resolve this issue is to use CAYIN MSP’s ffmpeg. The path for CAYIN’s ffmpeg is below: CAYIN MSP’s ffm…

10kb and smaller files in library

This appears to be an old issue, but I kept get stuck on the ‘Loading Files to Library’. It would hit 34 of 33,000 tracks and just hang forever. Getting rid of all the old desktop.ini, jpgs, etc. files sized at 10kb and under in my library made the difference here. Loaded all the tracks immediately.

Tracks stuck in "Adding Music To Library" (due to file corruption issues) [Solved]

From this now-solved issue we can garner a useful piece of information on locating corrupt files. Even mp3 files are generally quite large. There shouldn’t be any “tiny” (ie under 10kB or so) mp3 files. In my case, the problem with ingestion of my library was that some corrupt mp3 files were stalling the process. Probably they failed to copy from their original source and I was left with a tiny garbage file with the right name and extension. If you are getting the ingestion process sticking, …

iTunes Playlist Import

This seemed to be getting hung up too. I think it’s likely related to above. Once I got rid of the 10kb files and put the old iTunes XML files in the monitored folder, they all showed up.

Itunes Playlists won't import

[screen 3] [screen1] [screen2]

QNAP USB ports

More investigation to come here. Sometimes the NAS will randomly say ‘No external drives connected’. This is obviously a problem since my Roon database is living on a flash drive. I had it connected it to one of the USB ports on the back and now I’ve moved it to the front one. Clearly, this shouldn’t make a difference, but it seems to. I need more time running to see if it happens again. Not sure if this is a hardware issue with my NAS rear ports, software glitch on NAS or issue with this flash drive. I’ll experiment with another flash drive if it comes up again.

Orbi Address Reservation

I’m using this feature on my Orbi for all the devices that ROON will use, NAS, Airport Express, Marantz, OPPO. No idea if this will make a difference, but hoping this just gives the system more stability.

Not sure if this with help anybody, but I was just about to give up on Roon. I have more confidence that I’ll continue with it after all this.

[John_Aiello (Lifetime Subscription since 2016)]

Nice work and great summary.

[Graeme_Finlayson (The Mad Scientist)]

It’s a bit cheeky of QNAP to use the term ‘Port Trunking’ when it is in fact an 802.3ad LACP LAG, which needs a suitably capable managed switch! I guess the marketing team got one over on the tech team that day…

[Chris_Rowe]

Literally no idea what that means. lol. I feel like you just dropped some comedy that only Network Admins would get.

But maybe that helps make my point. The average user definitely doesn’t know what that means, so a list of the top Roon troubleshooting challenges for new users would be helpful.

[Graeme_Finlayson (The Mad Scientist)]

Hi Chris, sorry it’s just confusing terminology on QNAP’s part. There is something called a “trunk port” in networking speak which is a specific type of port set on a network switch which allows data to flow across a network node for multiple virtual local area networks (VLANs). VLANs are a way of dividing up a local network to improve traffic flow which also offer segregation and improved security. For instance at home, our guest WiFi is on a separate VLAN. Visitors can use my WiFi, but their devices can’t see anything else on my network. Inadvertent malware or spyware can’t do any damage…

Anyway, I’m digressing. What QNAP’s misnomer actually refers to one of the types of connections called “Link Aggregation” (LAG), specifically a Dynamic LAG using LACP (Link Aggregation control Protocol). It’s like adding extra lanes to a highway by combining multiple connections into one faster connection.

There’s a pretty good (not too technical) explanation of it Here.

[Chris_Rowe]

@Chris_Rowe

QNAP USB ports

More investigation to come here. Sometimes the NAS will randomly say ‘No external drives connected’. This is obviously a problem since my Roon database is living on a flash drive. I had it connected it to one of the USB ports on the back and now I’ve moved it to the front one. Clearly, this shouldn’t make a difference, but it seems to. I need more time running to see if it happens again. Not sure if this is a hardware issue with my NAS rear ports, software glitch on NAS or issue with this flash drive. I’ll experiment with another flash drive if it comes up again.

Alright, so my flash drive is still being a bit of a jerk and disconnecting intermittently. Sandisk support basically said, ‘Yeah, they’re not made for that.’

If I format an SSD and label it RoonServer, can I just copy the content currently on my flash drive to the SSD and things will work? Or do I need to rebuild the core?

[Graeme_Finlayson (The Mad Scientist)]

You can copy the content from your RoonServer folder from your flash drive to your SSD and Roon will work just fine. I did the exact same thing just over an hour ago, moving the database from a USB connected drive on my NAS to an internal SSD on an expansion unit.

I also moved the Core installation from the spinning disks on one volume to the SSDs on another and it worked seamlessly. I just had to log into Roon again from the controller App. Within a few seconds, it had restored all of my settings, library location and even custom DSP filters.

[Chris_Rowe]

@Graeme_Finlayson

You can copy the content from your RoonServer folder from your flash drive to your SSD and Roon will work just fine.

Thanks. Database moved to SSD connected to USB 3. Will update on stability if any issues arise.

[Chris_Rowe]

Things have been solid since switching to core to an SSD. I just used an inexpensive Kingston A400 240GB.

Lesson learned. Flash drives don’t work in this application. Even fancy ones.

[Chris_Rowe]

I may also be winning the contest for absolute lowest resolution Roon experience. First Alert OneLink Safe and Sound. Lol. By the way, these also have terrible reviews but seem to be pretty stable for me.

[Chris_Rowe]

Wonder if one of you gurus can help me figure this out. I can’t understand why this album isn’t showing up in Roon. I’m looking for Moby - Hotel Ambient.

Moby - Hotel is showing up fine. They’re in the same folder on my server. File types are the same. Naming conventions are the same. I uploaded another album to the server today and it showed up with the ‘New’ tag within seconds.

Any ideas?

[Rugby (aka Daniel or Big Dan)]

Look under Moby Hotel / Versions and see if Roon has decided that one was a duplicate of the other.

[Chris_Rowe]

I’d see that here, correct? No luck.