Recently, every time I start playing music from Roon, after 20 or 30 seconds, the music stops and I get an error message stating "media is loading slowly" and advising me to check my network and Internet connections. The connections are fine. I have reset both and the problem persists. I have also reset my Roon Nucleus One. A couple of my Roon endpoints are BluOS products (PSB Alpha iQ, Bluesound 2024 Node). I can play the same music on those systems with no problem from the BluOS app or using AirPlay. Network is ISP internet gateway > Google Wifi four-node mesh network (main Google Wifi unit is connected to Nucleus One) > and then Wi-Fi to my players. BluOS and AirPlay work fine on my network, but not Roon. What's the fix?
Describe your network setup
ISP Internet gateway > Google Wifi > ethernet to Roon Nucleus One > Wi-Fi to all other players. Signal strength on all players is good to excellent. BluOS and AirPlay work fine, but not Roon.
Does this ever occur with smaller files, like 44.1Khz FLAC or mp3 from Qobuz? Does this occur with your local library content, as well? If so, where is your local library stored?
The message reported, “media is loading slowly,” indicates that RoonServer is not receiving content from the upstream streaming service server (Qobuz’ servers) at a sufficient rate to keep pace with the buffer. This might not be a question of speed if there’s either a) packet loss in the WiFi network, b) DNS issues causing failures with Qobuz URL requests or c) CDN issues with the upstream Qobuz connection.
Just to confirm - in the topology you’ve presented, is the main Google WiFi unit connected to the ISP gateway via ethernet?
If the unit is hardwired, then I’d verify that a reliable DNS server is assigned for your network (we recommend Cloudflare, 1.1.1.1).
I haven’t tried this with MP3 or other lossy formats. The problem occurs with CD-resolution (16/44.1) and high-resolution FLAC and ALAC files. It occurs with locally stored content as well as streamed musics from Qobuz. My local library is on a 2TB Western Digital SATA SSD installed inside the Nucleus One. The Google Wifi unit is connected to the ISP gateway via ethernet. This is a fairly recent issue. It used to happen occasionally, but for the past week or so, it has been constant.
This is not a Qobuz issue or Qobuz CDN issue, and it is not an issue with my network. As I mentioned in my initial query, I can stream from Qobuz to my PSB Alpha iQ and Bluesound Node from the BluOS app, or from the the Qobuz app via AirPlay.
I’ve been doing some more troubleshooting. I can play Qobuz content from Roon through an iFi micro iDSD BL DAC-headphone amp which is connected to a USB port on the Nucleus One with no issues. I just tried streaming Qobuz content from Roon to a KEF LS60 Wireless system. Again, no issues. That leads me to believe the problem may be related to BluOS, not to Roon
How, here’s where things get crazy. After doing this, I can now stream from Roon to the Bluesound Node and PSB Alpha iQ with no interruptions. As mentioned, the problem has been constant for the past week or so, until now. Go figure!
Thanks for the update! I’m glad to hear things have stabilized for you, but certainly let us know if you run into this issue again. If it does occur, share the specific track name playing when you’re hit with the ‘Media Loading Slowly’ message, and we’ll enable diagnostics to take a closer look.
In the absence of new reports on this thread, we’re going to mark your last post as a Solution. Please reach back out if you’ve reencountered dropouts in the meantime. This thread will auto-close without a response in a few days. Thanks!
About a week ago, I experienced another series of dropouts when streaming from the Roon Nucleus One to my PSB Alpha iQ active speaker system. Recalling an earlier sequence of events, I played music through my iFi micro iDSD DAC-headphone amp, which is connected via USB to the Roon Nucleus One. That worked fine. And then I tried again tried streaming from the Roon Nucleus One to the PSB Alpha iQ, and that worked fine too! There seems to be some kind of anomaly with streaming to the PSB that is reset when you play music through the Nucleus’s USB port. I can’t make any sense of this, but then there are many things that I can’t make sense of.
