Roon playback stops intermittently, losing connectivity for 3-60 seconds and sporadic Qobuz login errors. (ref#9J3Y5S)

Support
1

What best describes your playback issue?

· Music stops playing unexpectedly

What type of Zone is affected by this problem?

· *All of my Zones* are affected.

Does the issue affect all file formats?

· The issue affects *multiple/all* file formats.

Does the issue happen with local library music, streaming service music, or both?

· *Both streaming and local* *library* music are affected.

Do you encounter any playback errors with the "System Output" Zone?

· The System Output has the same problem as my other Zone.

Do you have a complex network setup?

· Both the device and RoonServer are connecting to a *single router*

Please try rebooting your router.

· No, I'm still having trouble

What are the make and model of the affected audio device(s) and the connection type?

· Cambridge Evo150, Bluesound Vault-2i, Bluesound Node-2i, Bluesound Pulse-2i, HiFi Rose RS520

Describe the issue

The issue is that Roon spontaneously stops playback. I have noticed on the remote that it looses connectivity to the server for 3-60+ seconds. Even when connectivity returns, it can take several minutes before Roon is able to start playback on the endpoint, even though the endpoint is visible. Sometimes, I see a Qobuz login error flash briefly. This happens with both streaming and local music. My library is on the server's disk. I have used a Mac Mini and recently switched to a Mac Studio, and both exhibit the exact same problem. This is an ongoing problem for over a year now. Several Roon releases seem to fix the issue from time to time, then it comes back. Seems to correspond with Roon updates, but hard to say for sure. I experience the problem on WiFi, wired, and multiple end points, Bluesound, HiFi Rose, Cambridge Audio, all have the same behavior. I have replaced my router with a new model, I have replaced my L2 switch. Other systems I have on my network include Phillips Hue and Lutron Caseta wireless.

Describe your network setup

Spectrum Cable Modem, Asus WiFi router, Unmanaged L2 switch. Mac OS Server is wired to L2 switch, as are some of the endpoints. Some endpoints use WiFi.

1 Like
2

Same problem

3

Same problem and includes Tidal streams as well. Seems to have started after last update. Running rock on intel micro machine, hard wired and have Archer router served by VM business 660 Mb/s.

5

Hi @jason27,

The team has activated diagnostics to investigate a dropout event in logs. Here’s what’s happening:

  1. RoonServer logs a network reachability change in the upstream connection - something about the Mac Studio’s connection to the router changes.
  2. This temporary disconnection/reconnection triggers Qobuz and Tidal’s APIs to reauthorize the session, which occasionally fails before network connectivity restores. This logs you out of streaming services.
  3. When there’s an active audio stream to a Zone during these network reachability changes, timeout traces and packet loss occur in both the download from Tidal/Qobuz’s servers and in the audio stream to the endpoint. In the instance we investigated, the Bluesound endpoint experienced sufficient sample dropouts to kill the stream.
  4. Endpoints are losing connection to RAATServer even when music isn’t playing. They disconnect and reconnect in correlation to the network reachability events mentioned above.

I’d first investigate whether any settings in your router interfering with this Mac Studio’s internet connection. First, verify that a reliable DNS server is assigned in the router (we recommend Cloudflare, 1.1.1.1) and that your DHCP settings are default. Next, hardware a networked Zone directly to the same unmanaged switch as your Mac Studio and reproduce the issue. Provide a timestamp here and we’ll proceed from there. Thank you for your patience.

@davidh and @andyboschier, reachability issues with streaming services are highly specific to your network environments and very rarely share an underlying cause. Please create a dedicated support thread and submit your own technical details for our team to take action on your posts.

6

Here’s three recent time stamps of the issue:
1: 9/1/2024 23:08 - This was with a Pulse 2i WiFi grouped with a wired HiFi Rose
2: 9/2/2024 19:07 - HiFi Rose only, wired directly to same switch as Mac Studio
3: 9/2/2024 19:23 - Same scenario as above
In all 3 above scenarios, the source material was a local file (FLAC or ALAC) stored on the Mac Studio’s SSD, which is also the Roon Server.
I did update my DNS to 1.1.1.1 on my router. Router’s DHCP query freq. is set to aggressive, other options are normal or continuous.
My network topology is simple, Spectrum Cable MODEM wired to ASUS RT-AX86U router wired to L2 switch. Mac Studio, Vault-2i, Hifi Rose, Evo150 all wired directly to switch. I typially use a newer iPad or iPhone as the roon remote.

And I also experienced the same behavior in the past with an old Apple Time Capsule router, and a smaller unmanaged switch, with the Roon server running on a new MacMini with a local library on the MacMini SSD.

Thanks for your help!

7

Hey @jason27,

Thanks for the timestamps! We were able to review another fresh diagnostic report and have a few follow-up questions:

  1. What firmware version does the HiFI Rose run currently? Are you able to check for any updates?
  2. Are you able to reproduce the issue when only streaming to the system output of your Mac studio? Or using the system output of your mobile device?
  3. My apologies if this has been covered already, but are you able to temporarily bypass your switch and get a direct ethernet connection from your Mac running Roon Server to your primary router?
8
  1. HiFi Rose is on latest software: System Version 4.19, Audio Firmware Version XMOS 3147, but remember, this is happening on multiple Bluesound and Cambridge Audio devices as well.
  2. Will take some time to test that as server is in basement and not in an area where I normally listen
  3. I will try to wire Bluesound Vault and Mac Studio Roon Server directly to router this weekend and see if it still happens
1 Like
9

Thanks for the update @jason27, we aren’t around over the weekend, so we’ll be back first thing Monday to see your results. :pray:

10

Hope you had a good weekend, here’s some more info from this weekend:
9/7/2024 16:46 playback stopped while playing locally stored file on Mac Studio SSD, Riders on the Storm 5:12 mark. Roon showed nothing playing at first, then showed current song at 5:12 and did not resume automatically. When I pushed play at 16:48, roon is unresponsive for several tries for a few seconds before resuming playback. Signal path is ALAC 44.1KHz, 16bit 2ch<>This Mac RAAT<>Mac Studio Speakers OS Mixer

Same as above on 9/8/2024 at 10:46h

Not sure it is worthwhile troubleshooting the l2 switch or router since this is all local, but please let me know what you think. Thanks for your help.

11

And today it continues to be very problematic both with networked end points and the local system output. I will try to leave it as is in hopes that you can gather some logs to help troubleshoot before I have to restart everything again. Could this be a memory leak? looking at Activity Monitor, shows Roon using quite a bit…
9/9/2024 14:12
Roon Mem 68.52 GB, 38 Threads, 154,504 Ports
RoonAppliance Mem 11.75 GB, 92 Threads, 178,003 Ports

13

Hey @jason27,

Thanks for the additional information!

Follow-up question for you : were you still logged in and syced to Qobuz during your local playback testing?

As a next step, if you make a fresh backup of your database, and then disable Qobuz and reboot your server, do you run into the same issues?

14

Disabled Qobuz. Rebooted server. Been playing to Vault-2i and local output (two different playlists) all day so far with no hickups. Roon appliance process shows 1.98 GB mem, 88 threads, 4361 ports. Why is that so high? Second Question, how do I cleanly restart the Roon server without rebooting Mac?

15

Hi @jason27 ,

Thanks for confirming that this issue does not occur with Qobuz active. In this case, this sounds like a known issue we are investigating, we hope to have some changes to help mitigate this in our next production release, I would be curious to know how things are performing for you once the update is available.

You can exit Roon Server from the Mac taskbar (top right) are by right-clicking RoonServer app and exiting.

16

Thanks for your help. I’m looking forward to the fix.

17

We’ll go ahead and close this thread for now, as there is no more steps needed in troubleshooting. If the next production update doesn’t help your case, certainly let us know and we’ll reopen things for you! :+1: