I am not sure what if any special settings are needed for Roon/Tidal. But, if you think about the issue, the Radio issues occurs when the RoonCore has to reach out through the router to the internet in a timely fashion.
You might try setting your DNS to 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 if they are not already; as sometimes slow DNS responses can cause issues.
This is a good step, sometimes ISP-provided DNS servers don’t work too well, so changing to Cloudflare/Quad9/Google DNS is worth a try.
You could also try simplifying the network a bit here, if you conenct the Core to either the pfSense router directly or to the Netgear switch (instead of the TP-Link), is there any change in behavior?
My DNS Server list looks like this now:
127.0.0.1 (pfSense has also a local DNS service with DNS resolver)
1.1.1.1
8.8.8.8
But there is no change in behavior.
I tried something similar. I disabled ROON Core machine from picture and installed Roon Core on the PC marked as “PC controller” (Windows 10) but got the same issue.
I found that sometimes it works when I start Roon Radio from the PC controller. After the error appears (“Unexpected error: Limiting roon radio to library”, “Roon Radio: Nothing Similar To Play!”), I have to replay the track from the queue. Sometimes roon radio finds the next track when I press next and the radio works
If this is a problem with a timeout when the core tries to reach Tidal / Quobuz, is there any way to adjust this timeout in the core settings (5000ms, 10000ms)?
It’s just a problem with Roon Radio. Playing albums or playlists works fine.
Thanks for checking the DNS aspect and the PC Controller.
I’d like to take a look at diagnostics to see if we can gather a more precise error message.
Can I please ask that you reproduce this behavior on your Windows 10 PC Controller and note the exact local time + date + track you experience this issue with?
After, can you please access your Roon logs by using these instructions and provide a set via Dropbox/Google Drive? If you don’t have either file sharing service just let me know and I can provide an alternate upload means.
I uploaded the logs. Here are the steps from my test:
I went to genre/jazz and started roon radio. It chosen the song St. Thomas from Sonny Rollins from Qobuz and stopped immediately and I got the message “Roon Radio: Nothing Similar To Play!”. I pressed play and the song started to play.
22:08:18 (UTC+1) - I pressed “next” and got the error “Unexpected error: Limiting roon radio to library”, “Roon Radio: Nothing Similar To Play!”
22:09:00 (UTC+1) - I pressed “next” again and got the error “Unexpected error: Limiting roon radio to library”, “Roon Radio: Nothing Similar To Play!”
22:19:15 (UTC+1) - I tryed this with “blues”. It chosen the song from Qobuz. Pressed “next” and I got the same error.
22:21:30 (UTC+1) - I tryed this with “rap”. It chosen the song In/Flux from DJ Shadow from TIDAL. Pressed “next” and I got the same error.
03/20 22:06:45 Debug: [easyhttp] [448] POST to https://swim.roonlabs.net/1/session/7b59d46adb8440f99667cc8db1d05847/continue returned after 655 ms, status code: 500
03/20 22:06:45 Warn: [mlradio] [5] [music/mlradio] _GetNextItems Failed: System.Exception: /session/continue failed: 500
at Sooloos.Broker.Music.Radio.SwimProxy.d__10.MoveNext()
— End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown —
–pressing next–
03/20 22:08:16 Trace: [NODE 2i - A9B8] [Lossless, 24/96 QOBUZ FLAC => 24/96] [100% buf] [PLAYING @ 1:14/6:47] St. Thomas - Sonny Rollins / Doug Watkins / Max Roach / Tommy Flanagan
03/20 22:08:20 Debug: [easyhttp] [489] POST to https://swim.roonlabs.net/1/session/begin returned after 5439 ms, status code: 500
03/20 22:08:20 Critical: [mlradio] [6] failed to init swim: System.Exception: /session/begin failed: 500
at Sooloos.Broker.Music.Radio.SwimProxy.d__8.MoveNext()
— End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown —
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter`1.GetResult()
at Sooloos.Broker.Music.Radio.MLRadioSession.d__36.MoveNext()
Can you please try rebooting your Core and verify if the behavior is the same even today? A 500 error indicates that the issue could have been from our server’s end, I would try starting Radio again. Do let me know if it’s now working.
No, Roon Radio still won’t work if it’s not limited to the library. I think you can find the reason for http status 500 in the swim.roonlabs.net server log as this is where the error came from.
Current timestamp for the error is 03/23 23:13:50 (UTC+1)
Do you by any chance have a hostpot capability on one of your phones? I wonder if your network setup is related to the issue at hand, and this would be the easiest way to verify.
I tried a setup with my phone and only one PC as a roon server/controller. I used internet access from my phone through USB tethering to the PC. There was only one zone - the PC sound card. Also with this simplest setup there was no change in behaviour of roon radio.
We’ve made an update to our servers that we believe will help improve this. Can you give this another try and let us know if things are working for you now?
Your patience as we’ve looked into this has been greatly appreciated — Thanks!