What kind of performance/speed issue are you experiencing?
· The app is crashing
Please try to reboot your Roon Server
· Yes, rebooting helps, but the issue returns after some time
Please try to reboot your networking gear (Router/Switches/etc.)
· No, the issue is still the same even after a reboot
Is there any change in behavior if you try to navigate to Roon Settings -> Library and set both Background and On-Demand Audio Analysis to Throttled or Off?
· No, the issue is still the same
Does the issue happen on multiple Roon Remotes (controllers) or just one?
· Issue happens on multiple remotes
Router Domain Name System (DNS) change
· I don't know how to do this
What is the operating system of your Roon Server host machine?
· Nucleus
Which model Nucleus do you have?
· Nucleus One
Timestamp of issue occurrences
· This happens randomly and repeatedly. I have never had occasion to time it or to notice any regularities.
Describe the issue
Lately, my Roon Server on Nucleus has taken to just cutting out randomly while a file is playing. I’ve never had this before in the nine years I’ve had my system setup. Nothing has changed in the system configuration. This occurs no matter whether I choose either my whose-house Bluesound network or the Brooklyn DAC+ in my desktop system.
Describe your network setup
My ISP is IQ Fiber, and the modem/router is a Calix GigaSpire BLAST, but that’s clearly not relevant, since when I play Internet radio (via TuneIn) on my Bluesound NODE-based system there is never a cutout. And the Roon cutouts always occur whether I have chosen Bluesound, the Brooklyn DAC+, or either of my Cary DMS-600 or DMS-700 media network streamers. And it is only recently that I have started to have this problem.
Edit: Sorry - I missed that you were using a Nucleus One. The below text is irrlevant and should be ignored - at least for another 7 years or so.
The point that I picked up on here is that your Nucleus is 9 years old. This is a good age for a computer device that is near permanently turned on and it may be a contributing factor to your issue.
When this happens, is your Nucleus working hard? Do you employ MUSE DSP to convert to DSD or do any other heavyweight processing? Alternatively, is the environment in which the Nucleus hotter than normal? Any of these conditions would exacerbate any thermal issues.
After 9 years of use, it is possible that the thermal paste used to connect the processor to the heatsink (the case) is breaking down (Typically this only lasts for 5 to 8 years before starting to break down and lose it’s effectiveness) and, consequently, the processor in the Nucleus is starting to run hot and is sometimes throttling itself to the point where it can’t keep up with the workload.This is more likely to happen with a heavy workload but can happen even when lightly loaded if the thermal connection to the case has broken down sufficiently.
You may be able to confirm this by booting the Nucleus into its BIOS setup (by attaching a usb keyboard and a monitor or TV and pressing either DEL or F2 on power up) and looking for the temperature monitoring page. If the temperatures climb high - say above 50-60 Celcius (122-140 Deg Fahrenheit), then you may have an issue.
If you think this could be the issue and you feel confident in such matters, you could disassemble your Nucleus, clean the top of the processor and the heatsink carefully with isopropyl alcohol and then apply a small amount of a good quality thermal paste (I use Arctic MX4 but other pastes of suitable quality are available) before reassembling the Nucleus.Also make sure that the case is dust free. This should result in the processor running cooler and, if this was the cause of the issue, keep it going for another 5 to 8 years.
If you don’t feel confident doing this yourself, a computer repair shop should be able to do it for you.
Thanks for the detail, and please do not open the unit. The thermal paste suggestion above was based on your Nucleus being nine years old. Your Nucleus One is a recent model, and the cause is in your logs.
Your server is running out of memory and being shut down by the operating system. Between 25 and 31 August this happened 119 times, every thirty to seventy minutes without a break. Each time, the system kernel terminated Roon because it had no memory left, and Roon restarted about three seconds later.
That is what the cutouts are. Playback does not stop because of your network or your endpoints; it stops because the server process is killed mid-stream. It is also why rebooting appears to help and then does not: a restart buys you about forty-five minutes.
Why it runs out. Your library holds 351,218 tracks and your Nucleus One has 3.6 GB of usable memory. At the moment of each shutdown Roon was holding around 2.5 GB, which is as much as the machine can give it. A library that size needs considerably more.
Part of that library is duplication you can remove. You currently have 45 watched folders, and all of them point into the same share, \MainNAS\multimedia. One is the root of the share and the other 44 are folders inside it, so the same files are being counted several times over. Two of them are not music at all: @Recycle and @Recently-Snapshot are your NAS’s recycle bin and snapshot folders. Roughly 45 percent of the entries Roon loads are marked as hidden duplicates.
Please do this first. In Settings, then Storage, remove all 45 folders and add back exactly one: the folder that holds your music. Do not add a parent folder and folders inside it together, and do not add @Recycle or @Recently-Snapshot.
That will cut the library substantially and may be enough on its own.
Vadim, In addition to my initial response, I just want to say that, before I saw your solution, I had decided to switch over to the Roon Server on my iMac, and in the process, to do just what you said. I’ve been playing it for hours, now, without any problem. Not that you need me to validate your expertise, but I just want to let you know that it has worked on the iMac. Now, I’ll switch back to the Nucleus One, after having unplugged and restarted it, and cleaning my Library database of over 39K useless files. I’ll be doing that tomorrow, and I anticipate that I’ll be listening with the same level of satisfaction. Thanks again for your help!
It makes perfect sense that the iMac handled the library without issue, especially considering your iMac has ~ 41 GB of memory compared to the 4 GB on the Nucleus One. The iMac had a massive amount of overhead to process the bloated database without crashing.
Take your time switching the Core back to the Nucleus One tomorrow. Once the newly streamlined library is fully synced, please keep us updated on how the system performs.
After having switched back to the Nucleus One, I discovered that I get much more inclusive and consistent performance from the Roon Server on my iMac, so I’ve decided to go back to the iMac. One thing I discovered is that the iMac Roon Server automatically adds daily all new files from both Tidal and Qobuz, whereas on the Nucleus One I have to add them manually. While I’m willing to accept that this difference may be due to how the respective Servers were originally configured, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. My Library is much larger and more comprehensive with the added processing bandwidth and headroom. I keep my iMac on all the time anyway (with sleep mode at night), so I’ll just stick with what is working better. Thanks for helping me find what’s best.