Roon Server stuck scanning large library on M1 Mac Mini (ref#FUOQG7)

Support
1

Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· Music won’t play or issues with my library

Music won’t play or issues with my library

· Local files won't import or appear

Tell us what's going on

· Roon Server stuck scanning large library.

I'm running roon server on an M1 mac mini running os 15.7.3 with the music library on an attached usb drive. After a recent addition to the library (a big one, several gigabytes) the library is stuck at a specific number during re scan. I cleared deleted items from the "clean up" menu and cleared my corrupt files.

Tell us about your home network

· Xfinity gateway router, TP Link Mesh wifi extension

2

Is it still stuck after restarting the service?
Sometimes Roon is not stuck - only the progress display is. A restart resets the display.

3

Thanks Ralph,

Yes, tried that a couple times. I also tried removing some recently added files to the library but that didn’t work either.

My library is pretty huge, so that makes it really hard to identify a bad file.

Bob

4

Hi @Robert_Pierce,

Thank you for your post.

We’ve taken a look at logs and Roon churning on metadata, images, and/or identification for a few files:

First, there’s this one:

Clifford Brown - Brownie: The Complete EmArcy Recordings of Clifford Brown

And then Roon sees several versions of this compilation:

[Various Artists - The Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto Edition - 1991-2007]

Lastly, another compilation album on the most recent restart:

Stanisław Skrowaczewski/Stanislaw Skrowaczewski 90th Birthday Collection/CD 15/15-02

Is there anything unique about the file tagging or underlying folder structure for these albums?

We’ll watch for your response. Thanks!

5

Hello,

I removed all 3 from my library but it remains stuck. What else can you recommend?

Thanks!

Bob

6

After removing the files and rescanning, should I “clean up” the missing files from the library? Not sure if that makes any difference.

Thank you for your help.

Bob

7

Hey @Robert_Pierce,

Performing a Library cleanup could certainly help with your issues here.

We were able to reveiw a fresh diagnostic report from your server, and saw some problematic image files being skipped Several non-standard image formats are being flagged as unable_to_load_image:

  • .tif files in the Miles Davis collection artwork folder
  • .GIF files in Wendy Carlos album folder

I’d try to clean up the skipped .tif and .gif image files, move non-JPEG/PNG cover art out of music folders to reduce scan noise.

Outside of that, we’re really not seeing any obvious errors that could be causing this. This said, the queue will likely clear itself eventually, retry windows are typically 24–72 hours in Roon’s scheduler. If you can leave the server running undisturbed overnight (or for a couple of days), it may self-resolve. :+1:

8

Thank you Benjamin, I’ve deleted everything that’s not a jpeg or pdf (including PNG just for good measure) but so far it hasn’t helped. I assume pdfs are OK for roon?

My server has been running for several days now already since the “stuckness” began. I’ll be patient and give it a few more days and check back in. Thanks again for your help!

Bob

9

Hi @Robert_Pierce,

We wanted to check in and see how things have been performing over the weekend?

We’re not seeing any obvious issues or errors from a fresh Roon Server diagnostic, which is a good sign!

10

Hi Benjamin,

Thank you for checking in. Roon is still scanning. I’ve deleted all of the tiff and png images from the library and there’s currently no skipped files. Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Bob

11

@Robert_Pierce,

Thanks for the update and for checking those image files. The logs point to a deeper issue than the file formats themselves, and it comes down to how Roon Server is interacting with macOS and your USB drive.

What we are seeing is that Roon’s internal volumewatcher component is getting overwhelmed by Time Machine local snapshots, with repeated mount and unmount events under /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/…. At the same time, your external drive at /Volumes/MusicLibrary is repeatedly dropping into a DriveNotReady state and then coming back, which stops the large metadata import queue each time it happens.

To get the scan moving again, please open Terminal on your Mac mini and run sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots / to see the hidden backups. You can remove the accumulated snapshots with sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots <snapshot_date>, or temporarily turn off automatic Time Machine backups until Roon finishes the initial scan. Please also turn off “Put hard disks to sleep when possible” in macOS System Settings, and add your /Volumes/MusicLibrary drive to your Time Machine exclusions list. Give those system tweaks a try, let the server run undisturbed, and the queue should finally clear up.

Thanks, and please let us know how it goes.

12

Hi Alex,

Thank you so much for your assistance.

I stopped Roon Server, ran the terminal prompt and got this: Usage: tmutil listlocalsnapshots <mount_point>

Didn’t see any snapshots listed. I then turned off time machine and unmounted the time machine USB drive and restarted Roon but it got stuck again.

Thoughts?

Thanks! Bob

13

It seems I’ve solved the problem.

I removed every .cue, .m3u, .log, .pls and loads of other non-music and non-graphical unnecessary junk from the offending folder in my library and POOF problem solved! Must have been a bad apple in there somewhere.

I greatly appreciate your responsiveness.

Thanks!

Bob

14

Hi @Robert_Pierce,

Glad to hear it’s solved. Thanks for circling back and for letting us know one of those files were causing the issue. We’ll go ahead and mark this thread for closure. Enjoy your music!