I am loosing patience with Roon. In the past I have had my issues with it, but the overall function always kept me with it. I was also part of the Beta team which should help improve the Search function… ah well…
Since the final release I hardly use Roon anymore, finding (in a quick way) what I am searching (classical) is difficult or often impossible. Roon has gotten extremely sluggish. I am constantly restarting the Core - since all Roon is showing is that little symbol - then it works for a while.
But whenever I just want to listen to Radio - not even that works - Roon is showing the little symbol. Sitting down on the sofa wanting to just listen to an album, also difficult - restart Core, rebuild library - wait, wait, wait and finally search, not finding the album. Ok, use Focus etc.
I am glad I still have the CDs that I ripped for Roon. So just getting up, putting the CD into the player has now become much faster, more reliable and practical than using Roon.
What a shame. The last updates are sucking out the fun that I always had with Roon.
Seems like users that mainly rely on streaming are much happier. I have a mix and mainly use my library and it just sucks at the moment. I am fed up of looking at the Roon app on my devices, waiting for it to do what it is supposed to do. I have converted quite a few people to use Roon, would definitely not do so at the moment.
This is not my experience from the last release - quite the opposite.
I would try to temporarily switch Core duties to another machine (eg a laptop). Depending on whether you see a similar behavior you can focus on the network or your Core
If interested I would happy to arrange a video call to check the cases you struggle with
Thanks, that is very nice of you! I have 2 different setups in 2 apartments. One with core on Win 10 and one with Rock. Same problem. Happened since the final release, was ok during Beta.
Something wrong with this version in my use case with a library.
I have had problems before, but never this bad. The Search issue is also very real and acknowledged by the guy trying to fix it at Roon.
Once the Server or Rock are restarted it is ok for a while, until it is not.
Roon is undoubtedly finicky with configurations. Some setups are perfect, while others aren’t working. 8.2 is very stable for me on a Nucleus mainly streaming local ripped CDs over WiFi stored on an HDD connected to an iMac in the other room. 8.0 was less stable.
I also recommend opening up a support ticket and cross your fingers it can be addressed by Roon support.
Yes, I feel there are different distinct user types for Roon presently:
Those who predominantly use Roon to access a local library of files, with occasional internet streaming to ‘fill in’, discover new music or access an internet radio station. This type of user is not as much interested in the Daily Mix Playlists, the Roon curated Playlists or even Roon Radio, as the playback performance, UI/UX of accessing their own Music Library (artist images, album artwork, search performance, etc.)
For this user, the local library is the primary source, is likely to have been collected, groomed, and where possible exists in the highest format they can obtain.
Those who look to Roon as a ‘super-Spotify’ with all internet Streaming content from one or two Service Providers able to offer CD-quality or better music streaming.
They have a handful of ripped CDs in a local library but would prefer to have playback from a higher quality internet streamed content if available.
For this type of user, the provision of provided Playlists are of value, as music library ownership is of a lower importance.
Hi in that case my suggestion would not provide any value …are the two apartments nearby and served by the same network or not so? That would provide a hint as to whether network set up could be the culprit…
What I know is that before the 884 release I had very often Roon freezing (and requiring either cache clearing or a full server restart) - after the .net related code changes this has disappeared and Roon is much faster. Any possibility your core machines are not fully compatible with this new architecture?
Hi, well the apartments are in the same city and use the same internet provider. Also not in the US.
My Internet speed is very high and gladly also very reliable. The Servers run on Nucs - the ones that run well with Roon. Also the problem is recent and my hardware is the same as before, when performance was better.
My Roon setup must have felt my love crumbling, since the last restart on the day I started the topic, it has been behaving itself and is suddenly doing what it is supposed to do. I have not touched or changed anything. Just as it decided to only show me the “leave me alone, I am really trying” icon, it decided to actually let me use it. I guess it must have something to do with what happens outside of my home - maybe the routing of Providers - or god knows what.
Now it works. Not exactly fast - and search still sucks, but it works.
Strangely searching Qobuz directly via web - gets instant results (also good ones) playing even the highest resolution starts instantly and no problem - doing the same thing via Roon, completely different story. It is slow.
as @simon_pepper stated there are mainly two user groups - I fall into the collectors and groomers. Using Qobuz only as a filler.
For the time being it is ok again. See how long it lasts.
The personas I have outlined and described are based on my own personal observations and reading responses to issues from Roon users.
I certainly fit into the former persona type and probably explains my frustrations with some of the recent releases and the incremental functionality offered
The typing or Lust/Frust experience can also be explained quite differently:
Frustration for CD collectors who are reluctant to digitize and use computer solutions.
Lust for Roon users who do not put all their eggs in one basket and keep many connecting lines to alternative products.
Frustration for order-loving the Roon taggers.
Lust for SongKong, LastFM, MP3Tag, Fobar2000, JRiver, Audirvana, Lollypop, iTunes, Directory Opus…but always as a useful addition to the pearl Roon.
I almost suspect that those who have been married to Roon for a lifetime get your marital crisis now and then, and those who are at war with the computer and streaming can not discover all the beauty.
You are welcome to continue thinking about what is the fascination and frustration. I know both and see myself as the biggest problem in the brittle chain of satisfaction.
Have you experimented with different public DNS servers, such as Google, Cloudflare etc? I’m in Brasil and simply switching from my ISP’s DNS has resolved many niggling problems. On the other hand, when I’m I Canada things work fine without fiddling with DNSs. It’s worth a try.
Same here. Been a user and loving it for the past 4 years. Even bought a Nucleus. Play mostly my own files. Since last update it’s been just a hassle to use. Hope they fix it soon or it’s just not worth the hassle. Just want to play some music and it’s become an endurance test.
from the first 1.8 update it’s been downhill for me,lots of sudden crashes /missing album art/information missing,lag and stutter on ipad pro and iphone 13 pro max
Absolutely. Running Roon on a Mac Mini with Catalina. Ever since latest update, any Roon startup leads to an over 2 minute Roon ‘spinning circle’. I’ve changed nothing - Roon changed and now I’m supposed to troubleshoot my system and set up to adjust to Roon.
Since starting in IT in the early 80’s, there’s always been user centric versus application centric ways of looking at things. That is, does the user need to adapt to the software, or does the software adapt to the user? I thought this was resolved, but many of the ‘answers’ on this site are focused on the users adapting to the changes in Roon.
Absolutely agree - it has to be user centric designed.
The answer “this is now the way it works” or “it now works this way because” is not how it should be.
i agree. i agree w dom that roon’s search needs to be overhauled. things like innuos, aurender, jriver, etc. have much better search engines. but nothing, imo, compares favorably to roon’s presentation and feature/functions. roon has insisted that it will never give us access to our own folders. i understand why. but it’s pretty arrogant considering they have a really lame search function. if i were them, i would just license a better search engine and integrate it. if that’s what they did, they should find a new one. if they developed it themselves, they shouldn’t have. search engines are really hard. but, i do not have any of the other issues that dom is having. so, something other than roon is amiss.
Absolutely!!!
As I wrote before - magically my Roon setup is actually working again - even though I did not touch it or change anything. Slow - hell yes, but it is working. Well, except search…
Trouble is writing about experiences on this forum including “negative” points - most always create a backlash. This is really not good. Do I need to state that I generally love Roon? No, not really - I show my adoration through the money Roon gets from me - 2 licences (double the love). Roon has also become a hobby, ripping, grooming, including 1000 missing Artist pictures etc. I have spent countless hours making Roon better for my library. Yes, I have my own library, mainly classical and that is the root of so many problems I am having. To make it worse, a lot of opera - an album having loads of artists. Popular music you mainly have one albumartist (or band) per album, Even symphonies are easier - album title (symphony) plus conductor. Opera - about 10 Primary artists, different story. Then search is simply useless.
I do not live in the US and that also seems to be a problem for general speed of things, since Roon relies a lot on calling home.
So if I write about my current experiences, this is to show the problems that exist and I am definitely not alone - but it always turns out to be a “it must be you or your network” problem.
But it very often simply is not - since problems are introduced via updates. Not all people have the problems - it all depends on the use case - physical collectors seem to have the most problems.
Yes we live in this wonderful disneyworld - where we should all just talk about positive things. But that does not bring about change! We all (or most here) want Roon to be great, that is why we are here - so lets focus on fixing problems.
Remember before backlashing - just because “you” (any forum member) have not got a problem in your use case, this does not mean that the problems do not exist in other use cases! Would it not be great if Roon worked as fast and reliable as music streaming services?!?
So again to make this very clear. I invested a lot of time and also money into Roon, because I really like what it does, when it works. There are problems and it would be great if they were fixed (for all of us).
Now I will listen to music, since Roon likes me today and lets me play soothing music on my system
I suppose the frustration for me is the constant lack of consistent problems. By which I mean there is always something going awry with each release and that can become frustration. But realistically would I stop using Soon? No. The issue of having to re-login to Qobuz every couple of days drives me bonkers. The support idea of changing the password on qobuz account didn’t work. Also however one measures it the ‘new’ search is terribly slow. That said when I want to play anything in any room, Roon does it. I just want it 99% reliability not about 73%. I dread updates. But I’m not going anywhere else as there probably aren’t any better solutions. Trying to provide Roon on such varied Compute Hardware, OS and and Musical kit is an incredible challenge.
