Roon slow performance and loading issues on iPad and iPhone since updates (ref#KP2WVR)

Support
1

What app are you having the slowness issue with?

· Roon

What kind of performance/speed issue are you experiencing?

· The app takes a long time to respond to commands

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?

· Roon Optimized Core Kit (ROCK)

Timestamp of issue occurrences

· Happens frequently / daily, don’t have an exact time or date.

Describe the issue

Since the turn of the year updates Roon has significantly slowed down. I access my library on my iPad and iPhone and it can take several minutes for Roon to load albums, the main splash pages loads in sections and playing albums takes a while to respond and actually play. This slow down gets worse as the day goes on and I have to restart the server to improve it, having never previously needed to do this.

Setup is a Roon Rock on an Intel NUC 7 i5, I recently increased the RAM to 16gb in the hope this would help. Library has 39,000 tracks, 3,098 albums, 77 of which are via Tidal. My end points are Kef LS50 Wireless II’s, HomePod via Airplay, HomePod Mini via Airplay, Kef LSX II and a Raspberry Pi Roon end point.

I’ve deleted the iPhone app and reinstalled and the issue still comes back. Today I’ve reinstalled Roon on my NUC, too early to tell if this has worked.

Describe your network setup

Router is a Asus RT-BE92U, with a 300mb fibre internet connection from Plus Net. All my devices are connected into TP-Link powerline adaptors for wired Ethernet connection, all are working well and getting good speeds (80mb on the Kef Connect app). Roon Rock is an Intel NUC7i5BNH with a 2tb SSD inside for my Roon library. There’s also a Netgear switch on my network, but none of my Roon kit goes through it. This setup hasn’t changed, other than the router being in the last month, but the issue hasn’t changed since that upgrade.

2

How many of your albums are unidentified?

3

26 out of 3013.

4

Hey @Chris_Gosling,

Thanks for writing in and for sharing your report! Sorry to hear about the dip in performance you’ve been experiencing. Some immediate next steps in troubleshooting I’d like to try:

Clear the image cache Go to Roon Settings → Setup → clear image cache. Roon Server logs show 1.24 million cached image entries being processed in the nightly vacuum, this is excessive. Clearing it forces a fresh rebuild from a smaller, better-organised starting state.

Check your ROCK/NUC storage The database vacuum taking nearly 3 minutes suggests database bloat. In Roon Settings → Library, run a library cleanup. Also check how much free space is left on your 2TB SSD — if it’s getting full, SQLite performance degrades significantly.

Let me know if this helps performance at all. Thank you!

5

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I’d cleaned up the library previously so that’s sorted, cleared the cache today. Hopefully that’ll help. The reinstall of the OS seems to have helped, though I haven’t had much chance to to test this week.

When I log into my Rock IP address is says I’ve got 17% of 1848gb left on my drive, is this sufficient to cause the SQLite slowdown?

6

Hey @Chris_Gosling,

Thanks for the reply! 17% free (~314GB) is borderline but probably not the main driver of the SQLite slowdown on its own. SQLite typically starts struggling more noticeably below 10% or when free space drops under ~50GB. That said, it’s worth keeping an eye on.

We’ll be monitoring for your reply and results! :folded_hands:

7

Thanks for the tips. It seems to be working a lot quicker now, still the odd bit of slowdown but nothing as bad before.

8

Hello @Chris_Gosling,

Thank you for providing the update! It is great to hear that performing a fresh OS install, clearing that massive image cache, and running the library cleanup have collectively breathed some life back into your NUC and brought performance to a much more manageable level.

With about 17% (~314GB) of headroom left on your internal SSD, you are still in a safe operational window, so you don’t need to worry about storage starvation causing immediate bottlenecks right now.

Since the system is stable and running significantly faster, we are going to go ahead and close this support thread. However, I do want to leave you with a quick note: our R&D team is currently actively working on deeper, backend optimization passes specifically targeted at improving database loading efficiency and UI responsiveness for large local libraries.

Keep an eye out for our upcoming Roon Software Discussion > Software Release Notes updates and, as you should see, further incremental speed improvements rolling out soon!

Happy listening!