· Can’t reach my Server, remotes or ARC
· Other ARC issues
· Loads splash screen but nothing else
· ARC is running on a Samsung S24+ with Android 16
Hi @RJ_Plummer, welcome back to the community, and thanks for the report.
A splash screen that never moves past launch usually means ARC is hanging very early in startup, so we need a little more detail before we point you at the right fix.
Before we go further, could you tell us:
If you have any screenshots of the screen ARC gets stuck on, feel free to attach them here. Once we know a bit more about the setup, we can narrow this down with you.
It sometimes doesn’t get that far, e.g., screen goes black but logo doesn’t appear
It’s never gotten past the splash screen
I don’t have any other devices with ARC installed
I tried to get a screenshot of the splash screen, but right now it just turns the screen black and nothing else happens
Hello @RJ_Plummer
Thank you, that helps. Since ARC has never once got past the splash screen, and it is now sometimes not even drawing the logo, the install itself is the thing to replace before we look at anything else.
Please do this on the S24+:
One thing we want to be clear on before we go further, because it changes where we look. Has ARC ever worked for you, on this phone or any other, at any point? Or is this the first time you have tried to set it up?
If it worked before and then stopped, something changed and we go looking for it.
Please let us know how far ARC gets after the reinstall, and the answer to that question.
Did 1 through 3.5. Stuck on splash screen so never got to sign in.
ARC has never worked. I recently changed my home network setup so Tailscale now works. Before you introduced the Tailscale solution, I tried using ARC but never got to a signin. Then I installed Tailscale and it still didn’t work but since Tailscale didn’t work with my router/ISP, I stopped trying to get ARC to work
Hello @RJ_Plummer
Thanks, and you are right that this predates Tailscale, so we will drop that line. One quick question on it though: did you have any other VPN installed on the phone before Tailscale, and is any VPN active on it now?
For the rest, we have gone as far as we can from our side. ARC is dying before it writes anything we can read, so the phone’s own crash records are the only place the cause will show up. That means an ADB bug report from a computer. It is more involved than we would normally ask, but it is exactly what cracked a very similar case for us recently.
On the phone, please do this first:
Then on a Windows or Mac computer:
adb bugreport arc-bugreport.zipThat file holds the native crash records and the system’s own account of why the app exited, which is the part we cannot see from here.
Hey @RJ_Plummer,
Wanted to follow up on this. Have you had a chance to check whether there was any VPN on the phone before Tailscale, or whether one is active now? We are still looking for that ADB bug report from the computer as well, along with the times you opened Roon ARC and let it fail, since that crash data is the only place we can see the cause. If you have it ready, please upload the bugreport zip through the link we sent and reply with any updates so we can keep digging.
Please note, if we don’t hear back from you this thread may close automatically soon. If the thread auto-closes and you need further assistance, please submit a reopen support request via the technical support help form below and specify that the issue should be reopened. Thank you.
Uploaded. Started ARC at 1407, 1408, 1409 and 1410 PDT
Hi @RJ_Plummer, thanks for grabbing that report, it turned out to be exactly what we needed.
Some good news and some slightly odd news. The odd news is that this isn’t a connection problem at all. Looking at the log, ARC launched eight times between 14:00 and 14:11, and in every single one of them the app never finished drawing its interface, not once. What you’re seeing as the “splash screen” is actually Android’s own startup screen, which stays up because ARC never tells the system it’s ready. When that screen times out, you get the black screen you described.
Practically, that means ARC isn’t sitting there failing to find your Roon Server, it’s never getting far enough to look. So you can stop chasing anything on the networking side: port forwarding, Tailscale, your router. None of that is involved here.
Two things that would help:
1. Clear ARC’s data rather than reinstalling. Settings → Apps → ARC → Storage → Clear data. This matters because when you reinstall from the Play Store, Android can restore the app’s old saved data along with it, which may well be why the uninstall/reinstall we suggested earlier didn’t change anything. Clearing data wipes that slate properly. You’ll need to sign in again afterwards.
2. If that doesn’t do it, try once with Tailscale disconnected. I don’t think it’s the cause, but it removes one variable while we look at the rest.
Either way, let us know what happens. Thank you!
Looks like that did it! Thanks so much!
Hello @RJ_Plummer
Excellent, thanks for confirming.
Worth knowing for next time: clearing an app’s data and reinstalling it are not the same thing on Android. A reinstall from the Play Store can bring the old saved data back with it, which is why the earlier uninstall made no difference. Clearing data is what actually resets it.
Also, thank you for running the ADB bug report. It was a fair amount of work and it is the only reason we found this, since ARC was failing before it could log anything itself.
Closing this out here.