Roon stuck on 'Waiting for your Roon Server' (ref#E6NAWE)

Support
1

Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· Roon will not load - says "Waiting for your Roon Server"...

Tell us about your home network

· Nighthawk RS200 router, but running Roon on laptop connected by USB to DAC (not through router).

2

More info about my system:

Laptop running Windows 11 (64). Tried disabling windows firewall, ensured all Roon exe’s are excluded, re-installed Roon, multiple re-boots, etc. As a test I installed Tidal, and it is playing fine thru my DAC.

3

Hello @Michael_Corbin,

Thank you for providing those details and for taking the initiative to do that initial troubleshooting! Testing TIDAL independently was a great step—it confirms your laptop’s USB connection and your DAC are working perfectly.

When you see “Waiting for your Roon Server” on a single-computer setup, it means the Roon user interface (the front-end) is being blocked from communicating with the Roon Server background process (the engine), even though they are on the exact same machine.

Since you have already ruled out the built-in Windows Firewall, the most common culprit here is third-party antivirus or security software.

Step 1: Check for Third-Party Antivirus

Programs like McAfee, Norton, Bitdefender, Malwarebytes, or Kaspersky often have strict internal firewalls that silently block local "loopback" connections, which Roon relies on to talk to itself.
  • Do you have any third-party antivirus software running on your Windows 11 laptop?
  • If so, please try temporarily disabling its active protection/firewall completely.
  • Once disabled, restart Roon to see if it successfully connects.
If Roon connects while the antivirus is disabled, you will need to manually add exceptions for Roon within that specific security program's settings.

Step 2: Verify Roon Server is Running

Just to cover all bases, let's make sure the backend process is actually launching.
  • Check your Windows System Tray (the small icons near the clock in the bottom right corner of your screen).
  • Do you see the Roon Server icon running there?
Please let us know if you have any active security software installed and how the temporary disable test goes!
4

Ok, thanks for responding.

No 3rd Party Antivirus, although I did try turning Windows Defender and Firewall off. I also ensured Roon and RAAT server were on the exclusion list for both Public and Private networks.

Roon Server was NOT showing up in Services and Task Manager. When I had re-downloaded/installed Roon, it put icons for Roon and Roon Server on the desktop. So, I right-clicked the Roon Server icon and chose Run as Admin. This prompted a “Do you want to allow access” popup from Windows. Then I rebooted.

Then, I rightclicked the Roon desktop icon choosing Run as Admin again, and Tada!!, Roon has loaded and functions like it always had.

Thank you very much for helping me track this down!

Michael