Significant slowness in Roon on Nucleus requiring daily reboot (ref#ER25PH)

[David_Proud (D. Proud)]

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?

· Nucleus

Which model Nucleus do you have?

· Nucleus One

Timestamp of issue occurrences

· Has been happening for several months

Describe the issue

I am experiencing significant slowness in Roon that requires me to reboot the Nucleus each day. It can take more than two minutes to load fully after just one day’s use. Rebooting helps until it get slow several hours later. Music streams fine, but the laptop, iPhone or iPad interface does not load quickly at all.

My set up:

Nucleus (not Nucleus+) with 1,120 albums
No internal hard drive installed
External SSD connected directly to Nucleus via USB-C (less than 100 albums)
Roon version and server 2.64 (build 1646) production (64bit)

Describe your network setup

1 GB WIFI/internet service by Xfinity
Xfinity xFi Gateway modem/router
Ethernet connection direct to the Nucleus
Standard modem set up with the following modifications:
Port forwarding to 10.0.0.180 to support ARC connectivity
Reserved IP to Nucleus: 10.0.0.180
Device Discovery:
UPnP: Enabled
Zero Config: Enabled
All other setting are Xfinity default

[noris]

Hi @David_Proud,

The pattern you described points to a local performance issue on the Nucleus, so let’s narrow down what is causing the slowdown.

1. Please check whether the Nucleus is running unusually warm, and make sure it has clear ventilation with nothing blocking the vents.
2. Temporarily disconnect the external USB-C SSD, then test Roon for a few hours to see whether the slowdown still returns.
3. If you have any large album imports, background metadata changes, or file activity running on that drive, pause those and see whether responsiveness improves.

Two things would help us narrow this further:

• Is the sluggishness mainly in browsing, search, or opening album pages?
• When it slows down again, please send us the exact local time and date so we can review the diagnostics around that window.

Let us know what you find, and we can take the next step from there.

[David_Proud (D. Proud)]

Disconnecting the USB-C SSD seems to improve Roon significantly. I will monitor performance for the next day or two. If the issue is indeed the USB-C SSD, is it just a matter of getting a new SSD and transferring the music files over? If so, are there preferred specifications for the USB-C SSD?

[maddib]

To my experience it’s been always a good idea not to attach any type of external storage to any hardware that runs roonOS, i.e. NUCs with ROCK as well. Only had issues of different kinds. And always everything went back to normal after unplugging the storage. Maybe it’s primarily with external storage drawing too much power from the roon running hardware, esp. if it’s fanless.

So, i went for internal storage extension. Don’t know what your nucleus offers here.

Another option works pretty well for me, a separate NAS with all the local music files. Can also be used for anything else you want to safely store on a central storage.

[alex_h (Alex)]

Hello @David_Proud,

If your Nucleus runs much better without the SSD connected directly, we would recommend not reconnecting it that way. In your case, it would be better to connect the drive to a NAS, if you have one, and mount it as SMB, or connect it to your router if it supports that option.

Alternatively, mounting the disk inside the Nucleus would be the best path. Please let us know if that is an option for you.

[David_Proud (D. Proud)]

While things improved by removing the USB-C SSD, I am still having issues. Please see the attached.

[billc5264]

I have been experiencing a similar problem. Same Nucleus.My external SSD drive has standard USB. My solution was to plug into the second USB port and reboot the unit. It completely reloaded the drive and the problem disappeared. Try a standard USB adapter and hope for the best.

[billc5264]

I didn’t have your page loading issues​

[connor]

Hi @David_Proud,

Have you tried the second USB port per the suggestion above?

We’ve pulled diagnostic logging from the Nucleus and, fortunately, don’t see any evidence of database corruption or out-of-memory events. There is some database churn from metadata updates associated with local files that seem to have a large number of artwork or custom metadata. This occurs during indexing, which you might be able to alleviate through scheduling or simplifying your folder storage topology.

What do you have you scheduled for Background Work in Settings → Library?

What we do see happening in logs are repeating unclassified network failures (status code = 999) that usually crop up when Roon or the network can’t find a network pathway to an upstream service. These network failures, when associated with image servers, are the cause of greyed-out artwork and much of the slow loading you see in the UI.

This is surprising given that you have the Nucleus hardwired to an Xfinity modem/router. Do you have any second routers or mesh nodes serving Roon Remotes and endpoints on this network? Are you able to share a screenshot of the network section of the Nucleus?

We’ll watch for your reply. Thank you!

[David_Proud (D. Proud)]

Thanks so much for the reply and I’ll try my best to respond.

I did not try the second USB port suggestion because it sounds like having an external USB attached hard drive is not a good thing. I plan on installing an internal SSD or HDD.

I’m not sure what you mean by Background Work. I had backups going to the USB-C SSD, but now I do not have them going anywhere.

I do not have a second router, mesh nodes or other endpoints.

I’m not sure where I find the “network section” of the Nucleus. If these two screenshots don’t provide what you are looking for, please let me know where to find the information you need.

[vadim]

Hello @David_Proud,

Thank you for following up.

To answer your question, Background Work refers to the automated tasks Roon performs behind the scenes, such as analyzing your music files for volume leveling and scanning for metadata.

• You can find this by opening your Roon Remote app and going to Settings > Library.
• Look for Background Audio Analysis Speed and On-Demand Audio Analysis Speed.
• If your Nucleus is working hard to process a lot of local files, setting these to “Throttled” or “Off” can free up resources and immediately speed up your app’s performance.

Regarding the network issues Connor mentioned, we pulled a fresh set of diagnostic logs today to see how things are looking. We are currently seeing specific network errors, namely Network is unreachable and No route to host, when your Nucleus tries to communicate with Roon’s cloud servers.

In plain English, this means the Nucleus is asking your Xfinity router for a pathway to the internet (to download artwork, metadata, and load pages), and the router is failing to provide that pathway. This perfectly explains the greyed-out artwork and slow loading times you are experiencing.

04/20 13:25:52 [Local 04/20 08:25:52] Warn: [easyhttp] [5686] POST https://api.roonlabs.net/metadata/1/tracks/translate?c=qobuz-us&tidal=max check network configuration: socketerr (NetworkUnreachable): Network is unreachable (104.20.47.62:443)
04/20 13:23:50 [Local 04/20 08:23:50] Warn: [easyhttp] [5678] POST https://api.roonlabs.net/device-map/1/register check network configuration: socketerr (HostUnreachable): No route to host (104.20.47.62:443)

Since you mentioned there are no mesh systems or secondary routers, and the Nucleus is plugged directly into your Xfinity modem/router, let’s do a basic “plumbing” check on that connection:

1. Reboot the Xfinity Router: Unplug it from power for about 30 seconds, then plug it back in. This clears out its routing tables and often fixes lingering connection hiccups.
2. Swap the Ethernet Port: Try plugging the Nucleus into a different LAN port on the back of the Xfinity router. Occasionally, a single port can become faulty.
3. Swap the Ethernet Cable: If you have a spare Ethernet cable lying around, please try swapping it out to rule out a physically damaged wire.

Additionally, such behaviour may be caused by the failed DNS path.

Here’s a step-by-step on how to change the DNS settings on your Nucleus:

Open a web browser on a device connected to the same network as your Nucleus.

1. Enter the IP address of your Nucleus in the address bar.

• If you don’t know the IP address:
  • Open the Roon app.
  • Go to Settings > Setup > Find Nucleus.
  • Note the IP address shown for the Nucleus.
• Alternatively, use http://nucleus.local/ (on macOS or Windows with Bonjour installed).
• Log into the Web Interface:

2. Once the web page loads, you’ll see the Nucleus web administration interface.

• Change the DNS Settings:
• Scroll down to the Networking section.
• If the Nucleus is using DHCP:
  • Note that you cannot directly edit DNS settings under DHCP. You will need to switch to a static IP to specify custom DNS servers.

3. Switch to a Static IP:

• Click on the Configure or Edit option under networking.
• Enter the current network settings for your Nucleus (IP address, subnet mask, gateway) manually. These can often be found in your router’s settings or your current DHCP lease information.
• Specify Custom DNS Servers:
  • Add DNS servers in the relevant fields. Common choices:
    • Google DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
    • Cloudflare DNS: 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
    • OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
• Save and Apply Changes:
• Click Save or Apply to confirm your new settings.

Restart the Nucleus (make sure Roon Server is stopped) and let me know if you continue to experience stoppages when streaming

Please give these steps a try and let us know if the UI speeds up and the artwork populates!

[David_Proud (D. Proud)]

This was very helpful. Thank you.

I moved the Ethernet cable to a different LAN port. (I ordered a new cable and will swap that tomorrow.)

Background Audio Analysis Speed - was set to Unscheduled and Throttled. I left it as is.

On-Demand Audio Analysis Speed - was set Throttled. I set it to Off.

I was not exactly sure how you wanted me to handle the DNS settings. Roon was set to DHCP. I selected Static IP and set DNS to 8.8.8.8. I left IP address, gateway and netmask same as DHCP. If I should have done something different, please advise. (screenshots attached).

Things seems to improve and I tried briefly across my Windows laptop, iPhone and iPad. I’ll give it a solid run through tonight. Thank you again.

[billc5264]

I have been having similar problems. My fix was to reinstall operating system, restart server

software and restart Roon data base. Then of course, log back in to Roon with new sign on.

I then had to reset all my music settings. I have Roon converting my music to DSD files.

The new version, it’s wonderful, and No more issues

I’m in love with Roon again!!

Bill Coles

[noris]

Hello @David_Proud ,

Thanks for letting us know there’s been an improvement in the behavior. Generally, it is better to set up DNS directly in the router settings, as setting a static IP on the Nucleus itself can cause IP conflicts if another deviceher device tries to use the same IP, or potentially losing access in case of router change (a different subnet is set up). Please let us know how it is looking once you’ve had a chance for further testing, hopefully all is still working well!

[David_Proud (D. Proud)]

I’m still having performance issues. Here’s a chronology from the evening of April 22:

1.I launched Roon on my iPad and the albums took more than a minute to load.

2.I went to the queue and deleted two songs and the music stopped playing. This happened two times.

3.I toggled from the queue to the album and got the “Waiting for Roon Server” message.

4.I went back to the queue and it took a full minute to load and finally the music played.

5.I launched Roon on my iPhone 16 and the music stopped. (See attached screenshots of iPhone and iPad.)

6.After waiting nearly 10 minutes, I finally rebooted the Nucleus and everything loaded fast on iPad and iPhone and I was able to delete songs from the queue without issue.

[benjamin]

Hey @David_Proud,

Thanks for the update and additional information. We were able to review a fresh diagnostic report from your Nucleus and observed a handful of events that could be causing the sluggishness you’re experiencing.

First, we’ve released a few optimizations with our latest Roon Software Release, are you noticing any improvements since updating your Roon Server?

With that, we’re seeing both your Krell K-300i zone and your iPhone zone had queues loaded with the maximum 8,000 tracks.

When you deleted tracks from the queue, the system also logged a TIDAL streaming warning (connection was running at 460 kbps against a 1,134 kbps minimum requirement). Then, the server dropped its connection entirely. The slowdown cascaded from there.

The performer/tracks browser took 25 full seconds to load during startup after the reboot, confirming how much work the server was doing just to manage those large queues.

The most immediate thing you can do to likely help performance is to test out using a smaller queue size, try something like 500 tracks and see how things perform.

Does this happen with both Tidal and Local tracks? Or, only Tidal content?

Thank you, David!

[David_Proud (D. Proud)]

I almost exclusively play my Albums on shuffle. I don’t stream directly from Tidal. Among other things, it doesn’t have that option.

I only have roughly 500-600 tracks locally and have never played only them; they are part of the shuffle.

I upgraded to the latest Roon version. I deleted four songs and the music did not stop. I will monitor and will reply with an update in the next few days.

Thanks for the support. I really appreciate it.

[David_Proud (D. Proud)]

I continue to have performance issues with Roon and my Nucleus. For background, please see my prior ticket: Significant slowness in Roon on Nucleus requiring daily reboot (ref#ER25PH)
Support rctt_11-11-2

Current situation:

It take more than 3 minutes for the queue to load. I have been experiencing this ongoing.

Once the queue loads, it can take a full minute or more for the song to play.

After rebooting the Nucleus, everything loads fast and song play immediately.

I have attached screenshots with a recent example.

I don’t think I should have to reboot the nucleus daily for Roon and the Nucleus to perform.

(Please note that since I logged the initial ticket, I went to Comcast and got a brand new Xfinity router. The example I share is two weeks after getting the new router.)

My set up:

Nucleus (not Nucleus+) with 1,120 albums
No internal hard drive installed
External SSD connected directly to Nucleus via USB-C (less than 100 albums)
Roon version and server 2.64 (build 1646) production (64bit)

1 GB WIFI/internet service by Xfinity
Xfinity xFi Gateway modem/router (latest model available from Comcast)
Ethernet connection direct to the Nucleus
Standard modem set up with the following modifications:
Port forwarding to 10.0.0.180 to support ARC connectivity
Reserved IP to Nucleus: 10.0.0.180
Device Discovery:
UPnP: Enabled
Zero Config: Enabled
All other setting are Xfinity default