Nice said, Dave. As is as it is.
One thing, Ralf might do before: An 1:1 copy of the complete roon lib to another hard disk. But that depends on the infrastructure Ralf has.
And to be honest: Reading a lot of comments hidden in the forum discussions nobody really is optimistic, that Roon Labs will (or can) do something. There was no answer regarding my and other demands to get a possiblility to export / import relevant metadata.
Whether they can do something or whether they will are two separate questions, but I suspect the outcome will be the same in both cases: if you have latent corruption you’ll need to restore from a ‘good’ backup, and if all your backups are corrupt you’ll need to start over.
In my situation I also received every 30 - 45 minutes minutes an error of an corrupted database. After some deep investigation I found out that the problem in my situation is caused by the databases that handled the transport. The solution in my case was to
/RoonServer/Database/Core/<id of Roon instance>/transport to a new name.Roon will automatically create a new transport directory with appropriate databases. There is a real change that the database with meta-information is nog corrupted.
So maybe this can be a solution too.
Bart, if that really works, you are a hero for many of us.
Unfortunately, I was not that optimistic and started with a new database.
So, I can not test 
I visit the Roon Community infrequently but check in once in a while. I was startled (freaked out) to update my software after reading the bad stories of corrupted data bases, losing information, etc. After quite a bit of researching, I ran a back up on my Mac Time Machine.
As it was in the process of back up, I kind of forgot about it, heading downstairs to a cup of afternoon coffee. I normally shut down my Mac Mini after listening but left it on and didn’t turn off the “automatically update software” feature.
Back upstairs after a few hours, the software update was complete and plays beautifully. In my case, fretting was un unnecessary.
Just thought I’d provide a happy ending story today.
Well said. Mine is now a mess and untold hours of work required.
FYI: Roon explicitly discourages Time Machine for backing up your Roon setup. Roon might be updating the DB while Time Machine is backing up, leading to an inconsistent / corrupt DB.
Is it just Time Machine? If Roon is not running will it affect the DB the next time I start my computer and Roon? If I use another method for backup, will I face the same issue?
I didn’t fiddle around either. I deleted the Roon DB on the DSM and rebuilt everything from scratch. Took 2 1/2 days (no music). During the rebuild I got multiple loss connection messages. I was terrified that Roon would start re-indexing from the beginning. To my relief once the connection reestablished it pick-up where it left off.
I pick up 606 additional albums but no additional tracks? Still investigating. Radio is inconsistent as well.
I am relativity new to this platform. At this point I have very little confidence in the software. I am like a cat on a hot tin roof. My concern is if I start manipulating the software will it cause a crash or some other issue and I am back to square one.
RoonLabs is definitely removing (unlisting) support topics regarding the 880/882/884 releases. I imagine the fall out has been in free fall.
Mason
Is iCloud a better backup system or does it face the same potential issue with Time Machine?
While I am still impressed and happy with the looks and all the options of ROON, after the halts and hickups of the past weeks I have decommissioned the laptop that was active as the ROON server, did a full delete/cleanup of the machine and gave it away to a friend for a coffee roasting project of his.
I am now using TIDAL for streaming of categories of music that I like, just like TIDAL would do after I played an album in ROON.
In a little while when I see on the forum that most systems run fine again, I will again connect the HD with music files to my main laptop, run ROON on it, import/index all files and see/hear how that goes.
I very much doubt that, it’s more than likely that moderators are merging various topics as there have been so many duplicates it’s been near impossible to track anything.
Nail on the head…
If we consider the amount of “contributions” over the last couple of weeks few have actually contributed anything useful. Many end users have suffered horrendous problems which have rendered their systems useless.
Posts seeking help have received many “supporting” anti-roon comments that actually do nothing but clutter the thread causing confusion and distracting the reader from the main issue raised by the OP.
There are certainly ways Roon support could improve their offering but we can help those with problems by offering constructive comment and avoiding cluttering threads with negative & largely irrelevant opinions.
That’s my tuppence worth (or 2 cents)
Agreed. It would be really useful if additional posters who have had negative experiences could post relevant network and set up info. This would allow Roon staff to drill down on what the issues might be, replicate them and find solutions!
Hmm … Paul, I don’t want to accuse RoonLabs of any harm. But a strange feeling remains when a somewhat uncomfortable topic is not closed, but moved somewhere else where it may be less noticeable.
But, to be fair: The forum is very good organized and moderated by Roon Labs and everybody is free to comment, link, and cite umcomfortable things also if they are moved or closed.
This is absolutely NOT what happens.
A similar topic maybe merged into another existing similar extant topic if it is felt it merits moving to keep similar concerns grouped together.
Nothing is moved to lessen it’s impact, moreover it is usually a positive move so it does not get lost or overlooked in the forum.
Good to know, Optimistic Pessimist.
But as I said: “… a strange feeling remains”
…i see where you’re coming from and understand the cynicism but from a practical perspective there have been so many duplicated topics that it’s been near impossible to keep up with the situation for the casual readership (us). Moderation is a useful tool used to combine topics (amongst other functions) which, hopefully, give the support teams an area of focus.
I moderate a networking community (not Roon) and get to see many of the difficulties that duplication creates.
Hey Paul, I completely agree with you.
But, this is exactly what you can expect when you have your support run by a forum and not a Roon controlled dedicated tech support team. Have your clients “solve and help” with each other’s problems ………
Besides that, Roon asks us to comment on the software (what else can they say) and “offer” us this forum to do so. In real life that means also negative, in your opinion useless comments and clutter. And pro Roon comments that do nothing but clutter.
It looks just like the internet, wait ……. we are on the internet, 90% junk/useless info (being optimistic here) and plowing through to find the gems. You more or less said it yourself. 
Anyway we will survive Paul, all luxury problems. Although I really feel for the users that have so much problems with 1.8 and the lacklustre response from Roon.
I for one will ditch Roon as soon as there is a reasonable alternative for me, it being the Innuos Zenith with innuOS 2.0 which I will be able to test for two weeks or some future software. I only except the current state of Roon/support because of time constraints and lack of alternatives. I like to play and listen to my music and not spend time with software to be able to do so.
Have a nice day and all the best.
And sorry for the extra clutter.