Every few months or so I move between two living locations with different music systems where I want to use the same library on my Roon setup. That means I am using the same Roon license by temporarily cancelling the licence for the other location. I carry the SSD with the library with me. Sometimes I also add new music to my library at each place.
Such an import does not work well with AppleMusic and I usually have problems with AppleMusic library when I switch location again.
Is there a way to ensure that Roon will seamlessly work in both places after moving if I copy the music files directly in my music folder system? I could add my metadata also in Roon.
My question is, does Roon put a lot of information into the ~/Library/Roon folder that I would always need to carry with me if I wanted to have the same Roon-music-experience at both places?
This is a common question a number of users have who want to move their Roon experience between multiple locations (homes, hone/work, on the road, etc.). As Roon does not have a cloud synchronization method nor a multiple-use method to keep these Cores sychrnoized. the best option is to
backup your Core on the active Core
save that backup to a portable drive
keep your Roon music library on a portable drive (as you do), but not the same portable drive as the music (if it were me)
When leaving one home for the next, ensure you have a recent backup of your Roon database (created from within Roon’s Settings → Backup configuration). Then logout of the active Core.
When you arrive at your other home, when logging into Roon, choose “Restore from backup” and ensure you have the backup on the portable drive ready to be read by the second Core computer, and also ensure your music library portable drive is connected. After restoriing your Core, your music should be seen and everything within Roon also should be identical to what you had on the previous Core.
Then repeat the process when leaving Home 2 and returning to Home 1.
An alternative would be to run Roon from a laptop and just take everything with you between locations.
My opinion would be that using a NUC or Nucleus as core with your library installed on the Core would be the most seamless. No messing around with licenses, no messing around with back-up/restore. Just plug it in at the new location and you are done.
I agree, but presently I use a MacMini in one location that also serves other purposes. Taking that one with me would be cumbersome. I also see that a nucleus wold be quite costly considering my library of nearly 2TB at present.