I installed Roon on my desktop initially to try out the trial. I liked what I saw so I went ahead and purchased Roon, i’d now like to make this installation permanent but the desktop it’s installed on is not the one I want to be my “core” library manager. Is there an easy way to switch the current desktop it is installed on to a “remote” and install Roon as the “core” on a different PC?
I also have a question on how the remote system works with the future handheld devices.
Say I have three devices…
-computer A with all my music and Roon core installation running windows
-computer B which is my music playback computer that my stereo is hooked up to running Roon as a remote and windows as an operating system.
-iPad running roon as a remote.
Will I be able to control music playback on computer B through the ipad? I’m hoping to be able to use the ipad to browse the library and also manage/control music playback on computer B.
I think the answer is yes. When you use the control software there is an option to select a different audio zone to control.(assuming the iPad app will have the same functionality - which is what Roon has said about the tablet apps)
Hey @robbbby, if you want to move your Roon core to a different PC, just go ahead and install it on the 2nd machine. When you attempt to launch it as a core you will be given an error message that says you’ve already authorized your first machine, and you’ll see an option to unauthorize it. Unauthorize the first machine (you’ll be automatically logged out), and authorize the new one. You can then launch switch to a remote on your first machine.
As far as your remote question, we don’t support that configuration just yet. You can initiate playback (from computer A’s library) from computer B to its own “private” zone, but other devices can’t play to computer B’s private zone, unless your stereo is a shared network endpoint.
However, we’ll eventually be releasing a standalone RoonSpeakers package that runs as a service. It would be accessible regardless of whether the remote is running/connected, and would behave just like an MS200–discoverable and controllable from anywhere on the LAN. This package is meant to solve your exact use case.
Private zones will remain private–they’re meant to address a different set of needs, and we don’t want to create confusion by creating two mechanisms to accomplish this.
Hope this helps! We’ll be publishing more information about RoonSpeakers in the near future.
Ok, now i’m really confused. I went ahead and purchased thinking I would be able to control PC/stereo playback with an ipad eventually. I may totally be misunderstanding, but what will be the purpose of the android and iOS app? just to play music on those mobile devices?
What if I installed the Roon core on my stereo/dac pc, had it watch the folder on my fileserver and without actually installing Roon on the fileserver. Will I then be able to use my ipad as a remote connected to the Roon core install on my stereo pc and control the playback?
You will be able to control your PC/stereo playback from an iPad eventually, but right now, in the configuration that you originally proposed, you would only be able to control your stereo playback if the PC it was connected to was your Roon core, but you mentioned you wanted to use a different PC as your core. Roon doesn’t support that configuration at the moment, but we will eventually with RoonSpeakers.
Yes you can do this, we support it right now (minus the ipad app!).
Sorry for the confusion! I hope I cleared things up.
So you can control playback on the computer the core is installed on with any remote, but you can’t use a remote to control a remote. I guess I made it much to confusing.
One last quick question, will Roon run decent on a win 8 tablet that has 2GB or RAM and a Intel Baytrail-T Z3735D 1.33GHz Quad-Core CPU?
Or do you think i’d be smarter to hold tight for the ipad app?
Hi @jato1569 – good question. our plan is to sync all user info (like play history, favorites, playlists, etc) to the cloud, but this functionality is not quite ready to be released yet.
For now, this kind of “migration” is not officially supported, but if your play history is important to you, I’m sure we can point you in the right direction.
Send me a private message if you want to discuss migrating your database over and we’ll give it a shot.
I just recently switch CORE’s in my setup. Not sure if this is the ROON way, but I have had no issues so far. Note, both machines have the same OS. I am using Windows.
Start: PC1 - Core, connected to End Point (DAC); PC2 - New machine.
PC2 - Loaded Roon. Did not open application.
PC1 - Copied the ROON folder (appdata/local/roon) to PC2. Renamed Roon to OLD-ROON.on PC1. UNINSTALL Roon on PC1. Delete OLD-ROON (only AFTER you know the new Core is working)
PC2 - Open Roon, de-authorized PC1, PC2 is now the CORE and the DB is all there (with your fixes/changes) so you do not have to IMPORT or fix up albums/songs again.
PC1 - Install Roon, Open Roon, Connect to PC2 (Core)
PC1 is now a Remote Roon PC, and PC2 is the new Roon Core.
If the two boxes were not the same “family” OS then this will not work IMO. You would just have to import again.
A few days ago moved Cores on my Mac system per @Robbbby above. Tiny lingering issue is the former Core, now Remote, is somehow still hanging onto a music folder preference no longer assigned to it or the new Core. The folder does not show up in storage settings on either machine nor is its music available for browsing. However, when trying to eject this external USB drive from the now Remote, my System tells me the drive’s in use by Roon. So I quit Roon on the Remote machine, eject the drive, and relaunch Roon. I’ve closed and relaunched this Roon Remote install several times with and without this drive mounted, but some preference seems to be hanging on somewhere? No biggie, but have yet to sort it out.
@bebop57 – this sounds like a bug. We’ll look into it, but I have an idea of what the issue might be.
As a workaround for the moment: If this is going to be your remote going forward and you’re not planning on using it as a Core again, you can try doing a full uninstall and I’m sure we’ll stop talking to that drive. Just reinstall and run as a remote and you should be good.
Thanks. Should have gotten around to that. Too much fun finding new music. And for anyone reinstalling, remember to delete the Roon folder in your …/Users/username/Library/ folder along with Roon music folder (path displayed in Roon>>Settings>>Storage, default to …/Users/username/Music) along with the application itself.
I tried Roon on a laptop under Windows 7 for about a week. I then wanted to move it to my HTPC (core i7 Ivy Bridge in HDPLEX fanless chassis running Windows 8.1). I followed the above procedure but it did not play out as described. (is it because I am still in trial mode?) I logged into my Roon account but was never prompted to unauthorize the laptop. Now the iPad remote app does not see the HTPC but still sees the laptop when running Roon. When non running Roon on the laptop the iPad app finds nothing, even when I enter the IP address for the HTPC… Am I going to be automatically billed for two licenses? Shouldn’t the account page have information somewhere as to what machines are licensed as “core”? If I understand your usage correctly I still want the laptop to be a “remote” machine.
Another weird thing that happened while installing on the HTPC: I installed under an administrator account as is customary then switched to a normal user without password account I would normally be running. No sign of Roon anywhere, no launcher, no executable, search for “Roon” or “roon” turned up nothing. I ended up reinstalling under the normal user account (I probably did have to give an administrator password in order to complete the second installation).
Is there a glossary somewhere defining your usage of “core”, “remote”, “endpoint”, “private zone”, “Roon speaker”, etc.? Just so we can all be on the same page?
Aside for those issues and a few other minor points of confusion typical of any new software system everything is going swimmingly. Very impressive product.
If you don’t care about retaining your existing database, then the simplest thing to do is:
completely uninstall Roon on the laptop and the HTPC;
reboot the HTPC and install Roon as Core;
configure the HTPC to accept Remote connections in Settings
reboot the laptop and install Roon as a Remote
enter the IP address for the HTPC into the iPad app
If you do want to retain your existing database then:
backup your existing laptop database (C:\Users[Account Name]\App Data\Local\Roon\Database)
completely uninstall Roon on laptop and HTPC;
reboot the HTPC and install Roon as Core;
copy the backup of your laptop database over the HTPC database;
configure the HTPC to accept Remote connections in Settings;
reboot the laptop and install Roon as a Remote
enter the IP address for the HTPC into the iPad app
So far as I am aware you will not be automatically billed for two licences at the end of your trial period. @mike may be able to clarify.
In my experience the Roon team quickly sort out any issues arising from automatic billing relating to even one licence and I would expect them to be equally responsive where two are concerned. If you have any concerns at all about billing then a quick email or message to @mike or @danny will get it sorted.
Settings/General/Library shows which machine is Core.
There is a FAQ on the main Roon Labs page and in the Support section of this forum. One way to find out what the various terms mean is to enter them into the search engine and browse the posts, but this is my attempt at a glossary:
Core - A Roon installation that is not a Remote. You can only have one Core per licence but you can have unlimited Remotes. The machine on which the Core is installed does all the audio processing in Roon. All Remotes configure the Core.
Remote - A Roon installation that controls and configures a Core. The Remote will only form part of the audio path if output is directed to a Private Zone on the Remote.
Endpoint - A device to which Roon can send audio. These are configured as Zones.
Currently you can send output to the following Endpoints:
any device connected to the Core that is recognised by the Core operating system, controlled from the Core or any Remote;
any device recognised as a Network Zone (currently only Airplay and Meridian supported), controlled from the Core or any Remote. This will be expanded when RoonSpeakers arrives;
any device connected to a Remote and recognised as a Private Zone by the Remote operating system, controlled only from the connected Remote. This will be expanded to enable control from the Core and other Remotes when RoonSpeakers arrives.
These posts contain most of the publicly available information about RoonSpeakers and Private Zones:
Thanks for the reply. I followed the first set of instructions. No
need to preserve the database, having learned more about how Roon works I wanted to set things up somewhat differently. After the
reinstallation, iPad Roon remote sees the HTPC but fails to
connect. It flashes “last seen 10 sec. ago”, “connecting”, but in
the end it always fails. I double checked Roon is set to accept
remote connections, and I lowered the Windows firewall for both
public and private networks, still no joy. I also tried deleting
and reinstalling the remote app on the iPad, same results. I assume
under normal conditions, if the Windows 8.1 firewall were blocking
your app it would notify me and give me an opportunity to add it to
the exception list, which is ultimately what I would want to do. So
it’s probably not the firewall. Anything else I could try?
Sometimes network problems can be resolved by using a fixed IP address for the Core (HTPC).
If you can post a screenshot of the storage tab on your Core that may help. Let’s ask @mike or @danny to look in on the thread again and see if they can help.
There was also a bug introduced in v1.1 related to this… I think @mike is getting a new build out very shortly, but I could be mistaken about the schedule.