I haven’t listed my configuration because I don’t have an issue, but rather I am looking for a solution to something I wish to do, and AFAIK, my basic questions are independent of hardware(?). Also, there are two devices involved, as explained below.
I run Roon on a Windows laptop at home (with a lifetime license) and have never used Roon at work. Now that I’ll likely be back in my work office for periods, and have got used to using Roon while working from home, I want to be able to use Roon at work as well (on a Mac desktop), but I would like to stick with a single license (at least for now).
My understanding is that with a single license, I can disconnect Roon Core on one device and make the Roon Core on a different device the active core. This understanding is based on the post at:
My questions are:
Should I expect problems if I do this daily? i.e., at work in the morning, disconnect my home Core, and make my work Core the licensed one. At home in the evening: Disconnect my work Core and make my home Core the licensed one.
When I first set up my Roon Core at work, should I expect to be able to set up the work Core by restoring from a copy of my home Core, as explained at https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_How_do_I_move_my_Roon_library_to_a_new_computer%3F ? (I realize that the two databases will immediately start to diverge, but that’s fine).
Hope all of that made sense. I’d be happy to provide more information about machines, but hoped that this is a device-independent issue.
1 no issues doing it daily or hourly (if you need to) should be fine. My only comment is your employers might have rules about what you install on their network, but that’s maybe not an issue for you.
2 this is fine as long as your music storage is the same or very similar, but yes it will drift over time as you get things added to different locations.
The cores will be the same name unless you change one after restored and hardware I’ll I guess be different or maybe not.
@wizardofoz – Many thanks for the info, much appreciated! Running Roon on work computer is fortunately not an issue in my work situation – thanks for pointing that out, though.
I do have two follow-up questions, for anyone who can comment:
There are a number of albums from Qobuz that are in my library. These were all explicitly “Added to My Library” in Roon Radio, not just added in the Qobuz view in Roon.
As long as I log in to Roon at work with the same credentials as at home, will these get integrated into my work Core library:
(a) If I set up the work Core by restoring from a backup of the home Core)?
(b) If I set up the work Core by having it read its local music content from scratch from the attached disks (i.e., not by restoring from a backup of the home Core)?
Relatedly, once the two Cores are functioning, will an album that I add to my Roon library from Qobuz on one Core show up on the other Core when that next becomes the active one?
Except that I am a TIDAL subscriber instead of Qobuz, your use case is mine, one core at home, the other at work. The license swap process is super fast, just one click.
@alec_eiffel – Ah, good to know, thanks. BTW, do you know whether the Core being disconnected has to have an active internet connection when it’s being disconnected…?
No need as long as you have an active internet connection on the new Core you are connecting to. The other core doesn’t need to be disconnected or shut down by the way.
Thought I’d give an update on this, in case anyone is interested – I have been able to get this working. So I am now able to listen to Roon either at work or at home, by switching my single subscription from the core running on one computer to the other. It feels really good to be able to use Roon at work as well now, so many thanks to @wizardofoz and @alec_eiffel
The only thing I’ve run into is that the switching process for me is a bit less smooth than I had hoped. When I start the core that I want to switch the license to (“Core A”), the message that I need to unauthorize the other core (“Core B”), with the option to unauthorize Core B, doesn’t always come up – I often just get a message that I can’t use Core A because I only have one license. This happens whether or not I had “disconnected” Core B before starting Core A. I then need to quit and then restart Core A to get the message containing the unauthorization option for Core B. And then, even when Core A does come up in authorized mode, the “syncing” circle is frequently missing, and replaced by an attention icon, which says something to the effect that “syncing of metadata won’t happen because an update is needed” (no update to Roon is actually needed). So then if that happens, I have to quit and restart Core A again. And then Core A works perfectly.
But (so far), these two-or-three restarts of Core A are seeming like a relatively small inconvenience as compared to the value of having full Roon at work!
I am same case as you, one core at home and one core at office, But not everyone have own room and own space to place own machine in office, or have permission to install own software on office machine.
I wish and I prefer to integrate into one core for two locations and mobile on the go, then I can invest the best core and resources one one core machine, Instead of managing two cores two databases and using double NAS storage and core machine for same set of Music, and do the edit twice for unidentified album, I hope the long awaiting is not Version 1.8 but 2.0 releases can deliver this feature.
Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)
Core Machine A: Acer Laptop running Windows 10; Roon Version 1.7 (build 610) stable (64 bit) for Windows
Core Machine B: 2014 iMac running Mac OS 10.13; Roon Version 1.7 (build 610) stable (64 bit) for Mac
Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)
For Core Machine A: Wifi
For Core Machine B: Ethernet
Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
On both Cores: USB connection to HRT Music Streamer II+ DAC
On both Cores: all music content files on a 5 TB WD portable external disk
Description Of Issue
Can you please see the thread I started at:
Thanks to the Community help in that thread, I have figured out how to do the switching. However, as I note at the end of that thread, I often have some glitches with the actual switching – they get resolved by two-three restarts of Roon, but it would be great if it was smoother:
@support, can you help with this last part, please? – thanks in advance!
I’ve merged your two posts and moved the whole thread to #support so that we can have all the information in one place.
Can you please share two screenshots of what your authorization screen looks like, one screenshot with expected behavior of what it should look like and one that describes the issue above?
If you can also note the time + date you capture those screenshots, it would be helpful in case we need to look further into diagnostics.
Hello @noris – thanks for the reply. Sorry it took me a while to get the screenshots, as I hadn’t actually switched cores in a couple of days – hadn’t had a chance to listen to music on home core in the evening – oh, the horror!
I’ve attached more than two screenshots, to document the TWO issues that I mentioned in my last post above: (1) Roon not asking to unauthorize the other core, and (2) the red attention triangle which when clicked shows the “metadata improver halted, Roon needs an update” message.
Start Roon home core (on Windows 10 laptop), 7:27 pm 20200903 (work core was shut down when leaving work). Home core starts with no request to unauthorize work core. But notice red attention triangle near top right:
And then this morning, start Roon work core (on iMac), 8:56 am 20200904 (home core was shut down at night, Windows 10 laptop powered down). Work core starts up as it should, with Unauthorize screen:
Although this time, the work core worked as expected, there have been a number of times that it has had similar issues to the ones described above for the home core.
Please let me know if you need additional information – thanks in advance for any help!
Have you tried leaving Roon up in both locations, the switch over might go smoother if both installs were up and available to the authorization server.
Hello @Rugby – thanks for the thought. Yes, I’m pretty sure I had tried that without consistently solving the problem. I could try again, I guess, to troubleshoot. I wouldn’t want to be leaving the home core laptop on all day regularly, but I guess trying your suggestion again systematically could at least help isolate the cirumstances that do or do not lead to the issue – thanks.
Yes, it was just a try it as a test suggestion, not, set it up that way permanently.
That being said, I remote into home pc running Roon, and have the audio routed via the remote software to my office local speakers. Not high res, but, I don’t have to bother with multiple setups.
I haven’t considered remote-ing into the home machine because of concerns about security + limited confidence in my ability to make things secure. I think this would require poking a hole in my home core Windows 10 laptop firewall (and maybe router firewall?) and having everything run all day with that hole open – plus, using internet bandwidth all day at home, I think? And not to open up a can of worms, but my impression is that security isn’t prioritized in the Roon architecture either (e.g. any mobile device running Roon remote on the same network can seize control of Roon without even one-time device authorization needed, which to me is lower security than I’m comfortable with).
Maybe I should look into this some more, though. Any pointers on where to start to make a Windows 10 laptop secure for remote access of this kind…? – thanks –
