Tidal syncing issues and track skipping with error messages (ref#O41QUE)

[frankenstein_cgn]

Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· Tidal continuously in syncing mode and Tidal tracks are skipped sometimes and error messages that Tidal is slow

Tell us about your home network

· FRITZ Box 6660 Cable, no extenders or switches installed; ISP Vodafone Germany, Cable, 1 Gbit

[frankenstein_cgn]

Additional information: Roon Core is ROCK on NUC13 i7 / 512 GB SSD and 16GB RAM, connected via Ethernet; Endpoints NAD C658 (ethernet), Bluesound Pulse mini 2i (wifi), and three Google Home Nest (wifi); All devices incl. ROCK on the latest OS and Sw versions; DNS Setup: using currently Google DNS, but also have used Cloudflare DNS; Problem still there.
I have tried some of the recommendations deleting several caches incl. logging in and out of Tidal account, but with out success. Can you provide me a step-by-step guide which steps I would have to do? Thanks.

[safesurfer (Michael K.)]

Same problem here in Bergisch Gladbach (Grüße von der schäl Sick) with similar internet provider and equipment. Tidal streams tend to start not properly. Streamer is an Auralic Altair wired to my Wifi repeater, which ist connected with Wifi 5 and 1,26 Gbit/s to my Fritz.Box cable router. Problems started with the last update of Roon. Roon core ist running on my Mac Mini M4, connected directly via LAN to my router. DNS is configured to Cloudflare Servers.

[frankenstein_cgn]

Grüße von de Ahle Sigg.

On top of the playback issues I also get the message that roon search is not available. When the search works again then also the playback works….and vice versa.

[frankenstein_cgn]

Here is one example of the error messages (in German)

[alex_h (Alex)]

Hello @frankenstein_cgn,

Thanks for reaching out to us.

We have carefully reviewed your logs.

The “Tidal is slow” error, skipping tracks, and continuous syncing is a known issue when combining Vodafone Germany with a FRITZ!Box router. The problem isn’t your internet bandwidth (1 Gbit is more than enough), but rather how the ISP and router handle the network requests. Your logs show that Roon is getting stuck in a loop trying to communicate with Tidal’s servers (receiving 304 statuses and timeouts), which prevents the sync from completing successfully.

To stabilize your connection, please try the following steps:

1. Change DNS Servers in your FRITZ!Box (Crucial Step) Standard Vodafone DNS servers often struggle to route streaming service requests properly.

• Go to your router's interface and navigate to Internet -> Account Information -> DNS Server.
• Choose the manual/custom configuration option and enter reliable public DNS servers: Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1) or Google (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4).

2. Temporarily Disable IPv6 Vodafone Cable in Germany typically uses DS-Lite. This can cause IPv6 traffic to become unstable and drop connections to the Tidal API.

• In your FRITZ!Box settings, go to Internet -> Account Information -> IPv6 and disable IPv6 support. This will force the router to use the more stable IPv4 protocol.

3. Disable Packet Acceleration Built-in packet optimization features in the FRITZ!Box can sometimes "drop" data during continuous audio streams.

• Scroll to the very bottom of the left-hand menu in your router interface, click Content (Inhalt), and then select FRITZ!Box Support.
• Find the Packet Acceleration (Paketbeschleunigung) section and uncheck both Layer-2 acceleration and Layer-3 acceleration. Save your changes.

Usually, changing the DNS servers is the primary fix for this specific setup. Please make sure to reboot both your FRITZ!Box and your Roon Core after applying these settings.

Let us know if this resolves the issue for you.

[frankenstein_cgn]

Hello Alex,

Thank you for your detailed answer.

My feedback:

1. I had already changed the DNS to Google DNS. This had not helped in the past.
2. I don’t have the IPv6 tab: I use a “free” (not from Vodafone) Fritzbox 6660 model with the most current firmware 8.21, so I am wondering why the tab is not there.
3. The layer 2 was unchecked already; layer 3 setting is not existing; The only active checkbox was Hardware acceleration. I disabled the packet accelration totally.

So the only change I could do was point 3, but that didn’t help. So I think point 2 would be the only option I could try out, but the IPv6 tab is not existing.

Thanks for any further help.

[frankenstein_cgn]

Another update: I have called Vodafone to switch my contract from DS-lite to full DS, which they have approved and already set up. I will test whether this resolves the issues and give feedback here.

[frankenstein_cgn]

With the full Dual stack in place the Tidal sync works. Also, at least so far, no dropouts anymore. Thanks for the support.