· My library isn’t working correctly (local/streaming, importing, or storage access)
When playing albums from Tidal, I often receive an error message saying that Tidal is loading too slowly, and then the track skips to the next track. Then each track skips almost immediately until the album just stops.
TP-Link (Omada) Router (ER605) and AP (EAP683) and Spectrum's modem.
Good day @kd007 !
I hope you’re doing well today.
Thanks for raising your issue here.
Can you please try to reproduce that issue again and let us know the exact time of when did it happen. We’ll try to look at it in your automatic diagnostics report .
Also, would you please mind to let us know whether direct playback through tidal works fine ?
Are your local tracks affected with the same problem ?
Did you try to lower the quality of sound in Roon so it could work with lower network speed ?
Looking forward to your reply!
Regards.
Hi @alex_h, thank you for getting back to me.
The problem occurred again at about 7:28 a.m. (EST) this morning.
I rarely use Tidal directly but can try testing it out a little bit.
My local tracks don’t seem to be affected with the same problem, from what I can tell.
I didn’t lower the quality of sound because I was under the impression that my network speeds should be fast enough. The basic speed test for Spectrum shows ~150mbps and my endpoints show >200mbps. I know that there are other factors at play when streaming, but I had assumed this is adequate to play hi res audio files and would like to figure out what’s causing this issue.
Good day @kd007 !
Thanks for confirming.
After analyzing your logs we can see that there are many logs indicating poor connection issue.
I would recommend your first to make sure that everything that could be wired to the ethernet cable instead of wi fi - is wired .
And the other thing we’d recommend to test is to adjust your DNS server as per instruction here:
. We do recommend settings up DNS from Google Or cloudflare (8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1).
let us know please whether it works.
Thanks !
Regards.
Hi @alex_h. Thanks for the suggestions. My Mac already uses the cloudflare DNS settings. And the iMac that’s running the Roon server is connected via ethernet to the router. What kind poor connection issues are you seeing in the logs? Connection issues with my endpoints or connection issues between the server and the internet?
Hi @kd007,
Thanks for the additional information! A few of the error traces we’re seeing are:
Trace: [CA DacMagic 200M 2.0] [raatclient] GOT [9] {"samples":96000,"status":"Dropout"}
Trace: [bcm2835 Headphones] [raatclient] GOT [2545] {"samples":96000,"status":"Dropout"}
Trace: [CA DacMagic 200M 2.0] [raatclient] GOT [9] {"samples":96000,"status":"Dropout"}
Trace: [bcm2835 Headphones] [raatclient] GOT [2545] {"samples":96000,"status":"Dropout"}
Trace: [CA DacMagic 200M 2.0] [raatclient] GOT [9] {"samples":96000,"status":"Dropout"}
Trace: [bcm2835 Headphones] [raatclient] GOT [2545] {"samples":96000,"status":"Dropout"}
Warn: [Living Room + Olaf's Room] [zoneplayer/raat] Too many dropouts (>3s dropped out in the last 30s). Killing stream
Trace: [Living Room + Olaf's Room] [zoneplayer/raat] too many dropouts. stopping stream and:
Info: [audio/env] [zoneplayer -> stream -> endpoint] All streams were disposed
Warn: [zone Apartment] Track Stopped Due to Slow MediaAlong with that, I’m seeing lower buffinger percentages during playback:
Trace: [Olaf's Room] [HighQuality, 24/192 TIDAL FLAC => 16/192] [26% buf] [PLAYING @ 0:43/3:56] Anakin and Padmé - John Williams / Terry Edwards / London Symphony OrchestraIf you access your router settings, are you able to dedicate specific network bandwidth priority to your Roon Server machine and your issue zones?
We’ll be monitoring for your reply, thank you! 
@benjamin, thanks for the suggestion. I’m able to dedicate specific network bandwidth priority to my Roon Server and just set it up in Qos to do so. But I’m really not using anything other than Roon that’s bandwidth intensive. When Roon is playing, no one is watching any TV/video or downloading anything.
Hello @kd007 ,
Does the iMac also have the Cloudflare DNS set up, or is it using default settings?
Does the issue also happen when you play to your Mac’s System Output zone (not grouped)? Either via the internal speaker/HDMI/3.5mm on the Server or to the Macbook remote speakers via System Output?
@noris, the iMac has Cloudflare DNS set up. I think I’ve run into this issue when playing directly from the Mac but I’m not positive. It certainly happens less frequently if it does happen though. Is there a way to check the logs to see? I don’t use the Macbook with Roon.
Hey @kd007,
Absolutely, here’s how to access your Roon logs:
If you do reproduce the issue via the system output, let us know the track name, and we’ll take a closer look. 
The problem is I’m not sure what all the messages in the logs mean. I can keep an eye out for iMac specific issues. But I just saw this when running into the same problem with slow Tidal warnings and skipped tracks using my regular endpoints:
11/14 18:56:45 Debug: FTMSI-B-OE ti/DD1ADD8D exit thread signalled
11/14 18:56:45 Debug: FTMSI-B ti/DD1ADD8D download status: AllBlocksDownloaded accessTimeout:True openFiles:1 prev:(FirstBlockRetrieved,True,1)
11/14 18:56:45 Info: FTMSI-B ti/DD1ADD8D: allocated bw changed from 51200 to 0 kbps
11/14 18:56:45 Info: FTMSI-B 1 FileCache ti/ECFD0A82 dwStatus:AllBlocksDownloaded files:0 accessTimeOut:True priorities: ('zoneplayer:7':4) --> bw limit:0kbps
11/14 18:56:45 Info: FTMSI-B 2 FileCache ti/F67FDA42 dwStatus:AllBlocksDownloaded files:0 accessTimeOut:True priorities: ('zoneplayer:7':5) --> bw limit:0kbps
11/14 18:56:45 Info: FTMSI-B 3 FileCache ti/9B8C8D58 dwStatus:FirstBlockRetrieved files:0 accessTimeOut:True priorities: ('zoneplayer:18':4) --> bw limit:0kbps
11/14 18:56:45 Info: FTMSI-B 4 FileCache ti/DE09D91A dwStatus:FirstBlockRetrieved files:0 accessTimeOut:True priorities: ('zoneplayer:18':5) --> bw limit:0kbps
11/14 18:56:45 Info: FTMSI-B 5 FileCache ti/0B50D7A7 dwStatus:AllBlocksDownloaded files:0 accessTimeOut:True priorities: ('zoneplayer:31':28) --> bw limit:0kbps
It would be helpful to understand if the issue is with my internet provider/router or my endpoints.
Hello @kd007 ,
Does the same issue still occur if you play to non-grouped zones? Are you able to lower the streaming quality via Settings → Services → TIDAL → Streaming Quality and see if the behavior still occurs?
@noris when I was testing this over the last couple weeks, I found that the issue occurred less frequently with non-grouped zones. When I lower the resolution by playing a version of an album that is lower resolution, it definitely helps. But I was hoping to be able to play at the higher resolution rather than at just CD quality. I’m not able to find that specific setting though. There’s not a “Streaming” tab in my Roon settings. Here’s the settings option in my Roon:
Hello @kd007 ,
Thanks for that additional info. Apologies, the correct path is Settings → Services → Edit (next to TIDAL) → Streaming Quality. You can try to lower that, but as you mention it will limit your ability to play higher resolution content.
Are you certain that this is in modem-only mode and your devices are not by any chance connecting to the built-in router of usual modem/router combo units?
It may or may not help, but you can also try to clear out your TIDAL cache:
/Library/RoonSever/Cache/Cache folder elsewhere, like your desktopHi @kd007,
We haven’t heard from you in a while - are you still encountering problems with Tidal after trying the steps in the post above?
We’ll watch for your reply. Thank you!
Hi @connor,
Thanks for following up. I continue to have problems with playing very hi res audio files. If I play standard CD quality, things seem to be a bit better. But it’s not clear why this is happening. My internet provider, router, etc., should all be good enough for hi res.
Hello @kd007 ,
Have you by any chance tried a different Ethernet cable for the Roon Server to router connection? Although quite rare, I have seen some instances of failing Ethernet cables cause playback issues.
@noris Thank you for the suggestion. Switching cables doesn’t seem to help, unfortunately.
Hi @kd007,
Thanks for the additional information - apologies if this has been glazed over, but have you tested out simplifying your overall network setup temporarily?
Get a direct ethernet connection from your server directly to your primary router, and then do the same to a single endpoint.
Then reboot your router and devices, and see if you run into the same issues. Thank you!
@benjamin, my router is already connected directly to my server via an ethernet cord but I’ll try connecting the endpoint too and see what happens.