Unable to change backup location to new external hard drive (ref#W4VFJM)

Support
1

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

· I have been trying to change my backup location. My Seagate external hard drive stopped working and I have a new external hard drive I want to use. But when I go thru the process of settings/backup/add/browse, it defaults to Dropbox and gives me no other option.

Tell us about your home network

· I don't know all that. It's a Fios/Verizon set up

2

Hi @tom_moore2, welcome back to the community.

This sounds like you’re trying to point Roon’s backup target at a new location, but Roon is only showing Dropbox instead of your external drive.

What is the drive formatted to?

A couple of details would help us narrow this down: is the new external drive connected directly to your Nucleus or to another device on your network? Also, when you open the backup dialog, do you see your Seagate drive listed anywhere at all, or only Dropbox?

In the meantime, it may help to check Backup, since it covers how Roon handles backup destinations and what should appear when you browse for one. If the drive is attached locally, we can also help you verify that Roon Server can see it at the operating system level.

Send us what you find and we’ll take it from there. Thank you! :folded_hands:

3

Hi @tom_moore2,

We’ve not seen a reply and this thread will eventually auto-close without any response from the OP. Please let us know if we can assist further; we’ll watch for your reply. Thank you!

4

Sorry, I am not used to this format. I replied to an email I got, but I guess that didn’t go through??

Will try again here:

I will try to explain with some photos I took.

You are correct, I am trying to target a new location and Roon is only showing Dropbox instead of my external drive.

Here is the existing back up setting as shown in Roon:

image
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This is where I want to direct the backup instead, to my “D” drive:

image
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This is the display when I try to edit the setting:

image
image810×1080 225 KB

This is the dropbox screen that appears when I try to add or edit:

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image810×1080 153 KB

In answer to your question, my new external drive is connected to my PC, just as the Seagate was. I look forward to your thoughts. Thanks.

5

Understood, thanks for the additional information @tom_moore2!

Roon backups can only target storage the Roon Server itself can reach, local storage on the Nucleus or a network share. A drive plugged into the remote PC isn’t visible to the Server, which is why the browse dialog only offers Dropbox.

Since your new drive is connected to your PC running as a Roon Remote, you’ll need to set up a network share from your Nucleus to your PC to recognize the drive.

That said, you could always attach the drive to the Nucleus directly, plug the external drive into a USB port on the Nucleus. It should then appear as a local backup destination (note the Nucleus expects exFAT, FAT32, or NTFS) so you’ll want to know the format of the drive in this case.

Otherwise, setting a network share is what you’ll want to do. Here’s a simple step-by-step for setting up a network share on the Windows PC so the Nucleus can back up to the D: drive.

On the PC: share the drive:

  1. Open File Explorer and find the D: drive (or a folder on it you want to use for backups, e.g. create one called "Roon Backups").
  2. Right-click that drive or folder → Properties.
  3. Go to the Sharing tab → click Advanced Sharing.
  4. Tick Share this folder. Note the share name shown (e.g. Roon Backups).
  5. Click Permissions → make sure your user account (or "Everyone") has at least Change and Read permission → click OK.
  6. Click OK to close out of the dialogs.
  7. Back on the Sharing tab, note the Network Path listed (it looks like \\PC-NAME\Roon Backups). Write this down exactly.
Find your PC name (if needed):
  1. Press Windows key + R, type cmd, press Enter, then type hostname and press Enter. That's your PC-NAME.
Make sure the PC is discoverable:
  1. Go to Settings → Network & Internet → Advanced network settings → Advanced sharing settings. Turn on Network discovery and File and printer sharing for the Private network profile.
In Roon: point the backup there:
  1. Go to Settings → Backups → Scheduled Backups (or Add).
  2. Choose Add Network Share / Browse.
  3. Enter the network path: \\PC-NAME\Roon Backups.
  4. Enter the username and password of the Windows account on the PC (Roon needs these to write to the share).
  5. Confirm, then run a manual backup to test it works.
A few things worth flagging to the user: the PC must be powered on and awake whenever a scheduled backup runs, otherwise the share won't be reachable.

I hope this helps, thanks @tom_moore2!

6

Hi @tom_moore2,

Wanted to follow up on this. Were you able to try either setting up the Windows network share for the D: drive so your Nucleus can reach it, or plugging the drive directly into the Nucleus and checking that it is formatted as exFAT, FAT32, or NTFS? If you went the network share route, we’d also want to know whether the PC name, share path, and Windows credentials were accepted in Roon when you tested a manual backup. Let us know what you’re seeing and we can take it from there, thanks.