Unable to play music in car using Roon ARC (ref#GQTGHC)

Support
1

What’s happening?

· I'm having trouble with Roon ARC

What best describes your issue with ARC

· I cannot get Roon Arc to work in the car, I have full signal and connections works. All other apps play ok.

How can we help?

· None of the above

Other options

· Other

Describe the issue

I can't play music in car. I connect to my car with bluetooth. I use my Google Pixel 8 pro. I have a forwarding rule set-up on my router, and a rule in the firewall. When I check in the Arc settings, it confirms I am connected, both to the cloud and the server. When I press play in the app, the music shows as playing, but I cannot hear in the car, the phone shows it is connected to the car. If I turn off bluetooth on the phone, then the music plays on the phone. If I try other apps on the phone when connected to the car (e.g. bluetooth on), for instance AntennaPod or Qobuz and connect to the car via bluetooth, they both connect and play out loud, but not Arc. I can't see anything obvious in the settings, but this suggests its an Arc issue, but obviously it may not be. Any help appreciated.

Describe your network setup

Roon core on ubuntu server. All wired. Synology Router (Synology RT2600ac), and mesh endpoints, wired.

2

Hi @tahsu,

Thank you for the report. We’ve activated diagnostics and pinpointed an event that appears to match your description.

Can you please share the name of the make/model Android Auto head unit in the car? If it’s a manufacturer unit that came installed in the car, please list the year and model. We’ll escalate to development to ascertain what’s happening with the playback state.

Thank you!

3

Thanks @connor.

Apologies, I should have included that in the first place. Its a 2013 Mercedes C250 AMG Sport, however this it does not have Android Auto, just the stock head-unit, with stock bluetooth. Would anything more specific be helpful?

4

Hey @tahsu,

Thanks for the update!

To confirm, does this issue occur no matter the file type you attempt to play? If you download files, move Arc to offline mode, does the same issue occur?

Let us know the name of the track you attempt to play next and we’ll take another look. :+1:

5

Thanks for the reply @benjamin .

This issue seems to occur no matter the file type, I just tried the following

  • Phone in offline mode. Trying to play Orca by Bicep, at 13.42 UK time. This file has been downloaded to the phone. I can see that it is playing on the phone, but no sound coming from stereo.
  • Qobuz files. Trying to stream Blackoak by Maribou State, again, it appears to play but no sound from stereo. However trying to play this, causes the app to crash after about 10 seconds. This was 13.44 UK time.
  • My own files, streamed. To attempting to play Future Shade by Black Mountain, one of my own files. The music visually seems to be playing as above but nothing on the stereo. This was at 13:40 UK time.

Thanks

8

Hi @tahsu,
Thanks for that information. We created a ticket for our developers to take a look at. Once they take a look we should be able to relay some next steps for you.

9

Thanks @daniel!

10

Hi @tahsu,
I just wanted to give you an update on your case. The developers think they will need to release a fix for this problem. They are working on the fix now. When it is released we will let you know here so you can test if it fixes this issue. Thank you for your continued patience!

11

Thanks for keeping me up to date @daniel. I will be happy to try the fix when its ready.

12

Hi @tahsu,

This issue is tracked independently, but there is ongoing work with Android Auto that will be released sooner and might also relieve these symptoms - we’ll give you a ping here when that goes live in Early Access for testing, in case you want to move your devices to the testing branch.

14

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

16

Hi @tahsu,

Thank you for your tremendous demonstration of patience. We’re circling back to let you know that a reconfiguration of ARC’s Android Auto lifecycle has been merged into the last Early Access build. It’s possible that this change will impact or resolve the symptoms you reported in this thread.

If you want to move your ARC and server instance to the Early Access branch for testing, you can follow this guide: https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/roon-early-access-program

Otherwise, hang tight, and the fix will be included in the upcoming Roon update.

Let us know if you have any questions. We’re hoping this helps. Thank you!

17

Hi @tahsu,

We’ve released the aforementioned changes - are you seeing any improvements on the most recently released ARC update from this week? Thanks!

18

Hi @connor, I haven’t had the time for this unfortunately, so I was waiting for the next Roon update, when is that?

19

Hi @tahsu,

We’ve already pushed a new update late last week, so you should be able to update your devices and test! Here’s more info:

20

Ahh, ok, I will give it a go and report back!

21

I tried it quickly yesterday and it worked! Thank you. I will keep testing over the coming days.

22

Thanks for the update @tahsu , do let us know how your further testing goes!

23

Hi @noris, @benjamin, @connor - I spoke too soon, I have exactly the same issue as before

Any other ideas?