Unable to set backup folder on a new computer

Support
1

hi folks

(note: in what follows i’m prefixing with double backslashes, but these are showing a single backslash).

i just set up a new machine (mac m4) and i’m trying to create the backup folder. i do frequent manual backups.

my machine name is m4, and the backup folder is in my user directory, so the full path is /Users/sa/RoonBackups. the folder is shared with read-write access.

note that m4 is the location of my roon client. the roon server is running on a different machine.

in the past, i’ve been (more or less) successful by adding the backup folder thus:

\oldmachine.local\RoonBackups

but repeated attempts using

\m4\RoonBackups

and

\m4.local\RoonBackups

results in an “unexpected error”.

i’ve tried rebooting my machine serveral times. no joy.

any suggestions??

thanks - sa

note: i gave roon full network access access. that doesn’t help.

note2: i rebooted the roon server AND my mac. still doesn’t help.

why can’t roon see m4.local/RoonBackups??

Update: i’ve moved the location of the backup folder to an attached ssd which has ample space for the contents. now i’ve tried:

\m4\Volumes\s4\RoonBackups

and

\m4.local\Volumes\s4\RoonBackups

both of which give me “Unexpected error: Invalid Network Path.”

note that RoonBackups is shared with read and write permissions for me, staff, and everyone.

i can’t think of anything else to try.

2

Hi @Stevan_Apter

You can try one more thing first.

In Roon, instead of using a UNC-style path, try entering the SMB URL directly:

smb://m4.local/RoonBackups

If that still fails, then the supported approach on macOS is to:

  1. Mount the share natively in macOS (Finder → Go → Connect to Server → smb://m4.local/RoonBackups) on the machine where Roon Server is running.
  2. Once mounted, macOS will expose it under /Volumes/....
  3. In Roon Backups, select or enter that local macOS path (for example /Volumes/RoonBackups).

Roon works with paths that already exist at the OS level. If the share isn’t mounted by macOS first, Roon won’t be able to use it reliably.

Let us know which of the two options works for you.

1 Like
3

hi vadim. will do, but note: there is insufficient space available in /Users/sa/ to create RoonBackups, so i created that folder on the 4tb mostly empty drive /Volumes/s4/RoonBackups and shared that with r/w permission to everyone. so i’ll try your approach with that path instead. stay tuned.

4

ok, this didn’t work (Unexpected error):

smb://m4.local/Volumes/s4/RoonBackups

5

your second approach doesn’t work either because the roon server is running on a separate non-macos machine. that is, the mac m4 runs the roon client, and that’s where i want to keep the backups. that is, on my mac, i have /Volumes/s4/RoonBackups. s4 appears in the finder, and under that, RoonBackups.

so what’s the next move?

6

Hi @Stevan_Apter

Thanks for the clarification — this helps.

At this point, we need to step back and clearly separate what is supported and what is actually reachable on the network.

1. Please use IP addresses, not hostnames

mDNS / .local name resolution is not guaranteed to work reliably across different platforms.

Please try using the IP address of your Mac (m4) instead of m4 or m4.local, for example:

smb://192.168.1.50/RoonBackups

(or whatever the actual IP of the Mac is)

2. Important limitation to be aware of

If the Roon Server is running on a non-macOS machine, then:

  • The SMB share must be reachable from the Roon Server at the OS/network level
  • Roon cannot “see” Finder mounts on the client Mac
  • Roon will fail with Invalid Network Path if the share is not accessible from the Server itself

3. Critical network check

If this SMB path:

smb://<Mac-IP>/RoonBackups

cannot be mounted natively from the Roon Server machine itself, then the issue is not Roon.

Please check:

  • macOS firewall on the Mac
  • File Sharing → SMB enabled
  • Permissions on /Volumes/s4/RoonBackups
  • Network isolation / VLANs
  • Any firewall rules on the Roon Server side

Until the share is mountable from the Roon Server OS directly, Roon will not be able to use it.

Once you confirm the above (especially using IPs and verifying native mounting from the Server), we can take the next step.

7

This is not the correct format for a Network address path. It is the internal filepath for your Mac. You should be using the Network address format, which is simply the form smb://<hostname>/<shared folder name>, so smb://m4.local/RoonBackups as @vadim showed you.

8

firewall is off, filesharig → SMB is enabled, permission on for /Volumes/s4/RoonBackups. i’m not sure about the last two. i haven’t changed anything on the server side since setting up this new mac. (and as i said, backups were working fine, and still are, with the previous mac).

i’ve tried smb://mac-ip-address/Volumes/s4/RoonBackups, which gives me a new error: could not connect to share: Host not found.

9

thanks geoff - that fails with Unexpected error.

10

just to be clear: smb://m4.local/RoonBackups fails with “could not connect share: host not found”. what i don’t understand is why this should work, even if roon could find the host. RoonBackups is a folder in /Volumes/s4. don’t i have to point the server at that location on the host?

11

I assume that you’ve followed all the steps for setting up a shared folder on your Mac as detailed in this article (it’s for a Watched Folder, but the steps are the same for a Backup folder):

12

thanks geoff. just to be clear, the roon server, and the music files it manages, are NOT on my mac. they’re on a linux server called splayer. and under roon storage, i have splayer > disk-symbol > music > c0. that’s the path to the folder containing the music files. everything is as it has been for years. the roon client running on my mac can see those files, and it can play them. i can update the server from my mac via drag and drop, etc. the only thing i can’t do on this new machine is back up. hope that clarifies things. are you suggesting that i add the backup folder?

13

Well, yes - I thought that was what you wanted to do?

Your Roon Server is on your linux machine, and you want to set up a Backup folder on your Mac (I thought). So that means you need to go through the steps of sharing the RoonBackups folder on your Mac to the network and then in Roon (which is using the Roon Server on your Linux machine), add the Backup Folder using the network address, username and password for that shared folder on the Mac…

14

ok, i can do that. but can you explain to me why i did not have to do that with the backup folder on my previous mac? it never occurred to me to do that.

15

Because if you were running the Roon Server on the same Mac where you wanted to hold your Backup folder, it would be added as a local folder, not a network folder?

16

i was running the roon server on a separate linux machine and the client on my mac. same setup as now.

17

got it - ok, let me try that

18

attempted to add the network share:

smb://ip-address/Volumes/s4/RoonBackups

i even added username and password, which i’ve never had to do.

still failed with host not found.

19

Dammit - you keep on adding the extraneous Volumes/s4 to the network address. Don’t do it…

20

Yup - if you’re adding a local folder, you don’t need it - but you do for a Network folder…