· Hello quitea few issues unfortunately. I've not been using Roon for months because of it and just needed to submit a support request.. which I'm finally taking care of
Tell us about your home network
· Virgin Media Hub 5 (500/50 Down/ Up. Tested frequently on Samknows.com/ Realspeed). Bandwidth in good shape, no latency or packet drop impact Roon core in a Mac mini. Hardwired into a TP-Link 8 port gigabit desktop switch with cat 5 cable which is hardwired into cat 5 connecting directly to Virgin Media router
No VPN or 3rd party security applied (to my knowledge..) Roon loads - sometimes very slowly but most of the time (not always) there are no audio devices visible. There are quite a few connected devices that are visible and play no issue via Tidal Connect including a Nad M66, 2 x Sonos, Denon AV, KEF LS50Wii. It has oddly worked a couple of times but then may cut out and not be available the next time I try
Roon Arc also does not work but I'd expect this given the issues with the core
I have faffed around with things in the system settings a few weeks ago to try and fix it and probably made things worse Roon, Roon Appliance, Roon Server all have full disk access
I think the next step here is to enable some diagnostics on your account so our technical staff can get some more insight into what’s going on here.
However, before I enable this feature, I’d like to ask for your help ensuring we gather the right information.
First, can you please reproduce the issue once more and note the time at which the error occurs. Then respond here with that time, and I’ll make sure we review the diagnostics related to that timestamp.
I just restarted Roon Core via the Mac Mini interface and noted the time as 12.07 pm UK 22nd June. The app started in good time. I can see all my albums etc and response times when navigating are normal. There are no audio devices being picked up however
Following that 12.09 pm I tried to access Roon from my iphone and just getting the ‘Waiting for the your Roon Server’ message. Its not able to connect and this is the other side of the equation
Hi Tony thanks for the suggestion. No sadly that doesn’t change anything there is nothing to enable beyond the mac mini speaker and clicking on manage audio devices produces no result. There should be a whole bunch of active devices spread all round the house and they were being picked up by Roon until I started seeing this issue
Since you’re running macOS, the behavior you’re seeing is consistent with the newer, stricter Local Network permission controls in the recent macOS releases.
Please try the following steps:
Open macOS System Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network
Make sure Roon and Roon Server are both enabled
Even if they are already enabled, please toggle them off and back on
Fully quit Roon Server from the macOS menu bar / task bar
Reboot your Mac
After reboot, launch Roon again and check if the devices is avaliable again.
Once these permissions are refreshed and the system restarted, your audio devices should reappear.
Please let us know if the issue persists after these steps, and we’ll continue from there.
You have my apologies here, I mis-read what macOS you were running. The Local Network privacy toggle doesn’t exist as a dedicated pane on Sonoma, Apple only introduced the standalone Privacy & Security → Local Network list in macOS 15 (Sequoia).
We can ignore this step for now, the symptom doesn’t perfectly match a pure local-network-permission problem. The “Waiting for your Roon Server” message from your iPhone points to the Server itself becoming unreachable on the LAN intermittently, which can be mDNS/Bonjour discovery breaking down rather than a macOS permission that was never granted. The Virgin Media Hub 5 in particular has a history of multicast/IGMP snooping issues that disrupt Roon’s RAAT discovery.
A few things worth checking, given your gear (Virgin Media Hub 5, TP-Link switch):
On the Hub 5, look for any IGMP snooping, multicast, or “smart”/optimisation setting and try disabling it. Virgin’s hubs have caused multicast discovery problems for Roon users before.
Confirm the Mac mini and your audio endpoints (NAD M66, Sonos, Denon, KEF LS50W II) are all on the same subnet and not split across a guest network or a mesh node that isolates clients.
You mentioned changing some system settings a few weeks ago to try to fix this. If you recall toggling the macOS firewall on, open System Settings, Network, Firewall, and either turn it off temporarily to test or make sure Roon and Roon Server are allowed to accept incoming connections.
No problem thanks for coming back with the detailed guidance
I couldn’t find anything in the Virgin router menu’s that mentions IGMP snooping or multicast. WIthin WIreless Signal I’ve included a screenshot. There is the option for Smart WIFI and I’ve disabled CHannel optimisation. Not sure if this is the right thing to do. It doesn’t seem to be impacting things either way
I have confirmed the mac core and the various endpoints are all sitting on exactly the same subnet. Some are wired ethernet some over WIFI. Guest Network is disabled. There is no kind of Mesh set up
The Firewall is turned on and Roon Server connections are allowed to be accepted. Screenshot also included below. As soon as I turn off the FW however then all devices are visible and I can connect over the Iphone. It seems like this is for sure part of the issue
WHat would you suggest as I assume I shouldn’t be permanently disabling the Firewall to allow Roon to operate and especially given the incoming connections are allowed?
That’s a really useful result, thank you. It confirms the firewall is the culprit, and the fact that it’s still blocking Roon even though Roon Server is listed as allowed usually means the allowed entry is pointing at a stale binary (common after an update or reinstall), so the process that’s actually running no longer matches the rule. Let’s rebuild those exceptions from scratch rather than leave the firewall off.
Please try the following:
Go to System Settings → Network → Firewall → Options. Remove the existing entries for Roon and Roon Server entirely (select each and click the minus button).
Make sure “Block all incoming connections” is turned OFF. If that’s on, it overrides any per-app allowance.
Turn OFF “Enable stealth mode” while we test. Stealth mode silently drops the multicast/discovery traffic Roon uses to find your endpoints, which fits the pattern of devices vanishing.
Fully quit Roon Server from the menu bar, then reboot the Mac mini.
After reboot, relaunch Roon. macOS should prompt you to allow incoming connections, accept it. Then go back into Firewall → Options and confirm that Roon, Roon Server, and RAATServer are all present and set to “Allow incoming connections.” A missing RAATServer entry in particular would explain why your library loads fine but no audio devices appear.
Once those are re-added cleanly, please test again with the firewall ON and let me know whether your endpoints reappear and the iPhone connects.
If it still only works with the firewall off after rebuilding the rules, the next step will be enabling diagnostics (as Vadim mentioned earlier) so we can see exactly what’s being blocked at the moment of failure, so note the time if it happens again.
I’m afraid that after following those steps- removing and then setting the permissions up again/ rebooting etc, the problems still remains.
Initially the changes did work but then once no longer using roon and it sits idle, it seems to revert to the exact same behaviour of the mobile handset not picking up the core
Similarly, Roon ARC was working at the same time, but then once the core is idle, it is no longer accessible
Disabling the firewall does seem to fix the issue
if you agree, perhaps it’s time to do the diagnostics as a next step
Thanks for the update, and I’m sorry to hear you’re still having issues!
When you say ‘idle’ are you referring to your Mac machine running Roon Server falling into sleep mode?
If so, that is unfortunately expected behavior - Roon Server won’t be able to communicate with remote devices if the Mac itself is asleep. Many users have used third party applications to prevent their Mac from falling asleep, many use the app Amphetamine specifically.
That said, if you aren’t referring to your server machine falling into sleep mode, I think reviewing a fresh diagnostic report would be an excellent next step.
If you could, please jot down the specific date and time the next time you reproduce this issue / failure to re-connect. We’ll enable diagnostics and take another look to see if there are any specific clues.
I didn’t meant the mac is going into sleep mode it always seems to be active its just when I haven’t been using Roon it becomes inaccessable after a while
That said you’ve just given me pause for thought, and I am toggling on and off the sleep settings to see if this makes any difference
Its the middle of the night and awake because of the heat.
I’ll try again tomorrow and see if its any different
No problem, take your time with the sleep settings test. Whenever you’re ready, just reply here with what you found, along with the exact date and time if the issue comes back, and we’ll pick this up from there.
Pleased to say the problem now appears to be fixed
Its the combination of deleting then reinstalling the FW rules and toggling on and off sleep mode that has done the trick. It needed both. Possible that Stealth mode was also causing issues
Thanks for the support and please close the ticket. I will be back in touch if need be
