Hello. I have had roon installed on a PC for a few months without any problems. Now I have changed my computer to a Mac mini M4 and this has led to several minor problems but the big problem is that I have not been able to see much of the minor problems. It is not possible to raise and lower the volume. I have several devices that I have tested on but for the sake of simplicity we can take an apple homepod with airplay 2.
After reinstalling, looking for settings etc. I gave up and tested with my old PC and it worked straight away.
I have now tried disabling all audio devices and enabling them again. I have also tried changing from “Device volume” to “fixed volume” and back again. Unfortunately no difference 13:32 CET.
The roon server will play for a few hours now on a device I can manually lower the volume on.
Thanks for the update! How specifically are your devices connected to your Mac running Roon Server? Are you able to set a hard-wired Ethernet connection temporarily?
Based on a recent diagnostic report, we’re seeing a device labeled “HP Dock Audio” that might be taking over control of the coreaudio driver on your Mac, which could potentially be causing issues in volume control like you’ve mentioned above.
As another step in troubleshooting that we often find helpful for using running Airplay devices with Roon Server on Macs - adding the devices to your Apple Home app. Here’s a KB article breaking down how to do this:
Hi Benjamin.
Now I have tried connecting the Mac mini with both cable and WIFI, right now cable.
I have also experimented with energy settings.
I have now disconnected the HP dock and used another dock instead without a sound card.
I have now tried adding the homepod to the “Home” app and making it available, unfortunately without results.
To investigate further, I have also tried turning off the roon server and playing from the Mac mini to all audio sources “directly” with good results where I can control the volume from the computer.
I have tried uninstalling the server but it seems like the reinstallation remembers all the settings. Can I do everything from scratch?
Hi @peter2,
If you’d like to start fresh you can use the below steps.
Create a Backup of your current database (Since you want to start fresh this is optional but you may want to do it anyway in case the database isn’t the problem and you want to bring it back)
Hi.
Thanks for the reply.
Now it’s starting to get strange. I can’t find any folder under library called either “Roon” or “Roon server”. I’ve also tried searching for “roon” but only find packages under “Applications”. How can this happen?
Hi @peter2,
That’s very strange if Roon is running on that Mac there has to be a RoonServer folder. Let’s try navigating to the folder directly in case they’re hidden.
Open Finder and click Go in the top bar
Click “Go to folder…”
In the text box that opens type ~/Library/RoonServer then enter
Taking a few steps back, you mentioned you’ve reviewed the device settings already, but I’m curious to know if you have Exclusive mode enabled for your Homepod?
The Exclusive Mode setting tells Roon to take exclusive control of your audio device.
During this time, it can’t be shared with other applications. This allows Roon to precisely control every aspect of the playback without any interference from the operating system.
If this setting is enabled, what happens if you disable it? Are you able to edit volume levels in this case?
Thanks for the screenshot - and have you also tested toggling the compatibility mode option on to see if the same issue persists?
We were able to pinpoint the timestamp you provided above, and see the volume commands attempted. Unfortunately, we’re not seeing any errors around this, it looks like the commands were sent and recieved properly.
If you click the ‘Go’ dropdown, and hold the alt/option key - do you see the Library/Bibliotek option pop up?
Thanks for the update! Apologies if this has been glazed over:
Have you tested out playback without a docking device? If you connect the HomePod directly to your Mac and Roon, are you able to control the volume normally?
