I have had it with Roon, their lack of support, their user forum, and it's users...

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 minutes ago, jiminlogansquare said:

I guess I do  not know. I converted all my ALAC files to FLAC in order to get them to work with HQPlayer. Now I feel like I did myself a terrible disfavor. I think I might have destroyed much of my metadata in that conversion using dbPoweramp.  But you know what? I really don't care. This is a hobby. No lives depend on the results of how I sort my digital music library. Thanks to all of you who have att3mpted to help me. I really should have made a backup file before batch conversion of my music files. This one is on me

There are ways to get all the metadata and art pretty much corrected if you need it. 

[AudioDoctor]

12 minutes ago, jiminlogansquare said:

I guess I do  not know. I converted all my ALAC files to FLAC in order to get them to work with HQPlayer. Now I feel like I did myself a terrible disfavor. I think I might have destroyed much of my metadata in that conversion using dbPoweramp.  But you know what? I really don't care. This is a hobby. No lives depend on the results of how I sort my digital music library. Thanks to all of you who have att3mpted to help me. I really should have made a backup file before batch conversion of my music files. This one is on me

 

You have a back up, right?

[jiminlogansquare]

Thanks, all. The answer seems to be to utilize HQPlayer via a web browser rather than the HQDPcintrol v4 app. 

[jiminlogansquare]

1 minute ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

You have a back up, right?

Yes, uploaded to a server. But turns out not to be an issue. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, jiminlogansquare said:

Thanks, all. The answer seems to be to utilize HQPlayer via a web browser rather than the HQDPcintrol v4 app. 

The apps works for me really well. 

[Miska]

Mp3tag is a good tool for checking and editing metadata if necessary.

 

[AudioDoctor]

Just now, The Computer Audiophile said:

The apps works for me really well. 

 

Same here. I had an issue once where it wasn't picking up a new album, but a fresh scan and resynching solved the problem.

[The Computer Audiophile]

 

[jiminlogansquare]

Eh, at this point I have to just say, any problem is a result of my own poor choices. Thanks for trying to help me.  If anybody wants to remote in an try to really understand from a technical perspective what my problems are and attempt to solve them, I would of course be indebted. 

[jiminlogansquare]

Well, power cycling my iPod seems to have been the fix that waited for us to try.  Always power cycle, guys. Anyway, the Samara Joy album magically got picked up by the HQPDcontrol app after I power-cycled the iPad that I use to control my stereo. Good grief. Thanks again, everybody

[AudioDoctor]

Troubleshooting step #1 that everyone tries last.

[Ales Prochazka]

I use a third-party package to cache images. Theoretically, I can add the option to disable this saving, but loading images will be slower (it also depends on the size of the jpg in the music library).

[Bob Stern]

@jiminlogansquare:  Do you still think dbPoweramp failed to preserve some metadata when converting from ALAC to FLAC?

[jiminlogansquare]

I really can’t say. Not a satisfying answer, I am sure, but I have relied on Roon for the past five or so years, which pulls in its own metadata from online sources. I really can’t say today what metadata I encoded with those files, the vast majority of which are five to ten years old and predate my use of Roon.

 

To answer the question with certainty would require me to pull together the old ALAC backups and review the metadata to compare to the metadata on the files after they got converted to FLAC by dbPoweramp.

 

What I can say without further analysis is that album art has disappeared from many of the albums when sorted via HQPlayer Linux embedded’s in-browser player and on the HQPDControl iOS app. There could be other reasons for this than stripping of metadata.
 

My many-years’ dependence upon Roon as a source for metadata is a huge confounding factor here. I am just sort of accepting the situation for the time being at least, because I can still see and play albums from the list view in the iOS app (under the “Dirs” tab).

[AudioDoctor]

Well... I spent a part of yesterday experimenting with Roon and made some discoveries that have increased sound quality and calmed its misbehavior, so far.

 

The first thing I did was to get Roon to pull files from a ZFS pool on my Ubuntu machine, over the network. This probably doesnt do anything by itself however in the process of that I found a setting in Roon that tells it how often to scan the library. Mine was set to scan every 4 hours. I reset it to scan once every 24 hours. So far, no interruptions in playback and no drop in sound quality when that scan takes place while listening. The second thing I did was to unplug the USB drive from the M1 Mini I am using as the Roon server. I don't have any explanation, but I think this might be the biggest cause of the sound quality increase as it is a cheap external USB powered drive from Target. Every other thing stayed the same.

 

I have since changed the scan frequency to "only on startup." This setting can be found at

 

Settings > Storage > click the 3 dots to the right of your storage location > Edit > Automatic Scan Interval.

 

With this setting found. I have to wonder if the main culprits on the Roon forum who decided insulting me was the best option, even know about this setting, and how easy it would have been for someone from Roon to say, Here is this setting that stops the background scans... but didn't bother...

[ericuco]

33 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

Settings > Storage > click the 3 dots to the right of your storage location > Edit > Automatic Scan Interval.

 
That option is not available in my version. It could be that I mount my NAS using NFS (vs SMB) on my Ubuntu Roon server.

 

A year or so ago, Roon was constantly scanning my NAS (blue spinning circle). When I was researching causes it was suggested using NFS instead of SMB and that cured the issue so been using ever since with no problems.

[AudioDoctor]

1 minute ago, ericuco said:

 
That option is not available in my version. It could be that I mount my NAS using NFS (vs SMB) on my Ubuntu Roon server.

 

A year or so ago, Roon was constantly scanning my NAS (blue spinning circle). When I was researching causes it was suggested using NFS instead of SMB and that cured the issue so been using ever since with no problems.

 

I am connected using SMB. I did not know this setting was even available until yesterday. If it isn't there in every version, it damn well should be.

[Miska]

16 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

I am connected using SMB. I did not know this setting was even available until yesterday. If it isn't there in every version, it damn well should be.

 

At least I'm not seeing it on my Roon server... Although I hope they are using inotify() or similar to watch the filesystem. But I don't think it actually works on SMB and similar network mounts...

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I've had this option for as long as I can remember. Depending on the day, that may be a few minutes or a few years :~)

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I don't want to rain on @AudioDoctor's parade, but I've used Roon in his configuration since the app came out. I'm happy he has less/no issues, but that isn't the case for me :~(

 

Just one from last night. I was listening to Roon and playback stopped for no discernible reason, then stated up again. I switched to using the Bluesound app, playing to the same Bluesound endpoints, and everything worked perfectly. Must be my network :~)

[AudioDoctor]

5 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I don't want to rain on @AudioDoctor's parade, but I've used Roon in his configuration since the app came out. I'm happy he has less/no issues, but that isn't the case for me :~(

 

Just one from last night. I was listening to Roon and playback stopped for no discernible reason, then stated up again. I switched to using the Bluesound app, playing to the same Bluesound endpoints, and everything worked perfectly. Must be my network :~)

 

I know someone who says, Why you got to pee in my cheerios man?

ha, I just started Roon for the day and started it playing. We'll see if I have any problems.
 

Have you changed the scan interval?

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

Have you changed the scan interval?

I've played around with it over the years. Always annoyed either way :~)

[AudioDoctor]

32 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I've played around with it over the years. Always annoyed either way :~)

 

Bummer.

[Miska]

8 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I've had this option for as long as I can remember. Depending on the day, that may be a few minutes or a few years :~)

 

 

I think the thing is that you have "\\qnap\Current" visible for the folder location, instead of SMB mount path on Linux.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

16 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

I think the thing is that you have "\\qnap\Current" visible for the folder location, instead of SMB mount path on Linux.

 

This specific instance is running on Roon Rock.