Cannot access Roon Nucleus storage? Learn how to enable SMB Guest Access on Windows 10/11 using Group Policy or PowerShell to fix network connection errors.

Enabling SMB Guest Access for Roon Nucleus / ROCK on Windows

When you try to open the internal storage of a Nucleus or ROCK from a Windows PC, you may see a connection error. You might also get a password prompt that keeps coming back, even when you enter guest as both the username and password.

Identify the Error

  • 0x80070035 or 0x800704f8: "The network path was not found". Windows is blocking guest access.
  • 0xc000a000 or STATUS_INVALID_SIGNATURE: Windows requires SMB signing, which a guest connection can't provide.
A Windows error message saying the PC can't access the network share because guest access is blocked by security policies

Why is this happening?

This is expected behavior. It comes from a mismatch between how RoonOS shares your storage and how newer versions of Windows handle security:

  1. RoonOS uses guest access by default. To keep things simple, Nucleus and ROCK share their storage with SMB guest access, so you don't need to create users or manage permissions.
  2. Newer Windows versions block guest access. Recent versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11 turn off insecure guest logons by default. Windows 11 24H2 and later also require SMB signing by default, which guest connections can't use.

As a result, Windows blocks the connection. You can fix this in one of two ways, described below.

How to Fix It

On Nucleus One, Nucleus Titan, and ROCK running RoonOS 3.0, you can turn on sign-in for the share instead. This leaves your Windows security settings unchanged.

  1. Open the Web Administration Interface for your Nucleus or ROCK.
  2. Click the Network & Access tab and find File Sharing.
  3. Under Who can connect, turn on Username and password.
  4. Connect to the share as roon. The password is roon unless you've set your own.

Turning this on closes Guest to new connections. Devices already connected stay connected, but a device that can only connect as Guest loses access the next time it reconnects.

You can change File Sharing from your local network until your device is signed in to Tailscale. After that, please use the HTTPS Tailscale page shown in the Changing these settings box. For details, please see File Sharing Settings.

Info
Windows only allows one username per server at a time. Please disconnect any mapped drive to your Nucleus or ROCK before you connect with the new username, or you may see error 1219.

Option 2: Allow guest access in Windows

Use this option for Nucleus and Nucleus+ (Rev A and Rev B), ROCK in legacy BIOS mode, or if you'd rather keep guest access. These settings apply to every network share your PC connects to, not just your Nucleus or ROCK.

Windows Pro and Enterprise

  1. Open the Start menu, type gpedit, and open Edit group policy. You can also press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
  2. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Lanman Workstation.
  3. Double-click Enable insecure guest logons, select Enabled, then click OK.
  4. Go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.
  5. Double-click Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (always), select Disabled, then click OK.

Windows Home

The Local Group Policy Editor isn't available in Windows Home, so you'll use PowerShell instead.

  1. Open the Start menu, type Windows PowerShell, right-click it, and choose Run as administrator.
  2. To turn off the SMB signing requirement, run this command, then type Y and press Enter: 
    Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false
  3. To allow guest logons, run this command, then type Y and press Enter: 
    Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableInsecureGuestLogons $true

How to Connect to Your Storage

Once you've made one of the changes above, you can connect to your device.

  1. Open File Explorer on Windows, or Finder on a Mac.
  2. Enter the address for your model, listed below. On a Mac, press Command + K first.
  3. If you're asked to sign in, choose Guest on a Mac, or enter guest as both the username and password. If you turned on Username and password in Option 1, sign in as roon instead.

For Windows:

  • Nucleus One: \\NUCLEUSONE\Data\Storage\InternalStorage
  • Nucleus Titan: \\NUCLEUSTITAN\Data\Storage\InternalStorage
  • Nucleus: \\NUCLEUS\Data\Storage\InternalStorage
  • Nucleus+: \\NUCLEUSPLUS\Data\Storage\InternalStorage
  • ROCK: \\ROCK\Data\Storage\InternalStorage

For Mac:

  • Nucleus One: smb://NUCLEUSONE/Data/Storage/InternalStorage
  • Nucleus Titan: smb://NUCLEUSTITAN/Data/Storage/InternalStorage
  • Nucleus: smb://NUCLEUS/Data/Storage/InternalStorage
  • Nucleus+: smb://NUCLEUSPLUS/Data/Storage/InternalStorage
  • ROCK: smb://ROCK/Data/Storage/InternalStorage

If the name doesn't work on your network, please use your device's IP address instead, for example \\<ip-address>\Data\Storage\InternalStorage.

You can now drag your music files and folders into this window to copy them to your Nucleus or ROCK.

Still can't connect after these steps? Please get in touch with our Technical Support team here.