Migration

Moving Roon to a new Server

Your Roon database contains your edits, playlists, favorites, play history, login information, and settings. When setting up a new dedicated server (like a Nucleus), or just moving between Roon and Roon Server, you may want to transfer the database from old to new. This will work regardless of what platform your server was previously running on -- your database will work on any platform that supports running a server.

Preparation

Before you start, confirm you're running the latest version of Roon on both the new and the old server. You can check this by clicking About on the Settings page. It is mandatory that both are fully updated. Also, on your old server, please confirm that the import process has completed. You can monitor this process by clicking the spinner in the top-right. If you don't have a spinner here, you are done importing. 



Migration Steps

Step 1: Prepare your storage devices

For the migration to be successful, it is extremely important that these steps are completed. If at any point the new server has both storage locations active at the same time, the restore will not be successful. 
In some cases, your music collection might also be moving along with your database. If your music collection is changing locations, please follow the steps outlined below. If your collection is staying in the same place (i.e. staying on a NAS), move to Step 2!

Internal Drives

If you're moving your collection to the internal drive of a new machine, do that now. For Nucleus, you can read more about Internal Storage here.

Once your collection has been moved, go to Settings > Storage on the original server and delete all watched folders. If your music is stored in the default music folder, you can skip this step. 

USB Drives

Disconnect the USB drive and connect it to the new server.  No further changes are necessary.

NAS Drives

If your collection is already on a NAS, no changes are necessary. 

Step 2: Backup Your Database

In order to migrate Roon database to a new machine, the first step is to backup your database. To do this, we strongly recommend you connect a USB drive directly to your existing server, or use a NAS or other network storage device on your local network.

While Dropbox is a good way to keep an incremental backup in the cloud, we don't recommend it for this migration, as you will be transferring an entire copy of your database, and Dropbox will be significantly slower than USB or network storage.

If you already have a scheduled backup:

  1. Go to the "`Backup`" tab of Settings
  2. Click "`Scheduled Backups`"
  3. Click the "three dots" and select "`Force Backup Now`"
  4. When the backup completes you should see "Last Successful Backup" at the bottom of the Window




If you would like to create a new backup

  1. Go to the "`Backup`" tab of Settings
  2. Click the "`Backup`" button next to Backup Now
  3. When the backup completes you should see "Last Successful Backup" at the bottom of the Window 

Step 3: Restore Your Database

Now that your Roon database is fully backed up, it's time to restore it to your new server.
  1. Make the backup accessible to the new server
    1. If you backed up to a USB drive, connect it now to the new server
    2. If you backed up to network storage, ensure you know the address, login, and password for your NAS or network storage device
  2. Connect to the new Roon Server
  3. Start your new Roon Server
  4. After your new Roon Server is running, launch Roon on your Mac, Windows PC, iPad, or Android Tablet
    1. We don't recommend using smaller Android tablets or phones for this process
  5. Since this is your first time launching your new server, you will be asked to log-in. Instead of logging in, click "Restore A Backup" in the lower-left hand corner 


  1. Use Roon's file browser to locate the `RoonBackups` folder you created in Step 1
    1. If you created a USB backup, it should be connected to your Roon server and you can navigate to it
    2. If you backed up to network storage, you can find the `RoonBackups` folder by clicking Add Network Share and entering the details for your NAS
  2. Read on to make sure your Storage settings, Audio settings, and other configuration details are updated properly

Step 4: Configuration

There are a few other considerations once your database has been restored, in order to get everything back to normal. 

Storage

Internal Storage
If the drive is the default music location on Windows or macOS, or it is the Internal Storage folder of Nucleus or ROCK, no changes are necessary. 

If it is another local location, at that now by going to Settings > Storage. More info. 

USB Storage
Go to Settings > Storage and add the USB storage location. 

NAS
Networked storage devices (like a shared folder on a NAS) will work without any further changes after restoring.

Audio

Network audio devices (such as RoonReady devices, RoonBridge, Squeezebox, HQPlayer, etc) will work without any further changes after restoring.

If you previously had an audio device directly connected to the machine running your server, you can connect that device to your new server and configure it as normal.

If you'd prefer to keep the audio device connected to the machine that was previously running your server, you can also install RoonBridge on that machine in order to make it accessible over your network. 

Previous Roon Server

Please make sure you have a backup of your database before deleting it
Once your new server machine is up and running, you can continue running Roon as a remote on the machine that previously ran your server. It is important that you "clean up" the machine that was previously running your database. You do not want the same database running on two machines . We recommend renaming or deleting the Roon database folder on the machine that previously ran your server. You can find the Roon database folder here .

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