Roon Server

What is Roon Server?

Roon Server's sole function is to manage your music library and audio devices. Think of it as the brain of your Roon system. You can learn more about our full Roon Architecture here. 

Roon Server runs in the background and has no user interface. It’s controlled using the Roon application (on Windows and Mac), or the Roon app (on iOS and Android). You can also use Roon Arc to connect to Roon Server when you want to stream music on the go.

Roon Server runs on Linux (x64), Mac OS X, Windows (x86 and x64) and RoonOS. 

Ready to set up Roon Server?

For Mac/Windows users: you can download Roon/Roon Server from our website here. 

For Linux users: read and download Roon Server here. 

For the do-it-yourselfers: here's more info on ROCK and RoonOS.

The 'Launch at startup' option

On both macOS and Windows Roon Server has a "Launch at startup" option so that Roon Server will start up automatically when the user logs in.

   

On Linux, Roon Server runs as a service. You can manually start/stop it if needed. You can disable the service if (for whatever reason) you do not want it to load at startup and enable/start it manually afterward.

Why is Roon still playing music after I've closed it on my computer?

If you were previously running your Roon Core on Mac or Windows, quitting Roon would stop your music, whether it was playing on your laptop or in any other room of the house. 

With our recent update, we’ve moved Roon Server into its own process that runs in the background. This means you can close the Roon interface and continue to listen to music on your laptop or other audio devices around your home. 

We recommend leaving Roon Server running in the background, but you can always close Roon Server from the menu bar (macOS) or the system tray (on Windows) if you’d like to stop playback completely.

How do I quit Roon Server?

If you ever need to stop Roon Server, you can do so from the System Tray on Windows or via the Menu Bar on Mac OS. 

You can still stop playback by hitting pause on any of your connected Roon devices, it isn't required for you to quit Roon Server every time you want to stop playback.

Want to learn more about why Roon decided to create a server? Click here. 

• Related Articles

• Starting with Roon Server

  What is Roon Server? Roon Server is media server software that runs on a powerful computer, NAS, or turnkey appliance (like Nucleus or ROCK), located on the network within your home. (For more information on how it fits in with Control and Output ...

• Roon Server not running

  If you’re seeing an error telling you Roon Server is not running, there are some simple troubleshooting steps you can try. Click "Start Roon Server" If you run Roon Server on Windows or Mac, you may see a “Start Roon Server” button, which will start ...

• Roon Server on NAS

  Roon Server requires a more powerful processor than most media servers due to our architecture. Historically, most NAS devices have not been powerful enough to deliver a first-class experience with Roon, but an increasing number are becoming capable. ...

• Installing Roon on Linux

  Overview Two packages are available for Linux: Roon Bridge and Roon Server. There is no real purpose to running Roon Server and Roon Bridge on the same machine, since both provide identical access to audio devices. That said, doing so should not ...

• Getting started with Roon

  Overview You'll find everything you need to know about getting started with Roon below. Whether you're hearing about Roon for the first time or just downloaded Roon and need help with the next steps, this article breaks down all you need to know and ...