I have been using my Atom HE for about two years flawlessly controlled by the Naim app by both my iPhone 15pro and my iPad (version unsure, but about 2 years old). Then seemingly all of the sudden a couple months ago, the app has had trouble connecting to the Atom- “device not found” type error, or the app shows the Atom, but when I touch the icon, it does not connect. For both iPhone and iPad. This happens about most (90%?) of the time. Sometimes it will connect, I will be listening for an hour or so, then it seems to lose the connection, and I can no longer control the atom using the app. The music still plays the playlist, but no changes can be made.
It might be a coincidence, but this happened around the same time I upgraded firmware to 3.12.
A factory reset of the Atom may be useful (don’t forget to write down internet radio presets, because these will be lost). If the problem is indeed related to the firmware, that certainly is something to try. A clean re-install of the app is also something you can try.
According to the Apple App Store, there are no updates- I am running the current version as of Aug 3. Do you know when the app update you are talking about dropped?
If I do a factory reset of the Atom, will I also lose all my playlists? That would be very painful, as I have many playlists for the usb connected drive with tons of music.
I downloaded the 8.2.0 on both iPad and iPhone just now. No time today for listening, but I will give it a go the next few days. Boy, if this works that would be a great simple solution. Fingers crossed.
My son in law suggested it is not the unit or the app, but rather the WiFi. The Atom has a built in WiFi antenna- I wonder if you can bypass it and set up an external antenna? As this is kind of a different subject, I will start a new post on it.
What might be an easier test if you have an ethernet cable, is to unplug the speakers from the Atom, and plug it in next to your WiFi router and connect it via ethernet. If it starts to appear reliably on your phone and tablet then at least that helps narrow down the issue.
Ian- that is a good idea. I guess I jumped the gun on my thinking. I should troubleshoot the problem and eliminate variables before…. And then I’ll have a better idea of what problem I need to fix.
What playlists do you use? Tidal and Qobuz playlists are not stored on the streamer, so you won’t lose those. Likewise many UPnP servers are able to create playlists from their content, which will be stored on the server.
Playlists created within the Naim app from a local server will, unfortunately, be lost with a factory reset.
I create playlists within the Naim app for my ripped music on a local server. So….. a factory reset would be fatal, requiring countless hours to re enter all the data. Nope, not gonna happen. Thanks, ChrisSU for your reply, educating me about factory reset, which I definitely do not want to do.
Ok. New data point. I moved my Atom HE right next to my router. Did apple’s AirPort utility and found signal strength to be -28 dBm, which google says is very strong. (FYI- my usual location was -60, which is not bad). Still had the problem with poor communication on the app to the atom.
Thinking about other variables, I realized I only really listen to ripped music that is on a USB drive, rated at 1TB, connected to the rear jack of the Atom. So I tried using (for the first time) Naim’s internet radio. I picked a random station, which played immediately, with quick response/control of the apps to the Atom.
so I think it is not the WiFi, but the usb source of my music. This is not a perfect answer, as everything ran smoothly for about two years, until this spring, with the timing approximately related to a firmware update.
I am trying to think of any other experiments to try to further figure things out. Let me know if you have any ideas.
And I think the next step is to bring the Atom down to the original location (with the -60 dBw) and confirm the Naim internet radio works there.
As an aside- we have a tv in the kitchen that occasionally has trouble connecting. The strength there was -70 dBw. And, assuming some day to day and hour to hour variation, it does suggest that there is room for WiFi improvement in our home.
So, just to make sure we’re on the same page, are you saying that the Atom appearing on the front page as above is unreliable? Or does the Atom always appear, but then once you are playing music from USB, it disappears and dumps you back to the screen above?
How do you play radio when it works? Do you go into the Atom and select radio, or do you use the radio section above and do something like Airplay it to the Atom?
3- I have Spectrum cable, using the router they supply. I assume they do not make it themselves, but it only has their name on it.
2- I play the Naim radio through the Atom app.
1- multiple parts to this,
A- the Atom is almost always present on the screen as you have shown. Occasionally, it is not giving a “would you like to add a new device” error. Typically (but I can’t swear to it being 100%), I try my other iPad/iphone, which works.
B- I really experience the problem in one of three ways.
B1- I touch the Atom icon (as you show above) and I get the spinning/thinking thingy but it never advances to the “Home Screen” of the Atom to play music
B2- the Atom of the Home Screen opens, I select an album/artist/song, which plays. But the app gets kind of frozen, never permitting me to select different music, but the first selected music continues to play
B3- the atom Home Screen opens, and I can navigate through the app, but when I select a playlist- it shows no songs listed in the play list. The app allows me to try multiple playlists, but none contain any music to play.
