Help needed with using one drive between two pc's

@ Nick Stephans > I'm on Mac and use Dropbox, but I believe this should still work for you. Just to be correct, you're using all the files saved on an external hard drive correct?

1. You will need to open Rekordbox on the computer that has all the files saved and working properly first.
   
2. Open the "Preferences" in the working Rekordbox.
   
3. Under the "General" Tab, find the folder you are using for  [ "PIONEER" Folder (analysis files) : ]
   
4. Follow that directory and locate the "PIONEER" folder.
   
5. Copy that "PIONEER" folder to your external drive where you have all your tracks located. Make sure you put it in it's own directory and somewhere where it will never be deleted.
   
6. Go back to Rekordbox and change the directory of that "PIONEER" folder to the "PIONEER" folder located on your external hard drive.
   
7. Switch computers with the hard drive, and change the directory of the "PIONEER" folder in that Rekordbox to locate the "PIONEER" folder on your external hard drive as well. (This should be the same directory as on the other Rekordbox computer)
   
8. Once completed, shut down Rekordbox and restart it and everything should hopefully load.
   

The only downside would be that you have to have your hard drive plugged in to access any of your music via Rekordbox.

Let everyone know how it goes too please.

Thanks,

Foster

Hi Foster,

Thanks for the instructions. Did everything you said, but the second instance of rekordbox shows nothing, even after having selected the pioneer folder to be on the portable drive and restarting. No downside with having to plug the drive in to either pc as that's what I want as it's then my shared central copy. Any other ideas what we can do to get this working?

Nick..

@Nick Stephens > I just posted a comment related to this but in a different situation. Copy and Paste here I come! :D lol

I've never tried what you did, but firstly double check in the "Preferences", under "General" that the [ "PIONEER" Folder (analysis files): has the correct directory. This has to be absolutely perfect and even CAPS as well. Secondly, press +A to select all if on Mac, and right click and choose "Reload Tag". Then load a track and see if it has the waveform.

If not, it might take me a bit to get back to you because I have to study, but I'll help you as much as I can.

Thanks,

Foster  

@Nick Stephens > In the mean time, Gavin's thread might help if you follow his steps. I'm just wondering though, did you import the tracks into Rekordbox from your USB hard drive, or were they previously located on the computer and you moved them to the hard drive?

Rekordbox Migration Thread: http://forums.pioneerdj.com/entries/20658308-migrating-your-rekordbox-database

Thanks,

Andy 

Hi,

The tracks have always been on the external drive and were imported into the first instance of rekordbox from the portable. One thing I'm not sure about in the migration guide is, do you need to copy those system files between the two computers if the location of the pioneer rekordbox analysis  files are on the portable? Surely you don't, or are these something else along side the pioneer folder in the portable? When I go into the second instance of rekordbox the collection is blank.

Nick..

@ Nick Stephens > Yes, you need to copy over everything within that folder, including the system files as they contain your settings and your list of tracks I believe. You should copy over all of these files into the proper folder EXCEPT the "license" file as Gavin mentioned. So all "dummy" files and "datafile" should go onto the external in the proper folder.

Within the same folder where you see those "dummy", "datafile", and "license" file, do you see a file with the extension .xml?

On your external USB device, I would recommend having 2 separate folders  in the first pane. One should be "PIONEER" the Pioneer folder copied from this path, excluding the "license" file located within:

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\Pioneer\rekordbox

Vista: C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Pioneer\rekordbox 

7: C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Pioneer\rekordbox

OSX: /Users/yourusername/Library/Pioneer/rekordbox

That "PIONEER" folder should contain another folder titled "rekordbox", and that "rekordbox" folder should contain 2 folders "Crashes" and a different "PIONEER" folder, as well as contain some data files.

The other folder that should be in the first pane on your external USB device should be a "Music" folder, of which all of your music should be organized and contained within that folder.

I posted a picture below of what it should look like. But remember, you should follow Gavin's instruction and remove the "license" file from the device. I have highlighted mine just to be clear.

Once all of those files have been copied and are located in the right directory, ensure your first Rekordbox computer still works appropriately, and make sure the directory in the "Preferences" "General" [ "PIONEER" Folder (analysis files) ] so that it is looking on the external hard drive, from the title of the hard drive all the way to the "rekordbox" folder within the "PIONEER" folder. 

For example, the directory should be the following for the picture I posted: "USB Device"/PIONEER/rekordbox 

Make sure that is the directory on both Rekordbox databased, and make sure you shut down Rekordbox and restart for it to open all of the data files within that directory on your USB device.

Also, you may have to re-enter the license on 1 or both computers every time you open Rekordbox. So keep it somewhere you can access it on both computers.

 

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks,

Foster 

Ok, In copying the stuff from the appdata/roaming it did the trick and  all appeared in the second instance of rekordbox. Reason I didn't do this originally was becuase I thought that once you set the destination of the pioneer folder in the preferences to the portable drive I thought everything was stored under here, but looks like just the analysis files. Thanks for all help on this.

So next question is, if I make changes now on the second instance of rekordbox, i.e. remove tracks from the collection and change playlists, when I go back to the first instance of rekordbox will I have to re-copy those appdata/roaming files back again. If so this isn't very practical. Or was this copying just needed initially? I'll have to try it out.

Nick..

When you make a change to the collection (rekordbox db) then swap pc's then the other doesn't have the change, so yes you'd have to copy the files each time back and forth. When I first read about this stuff and read about drop box I thought that would not be necessary if you used a portable drive with the pioneer folder set to it, but obviously that is not enough. Maybe i'll look at drop box if that saves copying the files back and forth. Is drop box the recommended synchronization tool?

@Nick Stephens > Initially Rekordbox is not meant to do this. That's why it doesn't have a real exporting or copying method. I thought it should have changed the files from computer to computer... Are you sure both Rekordbox data bases are using and saving information in the "PIONEER" folder on the drive? I haven't tried this so don't know the exact results, but if you cannot get your changes to work between computers even though both Rekrdbox's are reading and writing the files from the external USB device, then I would suggest using Dropbox to get this working. The one thing with Dropbox though, is that you can only have 1 of the Rekordbox data bases open at a time! If you open both, you will most likely cause issues. And for the Mac version, I believe you have everything set like a "Master" and "Slave", 1 Rekordbox database will always overwrite the other when you open it and connect to the internet.

Here is the thread if you want to look into it more: http://forums.pioneerdj.com/entries/20118196-how-to-use-dropbox-to-synchronize-rekordbox-databases-on-multiple-computers

Glad everything worked out... for the most part. Drop a line if you have some more questions and don't forget to search the forums for similar posts. ;)

Thanks,

Foster