[SOLVED] My Rekordbox is now a disorganised mess...Help!

i feel your pain.

I am 2 years down the road with rekordbox and am struggling keeping it all tidy.

i make set after set of music and have them all filed aswell as my master playlists 

the more i add that is untagged and not cleaned and tidied the more unorganized mess my rbx is is becoming.

a clear date format is required to be mixed in with your own methods.

if you are not finding content make sure it is in the correct location and then restart rekordbox, i have found this helps.

@matthew > Let me clarify some of your confusion and possible problems...

1) If you used the source external drive as your export drive, you would wind up with duplicates on the drive.

2) A crash in rekordbox would still leave you with your backup database.

3) A crash in rekordbox would NOT cause your original source audio files to go missing.  

4) Re-importing them from the CONTENTS folder is a worst-case option -- as you discovered, they're not organized in any method you'd like, they're sorted by artist / album.

5) Relocating missing tracks works when the whole path has shifted.  Example: you moved your files to a new drive, retaining the folder structure.  Telling it that the drive is now X instead of Z means that EVERYTHING that used to be Z can now be located in the same place but on X.  But as you're trying to relocate the files within the CONTENTS folder, the path to each file is unique rather than a wholesale change.

The easiest thing you could have done to keep your music organized would be to import only one folder of sorted tracks at a time (eg. import only the D&B folder) then after it's imported, you can create playlists or colour lists based on that import.

Hi Pulse,

Thanks for the reply. As mentioned all my tunes are on the external HDD so I don't clog up my laptop with 5000+ tunes. I wont be changing that option. 

So what will then happen is that I would have to have duplicates on the HDD right? i.e. folders such as D&B, House etc. with my tracks in and also the same tracks will be located in CONTENTS. Is that correct? If so, it shouldnt be too much of a problem as its 500Gb, just so I know really.

If what I think is correct above, what is the reason (or use) for the CONTENTS folder?

Say I import my HOUSE folder (20 tracks) into COLLECTIONS and then 2 weeks later I bought some more house tracks from Beatport (5 tracks) for instance. Do I then add the 5 new tracks into my HOUSE folder and then import the HOUSE folder again into COLLECTIONS or will that create duplicates of the 20 tracks into COLLECTIONS?

Just on 5) How do you select a bunch of missing files that are in the same folder and get Rekordbox to autofind them rather that doing it 1 by 1?

Are there any plans by Pioneer to create a detailed instruction book for Rekordbox in the near future? Things like:

1. Moving from a PC to MAC transferal
2. What the files mean edb. DAT. Contents folder, USBANLZ folder etc.
3. How to arrange files and folders
4. What to do in the worst case scenario when things go missing and how to recover all your stuff

The web based instructions are quite basic really and a pdf. for troubleshooting and understanding what is located where etc. would be great (especially for a dunce like me LOL!).

I have not been on my CDJ 2000's now for a couple of months now because of my Rekordbox problems and can't wait to get back to spinning some tunes again! 

@matthew > Stay out of the CONTENTS folder unless you absolutely need to go in there!  It's an export folder for the software and messing around will only cause problems for playback.

To find missing files, simply go to File > Display All Missing Files and it will locate them all in one swoop.  If it asks you about single files, that's just because it couldn't locate them all in the same change -- there were different changes for each of the files.

As for the instructions, you can access the online help through the program or on the web: http://www.prodjnet.com/rekordbox/support/

1) There are currently no instructions for moving from Mac to PC or vice-versa.

2) The .edb file is your database.  The rest, again, stay out of there.  It's just data used by the program.

3) You don't need to arrange anything, that's what the rekordbox program is for!

4) Backup, backup, backup.

Ok cool. I've now got all my tunes back in COLLECTIONS and sorted them in PLAYLISTS.

The problem now is that when I try to open my HDD (D drive) in DEVICES by clicking on the (+) it tells me my "DEVICE LIBRARY IS CORRUPTED". I copied all the music from it to Rekordbox COLLECTIONS and it plays fine, but it wont let me import my playlists to the HDD now :0(

Will I have to delete something off my HDD for it to work again? Baring in mind all my tracks are in the CONTENTS folder on the HDD and not on the laptop hard drive.

Why are you importing playlists from the device?  Did you create them on the device itself instead of within rekordbox and then exporting it?

You don't have to delete everything off the hard drive, but you may have to delete contents folder and hidden Pioneer folder and re-export the songs again as there's only one export database stored on the device, unlike on your computer where rekordbox keeps a backup.  If it's corrupted, a wipe and export may be the only fix.

Hi Pulse,

I think you misunderstood from your 1st line.

I'm not importing playlist from the HDD, I have imported tracks and folders from the HDD to the COLLECTIONS the created PLAYLISTS in Rekordbox and now want to export the playlists into devices (back to the HDD) so thay show up on the CDJ's. Problem is the HDD "Device Library is corrupted".

1. Does that mean the CONTENTS folder is corrupted (although the tracks in there are the ones I imported to COLLECTIONS and they play fine in Rekordbox)
2. Or is it the PIONEER folder with all the edb files /CRASHES folder etc.
3. Would the files and folders on the laptop be the ones that are corrupted? i.e. C:/ Application folder / Pioneer AND / OR Pioneer Log

I cant believe how much hassle this is causing me :0(

Pulse,

Problem solved I think. I deleted the hidden PIONEER folder and the playlists have transferred over.

Do you have any tips for transferring everything over to my new mac book pro using lion X from my PC laptop by any chance?

@matthew > Sorry, there's no cross-platform friendliness at this point but I'm working on an updated migration guide.

Hi Pulse,

First I would like to say that I like the new changes in v3, works great. Hoping you can help, my library(115,000) just lost all locations.  Files are not moved, they are kept on a LaCie Thunderbolt disk so I am not sure how this happened.  I was trying to add a second playlist when this happened, so that might have something to do with it, I am on a Mac but I do not use iTunes at all so the iTunes function won't work for me and I don't want to start adding duplicates,

so my question: is there a way to relocate these songs in one fell swoop? rather than 1 song at a time, I DJ full time so it would be faster for me to delete the library and rebuild rather than relocate them 1 at a time.  It would be a great functionality to add to Rekordbox( a drivewide relocate function).  

I know this is a big library, but I have to play everything.  Finally, is there a way to ensure this doesn't happen again, I use a lot of playlists, hotcues and loops and every time I rebuild my library I have to reset all of these, How would I go about saving library, playlists and hotcues to a drive so that if I say, have to reinstall my OS, I don't have to rebuild Rekordbox.  Thank You

The relocation feature should be looking for the files based on a familiar relocation; example, if you moved everything from d:\Music\Songs to d:\GoodMusic\Songs it would then use that Music > GoodMusic change to try and find the next missing songs. If there is a more complex change however, it becomes more difficult for the software to relocate and thus requires multiple attempts done manually.

I can't say for certain why your songs would have moved within the library, realistically if you haven't moved the files or changed the drive name, it should keep the files where they are. Were there any other changes to the library? Perhaps the database became corrupted?

Hi Pulse,

Ok this is getting very frustrating, Since I last posted I have had to reinstall my library 4 times.  I think it might have something to do with the mount point??? I am running mavericks, have nothing other than ableton live, Serato, and Resolume on that laptop, and the whole library is on a La Cie Thunderbolt Rugged drive.  Almost everytime I show up to work now, my entire library is lost, thankfully I keep spare USB's, but they are no fun.  I have also tried at the suggestion of a fellow DJ to use iTunes, so I did and everything seemed ok, until yet again last week, poof, all gone. So is it thunderbolt, Mavericks, or something in the way Rekordbox reads the path to the library? The songs do not move but maybe the mount points are in Mavericks? I cannot use the relocate as there are far too many songs to relocate, especially while I am mixing.

So I have gone back to using a USB HDD, I can only hope for the best at this point.

Is there a way other than importing the songs through Rekord box that I can lock down these paths.  Serato is not losing them, so something must be up with Rekordbox file path location, 

Also I asked before about writing hot cues and loops to files, I have had to reset these hot cues every time as well, can i permanently write these to the drive or do i have to import the songs through Rekordbox to do that, which opens another issue, playlists imported through Rekordbox only supports up to 1,000 songs, my main playlist, which grows everyday, is at about 1,700 songs, so that rules out importing.  Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated because this has lost me a lot of time and money spent on HDD's and USB sticks.

Finally if this were a corrupt library file, where would that be and how do I fix it?

Thank You

@David > The engineers looked at the log files and found that your drives were named [LACIE DRIVE] and [LACIE DRIVE 1], meaning you have multiple drives with the same name (likely simply "LACIE DRIVE") and as the OS detects a second drive with the same name, appends the 1 to the end (an additional drive would be given a 2, etc). They suggest you either use only one drive or give each drive a unique name.

Personally, I have two drives each named "Pulse" but I know never to connect them at the same time or risk the above. ;)

Hi Pulse,

Well, these aren't duplicate drives, they are the same drive, it is because of the Thunderbolt mount point in Unix and how that drive is being assigned mount points like drive letters in Windows, they are changing everytime the drive is plugged in. I thought iTunes would fix this, seeing as iTunes does not lose the drive path, but the path was lost anyways.

I have since switched back to a USB drive and now have no problems, it will be good for other DJ's to know about this if they are thinking about using a Thunderbolt drive, BAD IDEA.

Also for the engineers at Rekordbox, this shouldn't be an issue, but its obviously something to look at for them, like I said those are both the same drive and so they aren't being plugged in at the same time, its just that OS X is assigning a different mount point each time this drive is mounted, so something to look at. I keep the Tunderbolt drive for VDJIng now. Anyways thanks for getting back, even if it was a month after the fact ;) btw would Rekordbox work with any of the pioneer controllers like the DDJ SZ? Are there any plans for video in development? 

@David > Interesting, I would have assumed Thunderbolt drives were mounted the same way USB or FW drives were, I'll pass that note to the engineers.

No, the controllers won't work with rekordbox as it's a music management system and not a DVS, and no plans for video at this time. Sorry!

**SOLUTION FOR LOCATING MULTIPLE MISSING FILES AT ONCE**

So I have had the same problem as Matt recently with about 700 missing tracks. I had all my music on a external drive before but moved all of it to the computer. To bad for me, I did not read how to move my rekordbox library prior the migration. I use iTunes on a mac and import music from iTunes to Rekordbox. When I moved all my files the file path in rekordbox was still pointing to my external harddrive. Rekordbox only allows you to locate one file at the time, but today I figured out how to locate multiple files at once. 

**THIS IS HOW I FIXED IT**

This is working if you have moved your files to another drive but you need to keep the same file structure. For me, that is: /Users/Henrik/Music/iTunes/Music/"ARTIST"/"ALBUM"/"SONG".

1) In Rekordbox go to File/Export Collection in xml format

2) Save the file to your desktop

3) Open the .xml file. I used Xcode, but any text editor should be fine

4) In Xcode, go to Find/Find and Replace in Workspace. (In the text editor on mac it's Edit/Search/Search and Replace)

5) Locate the file path to a song and copy the beginning of it, i.e. the part that is the same no matter which track you use (In my case, I copied " file://localhost/Volumes/My%20Passport/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/ "). 

6) Paste this in the search field and hit enter. Path to every song will be selected

7) Write the corresponding path of the new location in the replace field and click replace, then save the file. (In my case the path was " file://localhost/Users/Henrik/Music/iTunes/Music/ ").

8) In Rekordbox, go to Preferences/Brigde. Under rekordbox xlm and Imported Library, find the xlm file on your desktop

9) In Rekordbox, go to Preferences. Under View and then Layout, make sure rekordbox xml is checked. 

9) Go to the tree view in Rekordbox and find rekordbox xlm, go to All Tracks

10) Select all tracks, right click and choose Import to Collection

11) Done! Just delete your old files and you are good to go. Cuepoints and such are saved in the xlm file so they are still there. However, seems like beat grid is not saved. 

Hope this can be helpful for someone!

rekordbox does allow you to relocate more than one track at a time ... just select all tracks and do the first one, it will find the rest without having to do all the steps above.

Ok,here is the situation on RB,i export tracks from (G) external HD main collection) to (F) external HD i will be taking with me,i do not put more than 10,000 tracks in one folder actually 5,000 to be on the safe,so i have about 75 folders with tracks in them anywhere from 100-5,000 tracks,now when i export a folder the first few folders export fine with all tracks in them but after about 10 folders exported  it begins to display message (1 or more files could not be exported)  and when i check folder it is empty tried using sync but that did not work either,i formated drive again but no luck,any suggestions?Thanks..