Not able to see my playlist from Rekordbox on the CDJ's

The Corsair Survivor drives seem to be problematic, if you're using a Mac, please try formatting them as HFS+ as that seems to result in fewer issues being read.

Angelo...did you ever find a solution? I'm having the same problem.  I can see my USB listed in devices when plugged into my PC.  Further, I can see my playlists listed when I expand my device. When I plug it into my CDJs, I don't see any of my playlists listed.  All I see is the Contents folder.

Hey James, I took Pulse advise and did away with corsair survivor. Since doing so, everything has been working fine using Sandisk Ultra Flair 64gb.

Hi Angelo,

I guess I'm getting used to the new workflow in RB 4.  I selected a playlist, and then right-clicked to "Export Playlist -> Name of device".  I thought that would be enough.

I didn't realize that I had to then select "Sync Manager" and export the playlist information to the device.  Once I did that, my playlist started showing up.

Thanks for the response.

Regards,

James

@James > Not entirely true; it may have simply not written the database files unless you clicked the eject button beside the device name (it would have prompted you to do that via a pop-up window). You don't need to use the Sync Manager AND export.

Hi,

I'm having this same problem - I've tried reformatting my SanDisk USB so that it's now MS-DOS (FAT 32) and I can see Contents and Pioneer folders when it's plugged into my Mac but as soon as I plug it into my CDJ's the only folder available is Contents.

I've used export, sync manager, nothing's working. I've also tried 2 different USB's all with the same issue... Help please!!!

@Ngaio > Before you removed the device, did you happen to click the little icon next to the USB drive name to write the database? (Sorry, I don't have a screenshot for you at the moment.)

What is the model of SanDisk USB drive?

Hello!

I have the same problem as what is shown in the screen shots and original poster's description. I am using a PNY Turbo Attache 3 128GB USB stick. I have formatted the drive multiple times to FAT32 with Master Boot Record. That same USB stick works correctly in a friend's XDJ-RR controller. My other 32GB (SanDisk Cruzer Glide) and 64GB (EMTEC) USB sticks work on my CDJ 2000nxs with no problem.

In Rekordbox on my PC, I performed a Sync Manager sync of a few playlists and clicked the eject icon after it was done syncing before removing the USB from my PC. Rekordbox is able to view the playlists on the USB stick normally after the sync. The songs are all there in the [Contents] folder on the CDJ, but I don't have the [Playlist][Track][Key][etc] options. Having those are critical since navigating through artists, then albums, then to songs within the [Contents] folder is tedious.

It seems like there might be a problem with my CDJs since the same USB stick works properly on another Pioneer product. Before returning these USB sticks and randomly trying other brands, I'd like to understand what the problem is. Especially if the core issue is something with my CDJs.

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Here's another interesting issue that may be related. I have a 32GB USB stick that I got made as a promotional product. When using them in my CDJ, the issue described above does not happen, however sometimes the CDJ will either go into emergency loop mode during a song or when loading a new song, I'll get a spinning wheel forever and I have to power cycle the CDJ to recover. Normally I'd just chalk it up to cheap USB parts, however the same USB stick works a lot better on other friends' XDJ-RR, XDJ-1000mk2, and XDJ-RX2. We were able to get the issue to happen once or twice on the XDJ-1000mk2's, but it was rare, unlike on my CDJ-2000nxs which happens frequently. This issue seems to happen more often on my CDJs when I have many playlists (5+) and I'm playing songs from different playlists.

1) Operating System - Windows 7
2) OS Type - Windows
3) rekordbox version - 5.6.0 rev 16018-14965-15020 x64
4) Using LINK - Yes
4b) LINK Connection method - Crossover ethernet cable
4c) Using with CDJs - Yes

6) Export Flash drive file system: FAT32
6b) Connection type: huh?
6c) Does the device have multiple partitions - no
6d) If it's a flash drive, is it a U3 device - no
6e) With what utility did you format the device - both guiformat.exe and Disk Utility
7) Have you scanned your files for errors - no, but they work fine on my other USB sticks
7b) Have you scanned your drive for errors - no, but my other usb sticks work fine
8) Is rekordbox crashing at all - no
8a) If crashing, is it resulting in(DO NOT POST YOUR CRASH LOG UNLESS REQUESTED!)
8b) If not crashing, are there any error messages - no
9) Are you able to repeat / reproduce the problem - yes
9a) If yes, can you do it consistently - 100% reproducible
10) Does the problem occur with one specific song: N/A
10a) If yes, please post a link to it: N/A
11) Any other notes regarding your setup only - CDJ 2000nxs v1.43 firmware

@Bryan > From what you describe, with the PNY drive working in the XDJ-RR but not the CDJ-2000NXS, I'd say that the CDJ simply has an issue with the USB drive memory manager in the PNY drive. The CDJ can read other drives, so it's not the CDJ itself.

My recommendation would be to use a different brand of drive - I personally have tested a handful of drives and found the SanDisk Extreme Pro USB3.0 to be one of the best and most universally compatible.

As for that promo drive, they're garbage. You can't expect that anything a company is giving away as swag will have any quality at all - they're going cheap, and cheap != good. Turf it and use a better drive.

Thank you for the response. Going to run more tests on other brands to make sure I know which one works for certain on my CDJs before buying.

Hi
I can not seem to export playlists from rb to my usb. Rb shows them being exported but when I close Rb down and open my usd drive all I have is a contents folder and pioneer folder. In the contents folder I only have 50 or so tunes exported when I was trying to export 500ish what am I doing wrong. I'm new to Rb so layman's would be good. Thanks

This same problem happened to me today.

In Rekordbox everything seemed fine, I could see my playlists on the device when in Rekordbox, but on the CDJ there were none.  Resynchronizing didn't help, 'Export Folder" didn't work.. it would just do nothing because Rekordbox thought the USB was already in sync.

The solution was to make a change (in Rekordbox) to the playlists I was trying to export.  In my case, I have folders for each genre and one of the playlists in the folder I was exporting didn't really need to be there, so I moved it someplace else.  But I think any type of change would have worked.

Once I had done that, and I used "Export Folder", Rekordbox popped up a dialog telling me that there was already a folder of that name on the device and did I wish to overwrite it?  I clicked yes, and boom, problem solved.

Basically there was something wrong with the database on the USB such that Rekordbox could read it and thought everything was fine, but the CDJ couldn't read it.  By making a change to the folder I forced Rekordbox to update the USB.

PS:  As far as brands of thumb drives:

The one I had this problem with I just got yesterday, it's a 128GB PNY Turbo Attache 3.  All last year I was using a 128GB PNY Attache 2.0 and it was great (since my Rekordbox computer is only USB2, USB3 is optional for me). 

The PNY has a cover that can't come off or get lost, is very sturdy and has a strong lanyard attachment that.. I have a loop of parachute cord attaching it to my keychain and it cannot come off.. I can't lose it.  I am a sound guy as well and always busy at gigs so these drives that are hard to lose or break are the only kind I will use.

But the ones I had this issue with today was the newer PNY Turbo Attache 3.0, which SHOULD be faster and better but was actually very very slow to sync the first time.. about 4 hours for 65GB of music!  I don't know what's up with that.  But now that I have it working it's fine in the decks, which is what really matters.

I've tried some nicer brands like Samsung, Verbatim Metal Executive.. Lexar.  The Lexar Twistturn (usb2) 32 & 64gb were actually the best drives I ever used with Pioneer CDJ's they never had a problem ever, and they were cheap drives.. but they don't make them anymore.  I really think that it's not so much about having the best drive with the Pioneer decks but having the right controller in the drive that plays nice with the operating system of the deck, a simple plain-boring usb2 flash drive from a decent brand has more chance of being compatible than one that's bleeding edge which might have some bugs in its backward compatibility.

But now USB3.1 is the standard and it's actually hard to get legit USB2 drives so I decided to try these newer ones.. we shall see....