Do I have two libraries? How does this work?

Hi I’m new to the Denon and I have when looking at my collection duplicates of every song. When I click on each duplicates and “Show in Finder” one half is stored on the dropbox Folder that I used to import all my song. (Lets call it Folder 1). Now after a couple of weeks I now noticed which I haven’t before that every song in Collection has a doublicate and that one Is in The Folder Engine Library that is also located in my dropbox (Lets call it Folder 2).

What Am I doing wrong here? I ofc. only need one library and how. How do I fix this?

Thankful for all the help!

Hello @DennyTwist

The main collection view shows all songs stored on all drives. If You open the (drive) location tab in the view You will see, that it shows Your local music and all what was exported from Engine prime to other drives that are connected. Engine treats Dropbox folder as a drive.

If You plug in Your USB drive to the computer it will also show songs from that drive in main collection window. But that does not mean, that on the local drive there is a duplicate file. Of course it can be, but Engine is not duplicating any files on it own.

@DennyTwist in addition to everything that @NoiseRiser has already written to you correctly, I would also like to add a tip to avoid the confusion of having the same track repeatedly listed: before starting to work on Engine Prime, remove all your external drives that contain the Engine databases (i.e. the USB sticks, SDXC or external HD cards that you will then connect to the console), in this way you will only see the tracks present in the your local database (i.e. the one on your computer) and you will avoid confusion.

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Thank you @NoiseRiser and @DjAj Okay now I have my Engine Library (Folder 1) and the folder where I stored all my songs to begin with (Folder 2) in dropbox. Should/can I delete Folder 1 or 2? It takes up double the space and I would prefer having the original Folder 2 as my library.

Again, a big thank you for helping out!

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If we forget the remote drives for now (i.e. the ones that you then insert into the console) you must have the Engine prime database on your PC and also a directory where you keep your MP3 files. You don’t have to cancel either of them.

The Engine library contains only the database and no MP3 files, in fact they remain intact in your directory where you put them.

Instead, the story is different when you export files to a USB stick to be inserted into your console: in this case the Engine database also contains the MP3 files that must then be played.

Ohhh thank you @DjAj. Could this then be the explanation for this be that I think I deleted a Crate with a lot of information a couple of days ago. My solution since Engine prime doesn’t have UNDO was to get that Crate and its content from a USB stick and back to my Engine Library. Then maybe this is why I now all of a sudden have a Database with the actual files in it as well?

Yes, if you copied the “Engine library” from the USB stick to your PC you made a big mess! The two databases are different!

Now you need to quit Engine Prime, delete the database on your PC (Engine Library directory), then start Engine Prime (it will create a new empty database).

Then on your PC create a “Music” directory and put your MP3 files into it that you can copy from your USB stick. At this point you can enter Engine Prime, create a CRATE, import your MP3 files into the crate, analyze them and set HotCue.

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Okay and I guess then I will loose all HOTCUES that is on all those songs then? or will they carry over?

I don’t think Engine Prime will be able to “understand” that the track on the PC is the same one you edited on the USB stick, so it won’t be able to import the Hot Cues you made on the console. So the answer is: yes, I think you missed the hot cues.

Denny, unfortunately Engine Prime is a bit delicate and you have to follow a certain sequence to avoid problems, in doing so in a year of use I have never had a loss of Hotcue or damaged tracks. The other methods may work but sometimes they damage the database or mess it up.

The correct sequence (in my opinion) is this:

  1. Work only on your PC, use tracks stored in the HD of your PC, analyze tracks, set Hotcue, change tags and everything you need, create playlists, create crates.

  2. When you have everything ready, insert your remote unit (USB key, SDXC memory) into your PC, wait for it to appear in the Engine Prime remote units.

  3. Use SYNC MANAGER and flag the crate and playlist you want to export from the PC to the remote unit. Start SYNC MANAGER and wait for the copy of the data from the database and the tracks.

  4. When the operation is finished, close SYNC MANAGER, go to the part of Engine Prime where you see your remote drive and press the drive eject icon. When you receive confirmation you can remove the key and use it in your console.

  5. Now you can also edit loop, grid, hot cue on the console, the changes will be stored in the remote drive database. Later you can update your main collection database on the PC.

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Big thanks once again. I seem to have issues when syncing. Not everything syncs. some songs chooses not to sync and I don’t get full playlists. Had to drag them over device panel

Are the tracks that “chooses” not to be synchronized inserted both in a crate and in a playlist, or are they only present in the playlist?

Hi yes I believe they were. But I formated the internal hard drive that I had in the Prime two and retried it and now it worked :slight_smile: Its lite with computers… sometimes you just need to format the bastard to get it working :slight_smile: @DjAj

If you have strange problems transferring music, try a simple USB stick first and see if everything works. Then maybe switch to using the internal HD: they often give problems.

Hi, I see I’m posting on this thread much later than the original comments but I think this is still relevant.

My collection has more music files in it than my main dj library folder, which is situated directly underneath the collection file. I am not using any other drives so I know that it is not because I have another drive e.g. my USB plugged into my computer. This is solely in relation to what is on my computer library.

Anybody know why this might be?

I’ve recently cleared all duplicates, too. The collection file has always had more tracks in than my dj library folder.

Thanks

Hi Kate, when you say ‘DJ Library folder’, are you talking about a playlist you’ve created underneath that contains all the music you also have in your collection? Im only asking because you say its directly below the collection and I dont have anything with that name.

Are you using Serato stems at all? I only ask because stems adds a new file to your music collection on your computer and these are invalid files for Engine, but might account for a mismatch.

Hi Stu,

The ‘dj library’ folder underneath ‘collections’ is one I’ve created from the hard drive so includes ALL music on my computer, so I’m wondering why it is less than what is in the overall collection? I’ve obviously done something here but have no idea what!

Not using Serato stems. I do use Serato but only recently and I haven’t done any cross over / transfers between it & Engine as yet, plus this issue of different numbers of tracks has existed from day 1.

The only thing I can think Kate, you’ve got more than one record for some tracks you’ve moved around, renamed etc previously?

Do you have any red tracks in your collection?

I don’t quite understand why you have two collections - the “dj library” and the “collection”.

You say the “dj library” contains all the music on your computer. That’s what the “collection” is.

I must have Stu, because that’s the only thing it could be! I’ve recently cleared all the red tracks (I had multiples of some songs!!!). I’m now wondering if my collection includes ALL my songs, i.e. all from iTunes and my previous Rekordbox collection, whereas my ‘dj library’ folder I created after receiving some advice on here about corrupted tracks (the advice was to re-create the engine backup folder etc), therefore that folder will only include those which I’ve downloaded since I’ve had my denons… maybe?

If you’ve got some way of counting all the music files on your computer, you can then compare all 3 and see which is closer to your actual collection.

How much is the difference between the collection and dj folder?