Hello KMXE,

I think this is a new bug but at this point I'm not sure of a workaround.
It might be an issue with how 1.9.2 writes info to MP4s or it might be an issue with 1.9.2 in general.

Is this only an issue with your MP4 files or do you notice this with audio as well?

I'm going to see if Serato has any insight for us.

Hold tight:)

*BUMP*

besides this problem and also because i wanted a fresh start i decided to uninstall SSL, delete all the files, start a new iTunes library and restart everything fresh

mostly ok except after a opening/closing ssl a few times i notice 2 quartz files all of a sudden listed in the ALL part of the library - but I didnt add these at all.

i tried deleting them but they kept popping up. there's about 8 other quartz files but for some reason these 2 pop up.

i finally changed the folder name and they stopped showing - but any reason why this would happen?

Hi KMXE,

Are you still having the "date added" issue now that you have made a new database file?

Regarding the two QTZ files - were they in any of your crates?

I did yesterday....... but not as bad as what I had when i first had this problem. I was having major problems with associating videos to mp3s. SSL Shut down numerous times when i was trying to figure out how to re-associate the videos and make them stick.

Initially when i first loaded up SSL after the refresh, all my mp3s had the iTunes icon. As soon as I loaded it to a deck it had the video associated icon, but no video would play. So I tried to drag video file to 'Set Video', unload track, then reload same track = no video.

I found a thread where a workaround was to click on the 'Set Video' button after dragging the video - this eventually worked. But before this (I unfortunately didnt document the stops) i would sometimes load a track, drag a video, load up more tracks and repeat the steps. Then I would go back to some of the tracks to test, and the video that was loaded up was the video associated to the first track!!

luckily, the 'Click the "Set Video"' after dragging the video has worked for me and all my files are right (ill test some more at home later).

HOWEVER - as I was saying - yesterday after going through some of the above mishaps, I noticed when I loaded up SSL a couple of tracks had the 'Date Added' time mark the same time that i literally opened SSL. For example if I loaded up SSL at 7:18pm 57 secs - the 'Date Added' field was something like '7:18pm 58secs' or something like that.

After a few more open/closes of SSL there are about 10 files with the same change to the Date Added time mark. But that has now stopped and the last time this happened was this morning - since then (while I was busy associating videos to mp3s) everything seems to be fine now (but ill keep an eye if it happens again). These files where the 'Date Added' time mark was being changed was when SSL was shutting down on me while trying to associate the video files.

The 'Click the "Set Video"' button trick was inconsistent - on my earlier attempts the button would change from orange to black (as in no video associated), or it wouldn't change to black, or I'll load up a video, click this button then drag the video and SSL would hang etc

Regarding the 2 QTZ files - in my SSL library - yes they were in a crate or 2 - but along the 8-10 others. I cant figure out why these are unique.

One other thing Id like to point out which might be related - when you open SSL at the bottom you'll see it reading the files - when i reinstalled and started fresh, i noticed that this was extremely fast. All i would see is 'iTunes Library Loaded' (or whatever the text is).

In the last 12hours its taken slightly longer than normal, and I'm noticing that its reading some of the video files that Ive associated to the mp3 tracks - and so the library load doesnt seem superquick like when i had a fresh library. Ill keep an eye on this to see if I can give more specific details etc

I just opened SSL and 16 video files have had their 'Date Added' time stamp changed to when I just opened SSL....

Working on the train on the way to work and im working on my library....

The same group of MP4's keep showing up with their 'Date Added' time stamp changed to the moment that I open SSL

Also with the quartz files - i started loading up my mp3s which dont have video and I noticed that some of them were still associated to the quartz files that i used to have in my SSL library. At this point I changed the name of the quartz back to the original name.

So i went through all my mp3s, loading them all up looking for any which when loaded up changed their icon from a iTunes files to a file with a video associated with them and found a whole bunch of them. I tried clicking on the 'Set Video' button to un-associate the files, but SSL hanged and I had to force shut down. I had to do this maybe 2-3 times before eventually instead of hanging, the 'Set Video' button just didn't turn off. It turned off when i clicked on it, but when i let go of the click it turned back on.

I also noticed that after i had clicked on the 'Set Video' button for all of these mp3s, i closed and re-opened SSL and I noticed more quartz files in my library. I proceeded to delete these quartz files from my library, closed and reopened SSL. Right now it's still the original 2 quartz files which were showing up in the first place that are still showing up - i may have missed a few mp3s so ill go through every single mp3 and see if i can weed it out.

I'm not sure if this is related (and whether I should start a new thread) but i use iTunes to organise my library. I fill in most of the tags including year, BPM, and Grouping.

In my library (for as long as I can remember) when i open SSL, some fields in a lot of my songs dont show up. For example, right now a lot of my tracks aren't showing the Grouping, year, composer and comments fields. If I click on the tag in SSL, a lot of them then populate the field. This shouldnt be happening right???

Is there something long with my library, which has started from an old pc - eventually transferred to my MacBook Pro? I thought starting a new SSL database and iTunes library would help clense it out!

some more updates.....

When i delete the 16 MP4's which is being affected by the new time stamp each time i open up SSL first from my iTunes library, and then moved out of the original folders to a new folder, 10 new MP4s had their time stamp changed to the second I open up SSL. Just to check, i did the same steps above and this time 13 new MP4s have had their time stamp changed!!!!!!

ive now moved my MP4s back to my original folder, then dragged back into iTunes, re-opened SSL - and now a total of 27 MP4s have had their time stamp changed. The MP4s themselves are a selection from the original 16, then next 10 and the last 13 MP4s that had their time stamps changed in the last 3 attempts.

what in the world is going on!

Are you making any changes to any ScratchLIVE folders either on your internal or external drive?

The date added info should only revert back to the current date if the databaseV2 file(s) get rebuilt by renaming them outside of SSL or if your deleting the file from SSL and then re-importing the file into the program.

What are you referring to when talking about quartz files?

This has always been an issue with SSL reading an iTunes Library.
As long as you make the id3 changes in SSL SSL should remember the changes.
Don't edit your tags in iTunes.

At this point.. please try to explain your existing problems.
I'm a bit confused.

Quartz composer files



Ok, best way to explain is through some pics.

Basically, if you refer to the uploaded pic (Picture 4.png), you'll notice the time at the top right hand corner is 8:59pm.

If you look at the video files (sorted by Date Added) you can see that the time added is 8:59.42pm..... so this is suggesting that I had just added these files to SSL - which I haven't. I added these particular files at different last week.

Same thing with the next 2 images ive uploaded, it seems like something is always changing the Date Added stamp on some random files in my library to the same time as when i've just opened SSL or close to it - its like the Date Added stamp is constantly being updated.

As I said, the only thing that should have any effect on the date added info is your databaseV2 file(s).

At this point, lets rebuild them and see what happens.

If you click on the 'files' tab, how many hard drive icons do you see in the first column?

I ask because I want to make sure we are rebuilding any databaseV2 file on your computer.
If your importing music from more than one location you will have multiple ScratchLIVE folders and a databaseV2 file in each one.

If you only have your internal 'Macintosh HD' drive and, possibly, an external then follow these directions:

1. Completely shut down SSL.
2. Open your Macintosh HD drive.
3. Click on your 'Music' folder (you might need to click on the house icon to see your music folder).
4. Open the 'ScratchLIVE' folder.
5. Rename the 'databaseV2' file to something other than its original name. I usually rename it 'corruptdatabaseV2'.

If your using an external drive open the _ScratchLIVE_ folder on your external and rename the databaseV2 file in there as well.

6. Re-open SSL.

If done correctly you will see your tags getting re-written at the bottom of the page.

Note: Rebuilding the databaseV2 file will revert all of the 'date added' dates to today's date and will delete any files out of SSL that aren't currently in a crate or playlist.


If you see another hard drive icon in the first column of the files window then click on it and see if an _ScratchLIVE_ folder shows up in the column to the right.
If so, click on that folder and hold down the apple key(command) + the r key.... (apple+r).
This will open up a finder window showing you the contents of that _ScratchLIVE_ folder.
From there, completely shut down SSL but keep that Finder window open.
Now rename that databaseV2 file as well.
Once renamed open SSL.

All of your date added info will now be the current date and time.
From here on out, as long as you don't rebuild your database files again, your tracks should keep its current date added info.

Let us know if your still having issues and we'll go from there.

I've just tried as you've suggested. Another detail that might be important is that i have Boot Camp installed. Although I dont normally import files from my Windows drive, i may have done so once or twice.

I looked for my ScratchLive folder on my Mac HD and renamed as you've suggested. As i dont have any files on my Windows HD i simply deleted those folders (including the ScratchLIVEBackup folder).

When I opened SSL, i can see all the tags are being re-written but the 'Date Added' stamp on most of my files are what they were originally and also about 10 or so files have had their 'Date Added' stamp again changed to the moment that I opened SSL!

When i open 'Files' in SSL i see 2 folders and 2 HDs. The first folder is the name of my mac, which i can then go to the Music/ScratchLIVE folder to, and my 2nd folder is the Music folder.

The 1st HD is my Mac partition, and the 2nd HD is my Windows partition.

In my Mac HD, there is a ScratchLIVEBackup folder which includes a database V2 file as well - does this make a difference?

In either case - i'm still having this problem.

i dont suppose the iTunes Library has anything to do with it?

Hey KMXE,

I know I asked you earlier if the QTZ files were in any crates, but are these files which are getting the date added changed in crates too? If so, can you try this:

1) Find a crate which has these files in it.
2) Make a new crate.
3) Copy the entire crate contents from the old crate to the new crate.
4) Delete the old crate.
5) Rename the new crate.

Can you repeat this for all crates which have these files in them. If you then re-open Scratch Live does the date added still change? Make sure you have deleted all the old crates :)

When i decided to rebuild my iTunes and SSL library, the only thing i used was Smart playlists via iTunes.

I have since set up a couple of crates just to try a few things so I've tried what you've suggested and unfortunately it's still happening!

Right now the only common factor with all these files is that they are all mp4s which are associated with mp3 files.

Also - those 2 QTZ files keep appearing even though i delete them in SSL (but probably a seperate issue)

Ok, thanks for that. If you disassociate one of the audio & video files (you can re-associate it again later) does it stop changing the date added?

Ok - ive made a note of what mp4s had their date added stamp was getting changed and changed one of them. There were 10 mp4s in total.

I disassociated, closed SSL then reopened.

That particular mp4 that i disassociated - the Date Added timestamp did not change so that seemed to work ok for that.

However, besides the 9 remaining mp4s which have their Date Added timestamp changed, 3 more mp4s have now had their date Added changed.

Just an update....



Because of this ive taken iTunes out of the equation.

And now, instead of about 10 mp4's having their date added time stamp being changed, there's about 20+ now!

If you remove these from the library completely, then re-import, does the date added stamp keep on changing after that point?

i tested this by unassociating then deleting 3 MP4s in my library, closing SSL, reopening then re-importing these same MP4s. The Date Added stamp seems to not change.

i then tried just deleting the MP4s (which were associated with MP3s), closing SSL, then reopening but they came back.

It seems as though I would need to unassociate all my MP4s which are associated with MP3s, delete, then reimport

my only problem is that i think there are at least 300 MP4s which I would now have to do this with and its not a very attractive excercise i want to get into to!

ok - i started the process of going through all the affected MP4s by deleting them and re-importing them.

First thing i did though was (as I do with new songs) is import them into SSL.

Next time i fired up SSL the first thing i noticed was that instead of approximately 300 odd MP4s with their respective Date Added timestamp changed, only 20 or so MP4s were changed.

I moved these into a subcrate, then dragged the associated MP3s into another subcrate so i remember what to import back into SSL.

I dis-associated all MP3s from MP4s, then deleted the MP4s

Closed SSL, re-opened SSL and about 20+ new MP4s now had their Date Added time stamped changed.

I then re-imported the initial batch of MP4s which I deleted. Re-associated MP3s to MP4s then closed SSL

Re-opened SSL and what do i find? About 80+ MP4s with their Date Added time stamp changed - including some of the MP4s that i had just re-imported back into SSL.

Deleting the MP4s then re-importing doesnt seem to work!!

*bump*

Can you please attach one of the files this happens with to this thread, we can try and reproduce this in house.

this is still plaguing me - and i seem to be only one!

*bump*

I thought i added a post to this - ive added the video to show exactly what is happening just in case it wasn't clear

*BUMP*

Hi - we're just working on it sorry for the delay. We'll let you know what we find asap.

thanks mate!

Just thought id update this.

I noticed with 2.1 initially this problem that Ive been having didnt occur.

A couple of days ago the problem re-surfaced, and it kept happening each time I shut down and re-opened.

Then from yesterday the problem was gone again - the Date Added stamp was being left alone (yay!) but because this problem did resurface (at least for a day) I'm trying to narrow down what I was doing at the time.

HAve you guys changed something here?

Hey KMXE,

Sorry for the delayed response on this. I just got back from vacation;)

Have you tried updating to the 2.1.1 Public Beta?
If not, do so and let us know if your issue still occurs --> serato.com

its weird

21119 it was working fine for a while then on one night it screwed up the date added again.

the only thing that i was doing was that i started to move files from my laptop to my iMac via ethernet a few moments before I opened SSL, but when i tried to reproduce it it didnt happen again.

when i loaded up 21122 so far it hasn't changed the date added times yet. i'll keep an eye on this - i dont think this has been resolved (because it took about a week or 2 before 21119 screwed up) so ill keep testing

This constantly happens to me. I just got fed up and finally rebuilt my v2 database file (goodbye date added info!) But that did not solve the problem. ONLY .mp4 files which I have used to link to other mp3s keep messing up the date added in the same way- that they appear to have just been added when I launch serato.

Some time back, I had literally re-encoded the .mp4's because I thought it was some file fault. that fixed the problem for a week or so and then the problem came back full force.

Any thoughts KMXE or Zach? I'm on the latest versions of both serato and VSL

Oh no. It seems i've disturbed the hornet's nest... in trying to explore the problem more I have now crashed serato and the VSL plugin just doing simple things like loading tracks, trying to re-link some things, etc. This is a brand new problem now:

When I load an .mp3 which has been linked to a video file (a problematic video file which adds itself to database brand new every program launch) a new file is created.

img839.imageshack.us This is a screenshot of before I load the .mp3. Note there are only two tracks- the video and the .mp3 to which it is linked. (the top 2 files. They are located in G>passport media> and a subfolder in there.

Then I load the .mp3 to which the video file has been linked already.

img97.imageshack.us I get this!! Serato creates some weird ghost file on the main drive directory as soon as I load the .mp3. Note that is located just on G:\ but when I go there (prior to closing and after both) no such file exists. not hidden or anthign... just doesn't exist. This happens every time I load an affected .mp3.

No file exists, is ever created, and the ghost file does not re-appear if I restart serato. Only "creates" itself in the database once an mp3 is loaded. and it remains until program close.

seriously concerning and weird

wow - i thought i was the only one with this problem!

it seems the only difference between me and you is that it only affects a large amount of my MP4's (not all, and not the same amount of MP4's each time i open SSL and have this problem), and i'd say 99% of my MP4's are associated with an MP3 file.

But also - im on the latest versions and im currently not having this problem.

and no - ive never seen your 2nd problem happen to me - might be worth while to start a new thread on that

Yeah- my problem is isolated to about 50 of my .mp4's- all of which are linked to an mp3 though. I don't link much so it's likely that those 50 are actually all of my linked files.

like 25 program crashes later, I've decided I'd rather have a stable dj software than linked mp3's to videos.

The problem is ONLY solved for me by de-associating every mp3 and mp4. then the files don't re-add themselves every program launch.

mind you un-linking them was a challenge in itself. i had to unlink in groups of 5 and then restart serato else the program would crash.

sad face. the link feature is incredibly useful and the bugs ought be worked out!

Hey guys.

We've got some fixes for this type of thing going into the next Scratch Live version.
Are you all able to try the new Beta when it drops (soon) and see if you are still having issues. If you do still have a problem, then you can start a new bug report in the Beta area. We can then see if there is anything else we need to do.
Sorry for the hassles in the mean time!

this problem for me has reared its ugly head.

basically the only thing different i've done is try 2.2 and because of my other problem (serato.com & serato.com) i quickly switched back to 2.1.

ive closed down SSL twice now and reproduced both times

whatever you guys did before please have a look again!

ignore this - i accidentally opened an earlier version

crazy - this has just happened to me again on 2.1.1. and i thought i saw the last of it

The only thing I did this morning was add some tags on some MP4's which were missing

Hey KMXE,

Can you give an update as to what is happening now?

Can you see if your still having the issue using 2.2?

i guess it was the file type??? anyways - uploaded

I'm not sure why you uploaded your overviewbuilder.log file.

This thread is really old and there is a lot of info here.
Can you please explain what problem(s) your currently having with 2.2?

hi Zach,

sorry - that file was meant for another thread i was having which is related to 2.2.

the problem that i was having here (which also happened to dj gaetano serato.com) came up again the other day AFTER i added some tags to some mp4s on 2.1.1.

I've since tried to reproduce this problem on 2.2 but haven't done so yet.

I wasn't sure if this particular issue was ever fixed (especially since dj gaetano has recently had the same problem) so I thought I would flag this up again just in case it pops up in future releases.

Right now for 2.2 - i'm not having this particular problem - I'm just having one other problem (outlined here serato.com).

Although having said this, I haven't tried to add tags to mp4s on 2.2 - so i will start to test this and keep you updated.

Cool.. thanks for the update.
Checked out the other posts and it looks like Serato is aware and working on this.

Not sure what is up with the video files crashing SSL but I'll keep an eye on that post.