I know you're going to ask for this too

Specs are:

2010 MacBook Pro 17"
2.53 GHz Intel Core i5
OSX 10.6.8
SL1
Scratch LIVE 2.1.1 / 2.3.3 / 2.4.1 (all have same issues)
8gb 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM
128gb internal SSD (no music stored here)
2tb G-Tech FW800 HFS+ external (all music/video files stored here)

Do you have the same issue when importing only audio files?
Also, if you unplug your external and importing music from your internal drive (not video files) do you experience the same thing?

Yes I have this issue when importing only audio files.

No I do not experience this issue when I unplug my external drive. Without my external drive there is no library loaded to drag down the program

However, with my external drive connected, if I import audio files from the internal drive, they cause the same lag as importing files from the external drive.

If you try importing a single file, does it hang?

I would use the Disc Repair feature of your MAC to check the drive for any errors. This is good to do once a month.

Importing 1 file will choke it up, though less severely. It also seems to be a longer delay if I'm dragging a folder that will make a NEW crate vs. adding a few files to an existing crate. Either way it will hang like the video I posted.

I've done verify disk/repair permissions plenty of times, reinstalled the OS, reformatted internal and external drives, tried FAT/NTFS/HFS+ formats...

Im having the same issue too! Doesn't matter for me if its video or audio on the external or internal.. it just locked up for about 8-10 mins.

This is an issue I am aware of with video files in the library. If you have them or you have Video SL installed, please let me know, it does make a difference.

I use Video SL still.

^^Please start a new thread in the Video Help section

Auronis - I watched the video and at the bottom of the screen it says Scratch Live is using 110%, what are the other number around it?

How many crates do you have in your library?

How many subcrates do you have in them?

I have this issue with "Video SL" or "Serato Video" installed, they do not make a difference between the two, the system still chokes up trying to import files.

Chad the numbers you're seeing are from iStats showing CPU usage for various processes that are currently running. Just like the Apple Activity Monitor only in your menu bar.

I don't know the number of crates and subcrates off the top of my head, I uploaded my _Serato_ file. I cut down on crates and subcrates substantially in effort to fix this issue but in testing with only 2 crates I still had this problem after adding about 20,000 tracks.

If I had to guess now, 50 or less total crates+subcrates

If you completely uninstall the Video program do the problems still occur? Is that something you are willing to try?

There have been issues with people having 100's of crates and many subcrates where it would eat the active RAM and that could slow down the import process. 50 crates shouldn't create that much of an issue but I might have to ask Serato to look at this. Let me know.

I'll try, but if I recall I've tried running without any video plugins before and still had issues.

You'll need to remove it completely but before you do, make sure you have your SVS number written somewhere.

When removing files be sure to go to the Macintosh HD / Library / Application support / Scratch Live / Plugins and remove the Video plug in.

Ran Video SL uninstaller.
Serato Video does not have an uninstaller in the .dmg.

Macintosh HD / Library / Application support / Scratch Live / Plugins was empty

Macintosh HD / Library / Application support / Serato had a "Serato Video" application that I deleted after entering administrator password

Now videos are not listed as an option in any version (1.9.2, 2.1.1, 2.3.3, 2.4.1) but videos are still listed in my crates and I am able to play their audio only

In 2.4.1: Dragged a folder of new files (113 total .mp3/.m4a) loaded almost instantly! And rather than the status bar at the bottom getting stuck on 1 track "Reading Tags..." for minutes, I could see it reading through the different files quickly... we're on to something.

Good deal here. I'm more familiar with Video SL than I am Serato Video. Serato took back support for their video product last year. Since then they do 100% of the support and there are a few things I might not be aware of that they are.

We've seen issues like this with videos and the video program installed but haven't been the ones to troubleshoot for the answer. I can definitely ping Serato on this if you like. Let me know how further testing goes.

Sorry Chad I'm confused by your post, are you not Serato support? Who does troubleshoot the for the answers. Definitely please ping Serato.

I'm not sure what my next move is. Install Video SL and see if the problems come back? Install Serato Video and see? I have a feeling either one is going to create the problems again.

I'm here for a solution.

I work for Rane. Serato and Rane have partenered on Scratch Live, Video however is 100% Serato and their capable tech team handles all Video related tech issues.

Without Video installed, the problem has cleared up. I will ping Serato for you now. In the meantime, try reinstalling Video and see if the issue returns.

Reinstalled Serato Video and launched 2.4.1

I was able to import a few hundred songs with less trouble than usual, something has changed between Video-SL and Serato Video.

Anyone who has this problem should uninstall Video-SL and anyone who has upgraded to Serato Video should still go back and uninstall Video-SL as the Serato Video installer will not remove it for you.

I'll report back after I'm able to test some more.

Interesting findings.

2.4.1 with Serato Video installed and the problem is back.

The files that did not have an issue (in my last post) came from a friend's Serato library and we're already analyzed on his system.

The files I tried today were fresh downloads. After dragging and dropping the folder of 80 new tracks into Serato to make a new crate, the system read a few tags in the status bar then got stuck on one, like it used to, and hung for 5 more minutes.

Help please

You can also try contacting Serato directly at support@serato.com.

This is in a specific area they should be checking often.

Confused again sorry Chad. Should I wait for a reply here or send an email?

If I send an email I would probably just link this and related threads. We have troubleshooted as far as we can go, we know the problem and the cause, no solution...

I suggest both. Today is Saturday in NZ so I know it will be 2 days before Serato is in the office again. I would send an email as well and do include the link to the thread so that the support team there can get all of the wonderful details you hhave already discovered. This thread lays it out very well, it's just getting their attention. Thats what the email is for :)

I have the exact same problem, and it's driving me mad! Ever since I upgraded to 2.41 & serato video - importing tracks can leave it hanging for up to 10 minutes at times! & a single track will leave it hanging for at least a couple of minutes, sometimes even more. It's very frustrating. I must have at least 100 crates, but it hasn't been a problem in the past.

the last (single) track i just tried importing lagged serato for 11 minutes

Thanks djmatman for letting me know I'm not alone.

This problem has plagued me for years, literally years of troubleshooting wondering what was wrong with my library/hard drive/macbook/which version of os/which version of serato/which format of my hard drive... every gig I'm on edge waiting for another rainbow wheel or a crash... and I dread updating my library every week or two because it takes me hours to import a handful of new tracks!

Now that I think about it, it all started when I first got some VJ gigs and bought Video-SL

Can you lend any input about your setup? hardware? library size?

Any time I start with a fresh library and import more than 20-30,000 tracks it starts happening again

How often do you vj? I know this isn't ideal but uninstalling the video plugin would that help?

Another thought, I know you can have multiple copies of serato on a machine, would it be possible to have one install with video and one without?

I'm having similar issues and have a couple thread searching for help

@JohnCaniford

I have not been VJing this week and am running better with Serato Video uninstalled. Even small things like unfolding parent crates are noticeably snappier with all video plugins removed.

I have 4 versions of Scratch LIVE installed but you cannot pick and choose which use video, if video is installed, any version will load it and then the awful performance issues are back.

Will video files still be available to play as audio only?

Yes try it, you can always reinstall Serato Video or re-uninstall it. I have several times lately. It's faster than importing a new song... lol...

Hey Auronis,

Firstly, I apologize for the slow reply, our support team here has been extremely busy.

Reading this thread and your previous thread, I can see that you have gone through a fair amount of troubleshooting and Samuel S would have mentioned in your other help request, it seems like you may be reaching an upper memory limit with the program and the amount of crates/sub crates you have.

What I wanted to just clarify is, that if you DISABLE the Serato Video plugin from your setup screen, does the importing time improve? Or is only when you completely remove the plugin from your plugins folder does it improve?

Sorry if I have asked a question that has already been asked! Thanks.

Hi Martin,

I'm sure you have your hands full over there, the software seems to be worse which each new version.

My day job is in IT and I'm very familiar with troubleshooting. Samuel S mentioned a memory limit but my crates/subcrates are at maybe 100 total. I attached my _Serato_ folder for your testing. In my video you can see the memory usage of Serato is ~700mb while my system has 8gb total.

This doesn't seem to be outrageous as I used to run 1.9.2 with an IBM laptop 512mb RAM and well over 300+ crates, literally every folder of music I had I made a crate for. It still ran better than this macbook which has specs that are 10x that of the IBM.

The real cause is possibly the number of actual tracks, however, I tested 2 crates and about 20,000 tracks total and ran into the same importing issues.

Now I'm seeing finally results when removing the video plugins. If I recall I have tested enabling/disabling the video plugins from the setup menu with no improvement. Removing the plugins themselves was the only progress I've made in years. I can test again but it will be a few days.

Hey man,

Thanks for the great info :)

I have tested with your _Serato_ folder which has 48370 files, with about 10 main crates, with sub crates, but you are correct, nothing outrageous looking at what you have there.

I imported a folder of music into a new crate of about 500 files and it too about 15 seconds.

I would be interested to know in order to improve performance, if you disable the plugin in the plugins setup, rather than completely removing the plugin file, does it help? Or do you have to completely remove the plugin from the plugins folder?

How long does it take to import the file when your Video plugin is removed?

I noticed you have 73 corrupt files in your library. If you removed these from the folder, is there any improvement?

Hey Martin,

Appreciate you looking into this, I have some questions about your test.

What version of Scratch Live and Serato Video? Was Video checked/enabled in the setup window?

What operating system/version?

Most importantly: Were your 500 tracks previously imported into *ANY* Serato library before your test?

I have a graduation party this weekend and the client sent me some CD's to rip into my library, so with some fresh never-before-imported-into-Serato mp3s these were my results

2.4.1 no Video installed

Startup time was brief
Imported 19 brand new never in a Serato library tracks, no problem.

2.4.1 with Video installed, though not checked to enable in the Setup window

Startup time was slower, with rainbow wheel
Imported 19 tracks from previous test, no problems.
Imported 5 brand new never in a Serato library tracks, immediate rainbow wheel, cpu usage spikes and stays consistently at ~105%, system hangs 5 minutes.

Hi Auronis,

Thanks for the clear information you have provided.

With my test, I was using Scratch Live 2.4.1 with Serato Video enabled. The 500 files I was importing, had been imported previously with my own "_Serato_" which means there were analyzed, and all it had to do when I imported them using your _Serato_ folder was to read the tags.

Perhaps this wasn't a entirely accurate comparison, however you say you have spikes when just trying to import, not analyzing, so I didn't think this would be an issue.


It seems obvious in your two tests directly compared, Serato Video is causing a problem, even if it isn't enabled, or launched in the software.

Just to be clear, in in your first test, where you didn't experience any issues, had you completely removed the Serato Video plugin file, from the plugins folder?

Have you tried removing this plugin, then re-downloading and reinstalling the plugin?

You're correct, the usage spikes are while importing either by dragging and dropping from Finder or by using the Files menu in Serato. File analyzation is not an issue.

Serato Video is causing a problem, and this occurs with new files rather than files that have been imported before.

To be clear, yes, I had completely removed the Serato Video plugin from the plugins folder,

Macintosh HD / Library / Application support / Serato had a "Serato Video" application that I deleted after entering administrator password

I have removed the plugin and redownloaded/reinstalled it several times, as well as many versions of Scratch LIVE (2.1.1, 2.3.3, 2.4.1)

Are you able to trigger this issue importing new files? What version of OSX are you using?

Thanks for the help

My system specs are as follows:

2.3Ghz Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz DDR 3
OS X 10.7.4

I am unable to have this problem at all.

How much free space do you have on your internal 128GB drive?

How much free space do you have on your 2TB external drive?

Are you able to get a screen shot of your activity monitor showing the CPU level of Scratch Live/Serato Video, when the plugin is installed and then not installed? It would be good to make a comparison.

Let me know if you are unsure about doing this and you need some help :)

Have you tried importing brand new files, that have never been in a Serato library?

I wonder if there's a difference between Snow Leopard (10.6) and Lion (10.7) that has some impact.

My internal drive has 45+ gb of free space. My external has 700+ gb free.

I don't think that screenshot will help much, I can describe it to you as I have in this thread. Without the plugin installed, the cpu usage spikes but only briefly, a matter of seconds. With the plugin installed it spikes and stays over 100% usage for 5 minutes or more.

I'd really like to know what erange and myself have in common on our systems that may be causing this, his thread is here: serato.com

Serato Video is clearly at fault, but what makes your machine work and mine not? Is it a version of OSX? Is it an additional program like Perian?

I'm obviously not the only one with this problem, and I really need some help or a refund on my $199 purchase of Video-SL, this is unacceptable.

No I havent, but I will try and test that when I get the chance. There will be some differences between the Operating Systems, but none that should affect your performance in this way.

It does seem that Serato Video is causing this issue, but there is definitely a few more things I would like to investigate if you are happy to continue troubleshooting.

Do you have Perian installed or no?

Just to go back to something you previously said:



You say that you are unable to test without your external drive disconnected, but I think we need to test this theory a bit more. If you were to transfer a bunch of files over from your external to the internal, then disconnect the external and try importing those files from the internal into the program, how does it go?

It would be good to test with both Serato Video installed and removed to see what happens.

Yes I have Perian installed, I think it was suggested somewhere on this website. Just an idea of another possible wildcard that could be causing issues. With Serato Video installed it does not matter which drive I import from I still have this problem.

Yes, but is this with your external drive disconnected or connected?

I would just like to see if there was any difference when the external drive is disconnected, which (as you said you have no files on the internal) would require you to move a few files over to the internal for the test.

Are you able to test this?

The second test would be seeing if Scratch Live 2.3.3 with Video-SL did the same thing. Had you used Video-SL in the past?

Connected or disconnected. Yes I've used Video-SL in the past. Yes I have this issue with 2.3.3 and Video-SL

Please see my other threads.

Cheers. After going back to check your thread again I can see we are pretty much heading down the same road.

I am probably unable to provide any more information that what Samuel S has already given in that thread.

The _Serato_ folder you provided at the beginning of this thread, is that from the external or internal?

I was wondering if you could provide me with both folders in order for me to have another go at reproducing this issue.

Do you use iTunes in Scratch Live?

It's from external, where my library is. I do not use iTunes.

Ok cheers, could you please send me a copy of the _Serato_ folder from your internal drive so I could try and have another go at the issue you are having?

It's attached, but I do not use the internal drive for any music or video storage

Ok thanks, now I have been able to recreate this by putting the external _Serato_ folder on an external drive and your internal _Serato_ folder on my internal drive.

I did a couple of tests:

1. Serato Video enabled, import 1 file: 21 seconds
2. Serato Video disabled, import 1 file: 19 seconds
3. Serato Video plugin completely removed, import 1 file: 3 seconds

Definitely a big difference looking at the times above, and I agree, it is totally not acceptable to wait that long to import 1 file.

There are two factors here that I think are potentially affecting your situation:

1. When Serato Video is installed, you will see that there are two purple "crates" additional to ALL, which are "all audio" and "all video." (These do not appear when Serato Video is NOT installed)

These two "crates" are essentially like smart crates, meaning that they determine what file types you have and pull the relevant files that meet its criteria into the crate. When you import a new file, Scratch Live must determine which of these crates it will go into.

Although I dont know technically why, in my experience I have seen smart crates in general create lag when being used with bulky libraries.

2. The more contributing factor I believe, and although I dont completely understand it from a developers point of a view, is a action called "fast list."

Whenever you import a new file into the program, the program will quickly scan EVERY file on the database V2 to ensure that file doesn't already exist, in order to avoid creating a double.

Again, with a bulky library, this particular process can be slow, even with one 1 file.

The good news is, I have tested your particular library with a newer version of our software (something that is currently still in development) as there has been recent improvements made to this "fast list" process. I can confirm that importing a file is now much faster, and is greatly different to the current version of Scratch Live.

What I cant do unfortunately, is give you a firm date about when this improvement will come into a software version that will be publicly available.

Can I use the beta version in the mean time? I've got 2 video residencies and it's a nightmare having to delete the plug-in every time I need to add 1 or more tracks.

Sorry, it is a fix that has at this stage currently gone into a ITCH prototype build. There is still uncertainties about this particular issue being fixed in this way, and not causing any issues elsewhere with Library Management.

This sort of thing must be thoroughly tested, and if successful, the change may be put into Scratch Live too. At this stage I cant make any promises when this will happen, and when you will be able to get your hands on it unfortunately.

100+ messages and over a year's worth of time and energy put into this for nothing. I will be steering people away from Serato from now on as there are better solutions out there. It was a great start in 2005 but in recent years the upgrades are just more bugs to introduce, the customer support is this hopeless forum, and half of my control vinyl come warped in some way that I can't use them. Good luck.

Hey Auronis, I'm sorry that you feel this way.

Believe me, it is not time wasted, your messages on this forum are heard, and we do acknowledge there are issues with our software when it seems to reach a "max capacity" of some sort.

Its something we are working on improving, and we do log those issues when users bring them up. As more users post on the forum about this issue, the urgency to improve the capacity for more files increases.

I'm sorry I cant provide you with an instant fix for you in this particular scenario. The issue is more complex than other "bugs" may be, and requires thorough testing before being thrown into a software release.

We do try and help all of our users as much as possible via the phone, email and this forum. For fixing certain issues like this however, is a bit beyond anything, as a support person, I can do at this point.

As for the control vinyl, things this like this are mostly beyond our control, unless you purchased Control Vinyl via the Serato Vault that was briefly on our website, then we do not sell the Control Vinyl directly.

If you are consistently received damaged control vinyl from an online retailer, I would suggest that you contact that retailer for a replacement, or at the very least they could enquire with their choice of postal service/courier as to why you are receiving them in that condition.