Hi XSV,

I've just tested with a few AAC files here, can you send me the one/s you are having problems with?
Upload them using the "attach a file" button.
Also try upgrading to the newer version of Serato DJ 1.1.2

Matt P

I've attached one of the files. I had a Twitter conversation with someone and their suggestion was to upgrade all the songs that have this particular moniker by going back and purchasing the iTunes Plus version. That makes no sense to me since I am able to play the songs in SSL.

I have the same with some m4a or mpeg4 audio files. Still working on itas they used to play fine in ssl.

Hi XSV,

I've testeed the file you sent and was able to play it and write to it too. Are you using an external HD? Are you the admin on your computer?

Regards

Matt P

I'm not using an external HD for this particular setup.

I am the admin and only user on the computer.

Like I said it's an interesting situation. I have about a third or so of my library unplayable in SDJ. Everything works fine in SSL though.

Not sure if this has any relevance to your issue or not but I had a similar problem when I switched from Virtual DJ to Serato. For me it was only a couple songs that I had purchased on iTunes that were not playing, they gave an "unsupported file format" error. After a lot of google searches and head scratching I realized that the 2 songs that wouldn't play were both songs that I purchased via my iPhone and transferred to my PC during sync. Since I am subscibed to iTunes Match (which is very much worth the measley $25 a year cost) I deleted them from iTunes on my PC but when asked if I wanted to move the file to the recycling bin or keep the media file in iTunes I chose to keep it in iTunes. Upon doing that an icon appeared next to the song allowing me to download the file from the iCloud (Match backs up all files to the cloud), I simply downloaded the file from the cloud, reopened Serato and to my amazement the file was able to be analyzed and used in Serato software.

Again I realize this may be a very different issue than you are having but I hope this helps nonetheless.

Hi XSV,

You could also try converting the file to Mp3 and see if that helps, otherwise we may have to try renaming the _Serato_ folder.

Matt P

Converting the files is going to take some time (~3000 tracks). I am just trying to understand why they work perfectly fine in SSL and not in SDJ.

Would this not be a bad thing as far as quality is concerned? I have some mpeg4 files that won't play in Serato DJ, when I suggested converting them the mp3 files I was warned that converting from lossy to lossy file formats was a bad idea?

Hi XSV,

I'm sorry for the confusion, i mean just try one of the tracks. THe whole library would be a little bit too much at this point, I just want to see if the file is at any cause for this.

I'm not sure why its playing fine in Serato DJ for me, but not for you..

Matt P

I converted the track to an Mp3. Works fine now.

Still at square one trying to figure out why the originally purchased track won't play in SDJ though.

Hi XSV,

Me too, however the permissions of the file could be a problem, but itunes haven't protected their files for a while now. I haven't encountered this issue in a while.
Can you open one of the other files that you are having an issue with and let me know if you are able to read and write to it.

Matt P

Sames scenario as before.

Purchased AAC file will not play. Plays fine in SSL.

Convert to Mp3, all is right in the world again!

Hi XSV,

Hmm, ok. What version of itunes are you using?

Matt P

iTunes 10.7

Are they itunes tracks you paid for or itunes tracks somebody gave you?

Hi XSV,

I'd recommend trying to upgrade your itunes if you are willing to. Itunes 11 isn't better and can understand if you don't want to, but i imagine this may help.

Matt P

I have 2 machines and I went ahead and upgraded one before you even mentioned it. :)

Same problem.

DJ Freestyle - I've bought the tracks myself. They weren't given to me.

In other news - iTunes 11 is the worst GUI known to mankind

Did you guy songs on one machine and move to another?

The original machine they were purchased on is the one I primarily use. So a transferring of the files shouldn't be the issue. They also share the same iTunes account.

Ya very weird. Never ever seen that before. Could be itunes screwed up and added some coding thats causing it.

Seems that way....

Thinking about that I uninstalled and re-installed iTunes. Same issue.

Took it a step further and reinstalled the OS. Same thing.

I'm beginning to go bald from scratching my head on this one.

Ya ive used serato almost since day one and been thru most issues. this one is a puzzle. Has to be in the original code. has to be if convertign to mp3 fixes it. has to be.

Hi XSV ,

I'm really stumped on this, I've noticed writing information to itunes files is sometimes very confusing. I think the only workaround is to re encode the file unfortunately.



I use mixed in key to write to files too, and i find the key information doesn't show up on mutliple itunes files too. Which leads me to believe its not exclusive to Serato software.

Matt P

So the solution at this point is to re-purchase everything or convert everything if I understand correctly?

XSV ,

Re converting would be the only option, iTunes will still protect files as i was mentioning in my post above.

Matt P

Itunes used to give you the option of converting your music to iTunes plus (unprotected) for .30 a song a while ago. I don't know if they still do that or not.

Well this is going to take some time. Thanks for the help everyone.

XSV,

You could sort by filetype in itunes you can batch convert the files to mp3 that way and then delete duplicates... :-)

Matt P

It's just about 5700 tracks is all. :)

This is weird....
....After having similar issues with specifically mp4 files that worked fine in iTunes but wouldn't work in Serato SL or DJ.
I decided to upgrade my hard drive to put my entire music library on so I had no need to take my back up hard drive with me as the music file drive.
I bought a 750GB Western Digital Black and put a 100GB partition in it for Operating Systems and Programs and transferred all of my music to the other partition. This was not in any way to resolve the issue of the files that didn't work, it was more to give me the chance to try 64bit Windows 7 and have the option of an easy change over of os back to 32bit if everything went Pete Tong without having to go through all the data transfer (260GB of music alone but not all for Serato).
Anyway, last night I finally finished with importing all the music that I wanted into Serato DJ (all ready for the arrival of my DDJ SX at the end of the week if Pioneer don't screw it up again!) and so far, everything appears to be back to normal.

I have done nothing different with this install other than to partition my hard drive to seperate music from programs and OS. I am almost certain that this isn't what has resolved the issue and I'm far from certain that it won't end up happening again, but so far, so lucky.

As far as converting files to mp3. I was quite rightly informed that if I convert one "lossy" file type (mp4) to another "lossy" file type (mp3) then I would further reduce the quality of the tune or file, which on a bigger than bedroom system must be noticeable surely?




If you've purchased tracks in iTunes you shouldn't have to pay again. I know that you can re-download purchased content without the data protection stuff at no extra cost as I had to do it a couple of years back (after loosing a laptop) don't ask me how as I can't remember, but iTunes help will tell you how (if you have the patience).

Good luck in sorting your problem.

This Sounds like a codec problem to me...maybe his Serato DJ doesn't have acess to the same audio codecs we & Matt's test Macbook have?

Converting the whole Library especially lossy(Mp4) to a worse lossy(Mp3) without understanding the problem isn't the answer i'd say.

If it's working for Matt it should work for XSV...maybe XSV skipped updating Quicktime or maybe needs to add perian or something of the sort.

good Luck!

My problem all seemed to relate to tracks in my iTunes library.
It seems gone are the days when Serato work iron out the obvious bugs before a software release. What's happened.......I notice they don@t contribute to some forum discussions like they used to either.

Hi guys,

Yes i'd like to have another option rather than converting the whole library too. I'd be interested to know if a quicktime update helps. Perian is no longer recommended for Mac. I don't believe its still being updated.

We are experiencing alot more traffic recently which is unfortunately making it harder to find resources to accommodate everybody and their requests.

Hope you understand.

Matt p

I've tried everything mentioned above in this thread. I've gone ahead and either purchased or converted the files that really matter.

As for the customer support side of things, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Serato, while it is still a small company, is huge all over the world. Since releasing Serato DJ I can imagine the influx of "help requests". A lot of the problems are easily fixed by the members of our community or by simply reading the manual.

For the $1000 price tag on my DDJ-SX I am willing to wait for help. I paid $1000 for a controller WITH software that can do things that are leaps and bounds ahead of anything I'm currently capable of doing with my TTM-57 or even a Sixty Two or a Sixty Eight. I paid $1000 for an amazing piece of technology that allows me to accomplish things creatively I've only ever been able to think about. Sure, it has it's drawbacks and everything isn't quite perfect but again I paid $1000 for it. If you really want to put customer service to the test try contacting the people at Pioneer about your problems.

So, Serato team keep doing what you're doing. I'll be here waiting, because I'm patient and realize the amount of other stuff you have to wade through in order to get to the real one of a kind issues.

Thanks for all the FREE help.

@matt, you said alot more traffic. new updates coming?

I had to try lol lol

Thanks XSV, I really appreciate that.

dj-freestyle, yes more updates very soon, more features and more supported controllers and of course bug fixes too.

Matt P

m4a is supported, m4p (protected) not. The only option is to convert to mp3 by exporting the files to a CD and import them again? Laborious... iTunes does not warn when a file is in a protected format.