I think I’ve just about had it with engine dj. If it isn’t one problem it’s the next. I’ve seemed to have lost ALL of my collection of music after a power failure on my PC whilst adding/organising files. I’m currently on 2.3.1 version of the software and it’s not even allowing a restore from previous back up.
Can someone advise please?
Repair the drive in windows (chkdisk) or first aid on mac mate. I feel your pain i had it happen before…
In all fairness though denon cant be held responsible for power cuts or data lost through them can they computers snd hard drives are sensitive little buggers
Your actual track files are missing? or just the data from the Engine database?
Its the data files that appear to be corrupted.
I’ll try it 2moro. I would have thought that the backup and restore facility could have rectified this issue.
Rename the corrupted database then rename the back up to the original database and see if that works for you.
Damn, tried the chkdsk, no joy. The thing is, upon starting engine dj, it doesn’t even tell me my drive is corrupted, its just that all of my playlists within the collection are missing.
Can you explain further? Not quite sure what you mean.
When this happens to me ( normally through stupidity of unplugging drive from desktop in a hurry without ejecting first).
run a manual disk check on an via the CHKDSK utility. To launch this utility, right-click the drive in File Explorer and click “Properties.” Click the “Tools” tab, and then click “Check” to launch the CHKDSK utility, which automatically begins scanning the drive for errors…
Then when i plug drive back in everything is magicly restored. If you have a library backup from BEFORE the crash then restore from that. If however tje backup is AFTER the crash and you have restored it then sorry i cant give an easy solution other than start over
For example on MAC my main Engine Database is in a folder called Engine Library and the backup database is in Engine Library Backup.
I would rename the main database (Engine Library) to Engine Library Temp, then rename the backup database (Engine Library Backup) to Engine Library. This now makes the backup database your main database.
See if your lost information is back.
Thanks for that, i had already done that to no avail. It’s unusual, as I would have thought I’d get a corruption warning upon startup of software, but this does not occur.
Ive had to import similar outdated playlists from serato and now attempting to rebuild again in preparation for my gigs at the weekend. This is gonna be a long tedious job. Thanks anyway mate.
Hmmm, very weird. So having gone out and purchased a new laptop out of frustration and reinstalling operating system of old laptop, I got everything working again, that was until, I exported a playlist from traktor to engine dj, but wait for this… the OLD laptop is now working and allowing file drag and drops and NOT the NEW laptop. I’m convinced now, it maybe a particular file or files, but it is also indicative that Engine Dj is super sensitive if not buggy.
Had a similar situation this morning. Engine hung and when it eventually exited, overwrote its own stupid backup with nothing in the process. Lost hundreds of hours of cue point preparation. I never really liked engine (bad workflow design, lack of useful features) but this has made me hate it.
As a test for this, use a spare drive and drop all your music files into two folders (A and B for example)
Try analysing the “A” half then the “B” half… in theory, one will analyse successfully, one will fail.
Then split the files from the half that failed, into two new folders … (C and D for example) analyse each of those … again, the half that’s got a faulty file in it, should fail….
Keep splitting and re-analysing until you narrow it down more. Sometimes it will be a download from a particular site, sometimes it’ll be one of “those” files that that “mate” gave you … or “that” album you tried ripping with that new free cd-ripper etc
Well here I am AGAIN. I now believe engine prime to be singlehandedly, the worst DJ software out there. Every other month or so, after meticulously building playlists for painstaking hours on hand and saving backups as I go along, my files are corrupt AGAIN and even attempting restoring backup doesn’t help. Many playlists missing. I’ve had enough. This is making me lose my passion for DJ-ing. Unacceptable! ver 2.4.0
Sounds like you’ve still got some non-Prime issues there first.
Re: power unexpectedly failed on my laptop
And did you try the A vs B file testing suggested above ?
If it was Engine software, on its own, doing this “every two months” as you mention, then every engined software user would be on here, every two months, saying guess what, exactly the same as you, but they’re not.
So, there has to be something different when comparing the setup of every other user in the world (every two months), and your setup (hardware, software, workflow, 3rs party apps)
Maybe some background file “housekeeper” software that’s doing something to files on internal and external connected drives , maybe some anti-virus , some other Music tagging, key finding, bpm counting, trimming, volume-levelling sort of application(s)
And what you are saying, makes perfect sense. However, I tried almost everything bar the A and B compartmentalization method as my system started to work out of the blue again. so in my mind, there was no need to try that method. I also went out and bought a new PC and yet, I’m getting this issue where prior till last year June/ July, from 2019, I have NEVER had these issues and previously viewed complaints against Denon with suspicion. Now i must concede, the platform is not stable. I have no issues with any other software as I do Engine.
Is any of that other software doing anything with the same music files ?
No, they are generally left dormant as I focus more on engine. I have major playlists saved within those software that I normally then rely on to re-build my engine playlists back with.