I don’t think they’ll ever implement hard deleting of music inside the DJ software, I’ve just checked Rekordbox and Serato and it seems neither of them do it either.
It’s far too risky as you could potentially hit cmd+a then delete and remove your entire music collection.
Unfortunately, no. As stated in this video, using this method will only remove the files from your collection or from any drives that you have exported the files too. It will never remove it from your actual hard drive on your computer. Of course, this is a safety mechanism so that you don’t lose files that you don’t necessarily want to. But I want to be in control of my library. Sometimes there are files that I decide to purge because I know I’m never going to play them again. Therefore, I don’t only want them removed from the engine Library or exported drives. I want them removed from my computer completely. In the trash.
Right now, the only way to do this is to search for the location on your computer itself and delete the file from there, Which is completely fine. Trash it like any other file on your hard drive.
Then you must go back to engine and delete the number e red file from your library So it stopped showing up in playlists. Then it’s completely gone.
If you have 10,000 files and remove 100 of them, but they’re scattered throughout the library, You must then go one by one to each red file To remove from the collection. So you’re essentially doing the same thing twice.
What I’m proposing is that we are able to sort all the red files so that they are in a complete list. Just like any file that we’ve done on any computer since the beginning of time. Then you can grab them all in one shot And delete from the collection in bulk.
I hope that’s clear.
Personally, I just wish there was a menu item to “delete from collection AND computer hard drive. A hard delete menu item would make this even simpler.
You’re asking for 2 entirely different things here though. Firstly the delete function should be raised as its own standalone request because it’s not relevant to removing red files in bulk, you’re talking about hard deleting a file the software knows about.
On the actual request of being able to bulk delete red files, that already exists as a feature request and can be voted on/commented on in that thread.
Out of interest, what reason would you have for removing music you have purchased? this is an alien concept to me as I would never buy music that would reach a point of me never playing it again.
Well, I have some files that I bought maybe 15 years ago and I just don’t play them anymore. My tastes have changed and they’re just taking up space.
I’m not really asking for two different things. Just either or. Right now our computers can handle deleting files well enough so if I had the ability to sort the red files, that would take care of the next time consuming part of this process. I just did it last night and it literally took three hours. This is something that could take two seconds if I had the ability to sort the red files.
As far as deleting something, you don’t want, when you send something to the trash on your computer doesn’t delete completely until you empty the trash. This is already well established in the computer world so no need to reinvent the wheel. Just let me sort my red files so I can go on with my life! Lol
I’m a patient person, but this thing has been requested for so long, and it’s so basic.
I mean, come on. This is basic database management 101.
Create a column, sort it, do whatever the hell you want with it.
Rekordbox has had this ability pretty much since day one.
RB has a little red exclamation point in its own column for missing files. I always sorted those out and either relocated them (if I wanted to) or delete them. Easy peezy.
Don’t disagree with you that it needs to be implemented, I haven’t had a red track for around ten years luckily so not something I really use, but it’s handy.
You could do the following workaround for now, but this requires an organised library in other software (mine is mirrored between apps)… do all the donkey work in Serato then use the import function to re-upload into Engine. I imagine you’re only doing it occasionally so it should be better than the Engine only method.
Denon this is a joke right?
Tell investors you are losing money. This really should not even be a request. its almost like a dj never used this system in testing nor can we rely on this software.
You’re not missing anything BUT you are assuming there is only 1 use case for the feature.
I WANT to DELETE the files PERMANENTLY. So I go into the raw folders and delete them effectively thinning out my library.
Step 2 is to remove from Engine. Thats where the trouble starts.
Engine cant find the files and marks them RED (Good, I want this).
Now I want to delete the references to the now deleted files. If I deleted 100 files from my 5000+ library, I must now scroll and choose each file one by one! It takes HOURS.
I should be able to sort them so I can select all at once and bulk delete these references.
You’re doing it the wrong way around. Once you add files to the database, you should maintain the library from within the software. The same is true of any software that uses a database, including all the major DJ software.
Deleting the files yourself is what causes the red files in the first place.
And it is because of this possibility Serato, Traktor and Rekordbox all have ways to allow a user to remove missing files references in bulk.
Some examples of where I do file management directly rather than via Engine DJ or any other DJ software
Duplicate removal
Updating filename after using a tag finder
Fun facts -
In earlier versions of Engine Prime, there was a way to group red files together by sorting by a column.
There was also another feature that may have been removed - when we export a library containing red files to a USB stick, an automatic missing files crate was created by Engine Prime on the USB/SDcard
Again. You seem to be missing the point. If there was a way to remove files from the library AND simultaneously remove them from the hard drive from within the engine software, then yes, I would do it that way.
Engine does NOT allow you to remove them from your raw files. IT ONLY ALLOWS YOU TO REMOVE THE REFERENCES.
So unfortunately, your suggestion is not valid either. Currently the only way to remove raw files from your library is to do it from within your computers file structure.
Not everybody wants to keep every single file they’ve bought since the beginning of time. Sometimes it’s time to clean the house.
…which is highly likely to be what the vast majority of us prefer. You may be prepared to just dispose of your music, but I wouldn’t mind betting most DJs (who probably started out as music collectors before that) wouldn’t dream of doing that.
Besides, as I said (“the wrong way around”), you simply have to reverse the procedure - delete from the software first, then delete the file. You’re doing those two things already. Just do them in the correct order.
BTW just to clarify, I’m NOT saying there shouldn’t be an option to group red files.
Traktor also has the option to remove track from collection and delete file from hard disk at same time… IMO thats the most optimal way to keep your collection clean, you can group tracks by name or artist then delete duplicates in an easy way
, probably best in my case lol, I would be removing all sorts by mistake