Hey Team, 
My first post…
I played at a warehouse party last weekend.
I prepared my set in rekordbox as I find there are some limitations with engine software.
One done I exported the tracks to my USB and tested it on my SC6000 decks. No issue.
When it was time for me to play (on older Pioneer decks - CDJ900) None of my tracks could be recognised.
Any ideas why this is and what I can do to prevent it in future would be hugely appreciated. TIA.
So - prepared in rekordbox , but didn’t work on cdj900 ?
It might be worth asking in the pioneer forum.
It’s possible to think that placing the usb device with the tunes on it into a denon deck could have “somehow” re-written the database or the playlist, or the tracks etc but both rekordbox and engine make their own separate and independent database files and folders so one doesn’t overwrite the other.
Maybe there’s a file format which new rekordbox and also the primes read, which the old cdj900 doesn’t - like maybe a high bit rate aiff or something
That would only be Flac and alac. if you can read CD you can read aiff and wav., it’s exactly the same.
I remember a message popping up when I tried to use a recordbox stick on a sc6k.
I’m not sure but it said “we need to convert to use …”. I assume the stick was converted by engine dj and is no longer usable for Pioneer devices at this point.
Usually not, as you said correctly, rekordbox has one folder, Engine another. Each ignores everything apart from their own folder for library purposes.
I think u might have probably a bad USB drive. cheap sticks are notoriously unreliable in my experience
The Pioneer RekordBox database is read (read-only!) to make an Engine database. RekordBox files and the music files are not altered.
So, if this stick/drive doesn’t work in a CDJ900, it probably never did. Either the stick format isn’t supported or the music file type isn’t.
(Don’t know which CDJ900 you played exactly @Angus_Wurth ?)
I’ve had this issue and it’s usually due to either file name length, incompatible characters, or incompatible WAV/FLAC formats for those older Pioneer players.
Have separate USB sticks for each brand would be my advice, or start using engine desktop to export to a specific flash drive for Denon gear.
You can sync your rekordbox library into engine and the sync manager is the same so not sure how it’s limiting you from using it?
I play various sets, switching from Denons to Pioneer with the same stick. Never had problems. My friends also never complaint that their sticks/ music library where “broken”, after they converted the recordbox library. The CDJ 900 is pretty old (2009), since Pioneer has more the approach with not updating, it is probably a problem with the pioneer player itself.
If there is a possibility, just have a laptop with you and a spare USB stick.
Im just giving my opinion, a USB stick costs next to nothing so what is the point of cross using them on different software and devices when you can quickly and easily run individual flash drives for each brand at little expense.
I run 3 different pieces of software concurrently depending on the situation im in, Serato, Engine and Rekordbox, with no issues.
What is the point of carrying more than 2 backups of the same data around that all work on all devices they need to. Anything else is ridiculous tbh.
Also I never had problems with this… Always switched between sc6000, xdj700, various cdj2000 models and cdj3000 using one and the same stick.
So you dont carry a spare USB around in case the link function is broken between decks or your first USB has an issue? The more you speak, the more its absolutely clear you’re nothing more than a bedroom DJ masquerading.
I understand you’re desperately trying to bait by making snidy comments indirectly pointed at me in these threads, this will be the last response you see from me, i think you’re nothing more than a fraud who doesnt deserve the time of day, so you carry on doing you, and i will now b ignoring every single post you make.
Of course, having them really separate is def. the securest option. Especially if you are playing on a paid gig. I just related to the case of Angus_Wurth. I do have just one Usb stick with on my key chain, where i use booth libraries together. Mostly at random short term opportunties. There it never failed me with denon or Pioneer (but never played on CDJ9000). Using some better sandisk sticks.
That use case is fine for one and yes why would you carry 2 around for random times you jump on the decks. My personal experience of loading a RB USB into the Prime unit wasnt as seamless as having a pre analysed Prime library though, i found it a bit slower to wait for tracks to load as it analysed them ad-hoc and iirc the data wasnt as tight (ill test again on my device to check), so now i have a USB specifically for Prime and 2 for RB which id only ever use at gigs.
Edit: i think you have to re-set all cue point markers etc each time too dont you? its basically a bare track when loading from a RB USB to the player?
This came in ultra handy for me when i turned up to work one night and the Ethernet port on a CDJ-2000 had broken, i was able to just load a USB into each deck and do my 4hr set with no issue. Given how poor Ethernet ports and cables are in general id say its a must for any DJ to carry duplicate libraries to a working environment. Ive also had my drive corrupted a couple of times so the CDJ wouldn’t read it, again this was easily resolved by swapping out for my spare.
still hard to read it is?
The more you speak, the more it’s absolutely clear youre just nothing more than a smack talker that is unable to read properly… 
As per usual, u understand wrong 
Im just posting in those topics I find interesting or can be helpful to people maybe
To Topic: In my experience, half of the USB sticks from other people which didn’t work properly on any device or laptop had broken partition schemes or file systems on them. I fixed tons of them xD Mostly, the corresponding user didnt know what a partition scheme or a filesystem is, how to check it for integrity, reformat or repair it if broken in order to get their sticks back to work. As usual with technological things, most problems occuring come from misuse and lack of knowledge about the technology itself.
SOLVED: thanks for all advice. The issue was actually to do with the way the USB was formatted. More info here: DJ Tips & Tricks: How To Format A USB Drive For CDJ Use.
I used this tool to reformat: https://fat32-format.en.softonic.com/
SUMMARY:
"modern Windows computers use the NTFS or exFAT system, and Macs use the HFS+ (MacOS Extended Journaled) system. Macs can read NTFS thumb drives, but can’t write to them. PCs can’t read or write to HFS+ at all.
However, there is one file system that both Macs and PCs can read and write to: FAT32. Pioneer DJ’s CDJ media players are also able to read music files from drives formatted with FAT32 (FAT 16 and HFS+ are also included)."
Hope this helps someone.
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