What makes Engine DJ choose to create a record in the DB for a playlist in one database but not the other? I would expect that if the files in the database point to a location in one drive, then the playlist record would only exist in that database and not the other.
I understand that merge conflicts are always going to be an issue. I’m experiencing times when a playlist is created in one DB and not the other, even though files are always in /Volumes/Raid 5/Engine Library/Music.
Personally, I would love the option where Engine DJ would not attempt to merge databases and give me a playlist tree for each database. Or at least, the merging make a little more sense.
engine dj creates a database on the drive containing the files eg external
engine dj creates a database by default on the C
a user may decided to create a playlist from 2 or more drive location, hence the db on each drive will contain the playlist albeit with different tracks.
The main view, which shows a combined view of all drives
The device panel, which shows the contents of each drive separately
If you create a playlist in the device panel, it will be created on that device only. If you create a playlist in the main view, it will be created on your internal drive.
If you add tracks to a playlist in device panel, the tracks will be packed to that drive.
So far so good. Here’s where things get funky…
What should happen if you drag tracks from a drive to a playlist in the main view? Engine DJ will never pack tracks to your internal drive (this is another story), so they can’t just be added to the playlist directly. Instead, the playlist is added to the source drive of those tracks, and the dragged tracks are added to it. In the main view, you see all the tracks in that playlist both from internal and external drives, but no tracks are packed anywhere!
As far as packing workflow is concerned, you don’t need to worry about these “mixed” playlists. Sync manager will always pack the entire playlist to a drive, exactly as it appears in the main view.
The 6 playlists appear in Drives > Macintosh HD > SHOWS 2023-01-07 GD without files. I think this makes sense because the files are physically in /Volumes/Raid 5/Engine Library/Music/.
Question 1
Why doesn’t the playlist 2022-01-07 GD Classic exist in Drives > Raid 5 > SHOWS > 2023-01-07 GD if the files are physically on that drive?
If my preferred workflow is to maintain all my files and playlists on my Raid 5 drive then should I open the “drives” panel and create playlists on that specific drive, drag new music and from macOS Finder to that playlist, instead of using the collection panel?
When you created 2022-01-07 GD Classic, it was created on your internal hard drive (as you noted). If you add files to 2022-01-07 GD Classic from Raid 5, it would then appear on that drive. The contents of the parent playlist are not relevant.
This would work, but it is not the only way. You can always use sync manager to pack any playlist from everywhere to anywhere. If you opened sync manager, added 2022-01-07 GD Classic to the selection, and exported it to Raid 5, it would appear on the drive. Of course, it would still be empty, but that’s a different story.
My preferred workflow is to store all my music on an external drive, do all my management in the main view (not device panel), and then pack stuff to a thumb drive using sync manager when I need it for a gig.
I did not use the device panel in this case. The basic workflow steps is:
Step 1: I created a playlist: Collection > SHOWS > 2023-01-07 GD > Classics
Step 2: I dragged a file from /Volumes/Raid 5/Engine Library/Music/_2023-01/song.mp3 into Classics
Why does Classics exist in Macintosh HD but not RAID 5 like in the screenshots?
Step 3: (Not relevant to this discussion but to add context). Plug in a USB thumb drive, use Sync Manager to export 2023-01-07 GD and all its sub playlists to the USB thumb drive. Take thumb drive on the road with me.
If song.mp3 is showing in playlist in the main view, it must be in the playlist on some drive. The playlist isn’t on Raid 5, and the track isn’t on your internal. So, I don’t see how it is possible for the track to be in the playlist! Is it definitely showing when you select Classics in the main view?
Let me see if I can recreate this issue consistently on my side. Like you, I expected a certain type of behavior. I’ll report back here and submit a bug report if I can reproduce it.
Update: Not sure if this is actually related, but I just looked into the log files of Engine DJ and noticed that if I’m having issues with it that I would see something like this:
[C] [ 0x60000fee4718 ] Job failed ( Status: 5 ) Job DisplayName: "Rename Playlist" [2023-01-09T17:56:07.361Z] [air.planck.jobcontroller]
[W] Failed to get MetaData database connection:pool is disposed [2023-01-09T17:56:13.771Z] [air.planck.librarian ]
[W] Failed to get MetaData database connection:pool is disposed (repeated 3 times)
I do leave Engine DJ open on my computer almost all day long. If it’s dropping the DB connection at some point, that could make things weird
Nope. But i had a very long thread going with a developer. I sent over a lot of technical details, logs, and files. I’ll let them do their job and see if they can find what might be a root cause.
