Import from Denon DJ takes wrong files

[djalpina]

I have exported a playlist to Denon Engine Desktop, made some changes and now wanted to import the playlist again.
Some files are wrong. See this:

The file was “Snoop Dog - Sweat” but Lexicon associated it with “Tom Pule - Hip Flip”. Not even close! Yes, this file iis on my disk, too, but how come?

[Christiaan]

I think I fixed that in the beta version, can you try that? See #beta-changelog on discord

[djalpina]

yes, sure.

[djalpina]

I installed 1.6.110
The import of playlist is still in error.

My workflow:

1. Export a playlist to Prime4 internal drive
2. Work with it on the Prime, i.e. change CUEs, Loop etc.
3. Impoert that playlist back into Lexicon.

The match of files is still wrong. It takes a dupliccate (yes, I have duplicates) from another directory and associates it with the tracks from the Prime. The duplicates have same Artist, Title and Album, but are in different directories.

See:

I exported the Charts-Playlist (files in Charts-Dirctory) to Prime, when I import back it associates with files from Themes-Directory (and not from Charts directory, as it should). I added the complete Charts directory again to Lexicon so that we can see the problem.

Yes, they have same filename but Themes directory is under construction and might move elsewhere. I have NO files from Themes Directory in Lexicon, I do not know why it even knows about these files.

[Christiaan]

Can you try something? It may fix the issue. This is for the beta version.

First, make a Lexicon backup (top menu → Backup → Database Backup) just in case.

Go to the Sync screen and enable the Support Remote Library option.
Now do a full sync to your Prime. Confirm tracks look good there.
Then import into Lexicon, but uncheck the Merge with current library option.

Now check if your Lexicon library is good.

[djalpina]

Go to the Sync screen and enable the Support Remote Library option.
My screen does not show such an option.

Then import into Lexicon, but uncheck the Merge with current library option

Heaven’s sake no!! I will lose my complete collection!

Please note that I have exported only 1 (one) playlist ) from 100 or so to the Prime. When I import as you suggested, 99 playlists are gone….

This is no solution. But I did it to see the result. And that is worse than before: My Lexicon library now references the files on my Prime hardware (!), and not on my disk. Waveform is gone, other info also not there.

Prime Hardware (mounted to H-drive on Windows)

After restoring from backup:

External hard disk with DJ-stuff mounted to F-drive on Windows:

This solution completely destroys my physical organization on disk. And after import, it still does not reference the correct files.

Technical question: How do you identify what local file to associate with the external, incoming file? I assume it is string-compare (Title,Artist,Album) ? And if the algorithm takes the first match & the wrong directory comes first in the list, then the result is plausible.

[Christiaan]

Yeah okay, that’s why we made the Lexicon backup…

There is no filename or string compare or anything like that. It works with IDs (numbers). I don’t know why it is taking the wrong files, but probably coincedence that the files are similar.
If you have files from your Themes directory in Lexicon, they must have been added to Lexicon before the import. The import from Prime cannot add them.

[djalpina]

It works with IDs (numbers). I don’t know why it is taking the wrong files, but probably coincedence that the files are similar.

There cannot be any coincidence when you use IDs – if the IDs are unique. Do you use the Windows filesystem ID (aka inode, in UNIX speech)? AFAIK, these are uniqe for every file system.

For the two files I sent you the screen shot, these are the fileids:

Please note:

1. The FileIDs are different, as they should be, of course.

2. In Lexicon, the file “F:\DJ\Lib1\B - Themen 1\B30+ Dance\B31A Dance A\David Guetta - Love don’t let me go.mp3” is from David Guetta, and the Title is Love don’t let me go. I do NOT have any errors in MP3 Tags of ANY file, see here the screenshot of mp3 editor:

So, Artist and Title are set correctly in my file here.

Now Lexicon takes this file and puts a reference in my Charts-Playlist and …… it has WRONG Artist and Title…. Please see second entry here in screenshot……

Please excuse, but it seems that there is something wrong beyond ID comparison……

I addition, I looked into the directory structure of the target drive. Denon uses / filename.mp3. I look at

And I expect my file from Charts-Playlist there. It is indeed, but there also is another file :

And the second file is the wrong file (from Themes-directory)! And that gets copied back later to Charts-directory…… I checked that both files have correct tags:

So …… the question reduces itself to the following: Why is an alien file copied to target directory on Prime?

I also observed that the Album-tag is empty on the target drive. It is set correctly in Prime-database and also Lexicon-database. It is not clear to me why this is not copied during export. It doesn’t hurt, just an observation.

At the moment, I cannot use my preferred workflow with Engine and Lexicon – please fix this!

[Christiaan]

It works completely different than that, I can’t/won’t explain how it works and I don’t see any use in doing that.

The only copy action in regards to Prime happens when you sync to a Prime device, then it will copy files on to the device.
No files are copied during an import.

Maybe start with completely empty Prime hard drive and try the sync again

[djalpina]

I can’t/won’t explain how it works

Just an idea of me. No problem. I think as a software developer and I have an idea how I would implement it. Yours is different.

Then simply please make it work. I gave you all information you need.

The only copy action in regards to Prime happens when you sync to a Prime device, then it will copy files on to the device.

Christiaan, this is common knowledge, and this is not the question.

Again: The question is why Lexicon copies a file from “Themes” folder and thinks it belongs to “Charts” playlist. This is dead wrong. I sent you screenshots of directory structure of the Prime disc. You see that there is a file that does not belong there.

Maybe start with completely empty Prime hard drive and try the sync again

This is the FIRST thing I always do in such cases. I do not empty it, I even reformat it.

[Christiaan]

If it comes from the Themes folder, then that is where it is in Lexicon. If you are saying that it copies a file that is not in Lexicon, that is not possible

[djalpina]

If it comes from the Themes folder, then that is where it is in Lexicon

Yes.

If you are saying that it copies a file that is not in Lexicon, that is not possible
I did not say that.

I invested some time to describe the problem as detailed as possible. If you cannot understand it, let’s close this case now. It is no problem for me to write a small program that iterates the target directory structure and delete the alien files. Please tell me whether you can fix it on your side, then I do not have to do the effort, If not, also OK.

My workflow and observations:

• I have a playlist called “Charts” that has tracks { c0, c1, … cn }
• Other playlists exist in Lexicon.
• One other playlist is the “Themes” list. It has tracks { t0, t1, … tm }
• I export “Charts” to (freshly formatted) external drive.
• After the export, the target drive has the typical and correct Engine directory structure.
• All files c0…cn are in this structure at the correct places (directories).
• SOME directories also have files ti, tj, tk that are NOT in Charts playlist, but are in other playlists (on our case, in “Theme”-playlist). They should not have been exported AT ALL.
• I work with the tracks on external drive. Cues and other data change.
• I import from the external drive.
• Not all tracks in { c0…cn } are imported.
• Some tracks in this list are ignored, and replaced by ti, tj and tk Tracks.
• We end up with a “Charts” playlist in Lexicon, that is
• *missing files that belong there.
• *having files instead that do not belong there.

I hope the problem is more clear now. That is all I can do.

[Christiaan]

Okay thanks that is clear.

Can you upload your Lexicon database & logs? From the Help menu.

And can you give me a few track filenames that are getting exported but should not be?

[djalpina]

I digged a little deeper in the issue and I found that already the playlists in Engine are not correct. It is not an import problem, the export is broken.

Here you see a screenshot of Engine OS with several entries:

I have a “Int A” playlist in Lexicon, that has all files form "Int A " directory on my disk. In Lexicon, it is displayed correctly.

I export this to Engine OS and as you can see in the screenshot, there are many files that reside in “Dance A” directory. These files do not belong to “Int A” playlist, and correctly are not in this playlist in Lexicon.

The export process makes the error of picking wrong files.

Please look at the tags. The second file in the screenshot is “Andrew Spencer - What a feeling”. The tags say “Artist = Alle Farben” and “Title = She moves”. If you play the file, it of course is “What a feeling”.

The tags belong to the file that should have been copied from “Int A”.

— Part II –

I obeserved the same effecto when I export to external drive (Prime 4 internal disc in this case) . Look at this directory structure:

And in the “Dome Summer 2014” directory we see this:

We agree that the second entry is dead wrong. It should not be in this directory. Unfortunately this wrong entry goes to the playlist, and the firs tentry - what is the correct one - is ignored.

So, IMHO the problem boils down to the question why the export process in addition to the correct one put the alien file here.

P.S.: I have uploaded the Lexicon DB and the log files.

[Christiaan]

Just to confirm, if I export your library to an empty drive on my Prime, this issue should appear?

[djalpina]

yes.
It happens if you export to local drive (where it does not have to copy music files) as well as to an external drive (where it copies the music files). Both have same results.

I checked all playlists. The problem exists only on two of them, but unfortunately these are the ones I need most. I have selected them in this screenshot:

[Christiaan]

I’ll take a closer look tomorrow and let you know what I find

[Christiaan]

Okay I’ve looked into it and I can confirm this is a bug that was fixed in the beta version. The problem happens during import where it links the wrong files, see this screenshot:

The filename does not match the title and artist. That’s why the wrong file is being copied. So the copy is not the problem, the problem happens earlier. It happened during the import from Engine. On the beta version this problem should not occur when you import with the Merge
option disabled. That will give you a completely clean Lexicon. You can check the same file as the above screenshot, it should be correct then.

[djalpina]

Without merge, I kill the whole database in Lexicon. I have lots of files in Lexicon and I make performance drives from certain playlists, not from all. When I re-import from performance drive, I do not want my Lexicon database to go blank – so merge is s MUST.

One more argument to use file ids from the operating system as unique object identifiers.