iPad with Magic Keyboard Locking Up

Questions
1

NOTE: Please use the search function above before posting to avoid creating duplicate topics.

  • Device model (e.g. 2020 iPad Air 4th Gen): iPad M5 Pro
  • Version of operating system (e.g. macOS 14.4.1):
  • Version of djay (e.g. 5.1.2):
  • Hardware/controllers used (e.g. Reloop Mixon 8 Pro):
  • Hardware firmware version (e.g. 1.0.1):
  • Please consider sharing a short video or screenshots to help clarify your question

YOUR QUESTION:

  1. I’ve been noticing the app freezing lately after some use—I think it happens after about 30 minutes—where it becomes impossible to trigger any functions or even the Hot Cues. I’m using an iPad Pro M5, and this has never happened before; I’m not doing anything complex, just adjusting a few cue points on some tracks. I wondered if the Magic Keyboard might be the cause. I’m running version 5.6.8; please see the video below.

3

Hi @MarcosAraujo, thanks for the info and video.

  1. What version of iPadOS are you using?
  2. Do you have any hardware or audio interface connected other than the Magic Keyboard?
  3. Does the iPad touchscreen respond after the lockup?
  4. Have you tried testing with the keyboard disconnected?
  5. Are you running any other apps or an iCloud backup in the background?
  6. When it locks up, does audio keep playing on the decks, or does everything stop?
  7. Does it come back on its own, or only after you force-quit and relaunch djay?
  8. Were you browsing the library or previewing tracks in the moment it froze?
  9. In the iPad Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode is this on or off?

Thanks!

4

NOTE: Please use the search function above before posting to avoid creating duplicate topics.

  • Device model (e.g. 2020 iPad Air 4th Gen): iPad M5 Pro
  • Version of operating system (e.g. macOS 14.4.1):
  • Version of djay (e.g. 5.1.2):
  • Hardware/controllers used (e.g. Reloop Mixon 8 Pro):
  • Hardware firmware version (e.g. 1.0.1):
  • Please consider sharing a short video or screenshots to help clarify your question

YOUR QUESTION:

  1. I’ve been noticing the app freezing lately after some use—I think it happens after about 30 minutes—where it becomes impossible to trigger any functions or even the Hot Cues. I’m using an iPad Pro M5, and this has never happened before; I’m not doing anything complex, just adjusting a few cue points on some tracks. I wondered if the Magic Keyboard might be the cause. I’m running version 5.6.8; please see the video below.

Which version of iPadOS are you using? Pro M5
Do you have any hardware or audio interfaces connected besides the Magic Keyboard? SSD
Does the iPad touchscreen respond after it locks up? It doesn’t respond.
Have you tried testing it with the keyboard disconnected? I removed it thinking that might be the issue, but it didn’t work even without the keyboard.
Are you running other apps or an iCloud backup in the background? Nothing running in the background.
When it freezes, does the audio keep playing on the decks, or does everything stop? The audio only continues if I press the spacebar or the Play/Pause button on the keyboard.
Does it recover on its own, or only after you force quit and restart djay? It only recovers when I close djay; I waited about 5 minutes, but it didn’t come back—I had to close and reopen it.
Were you browsing the library or previewing tracks when it froze? I was loading tracks onto the deck to adjust CUE points.
In iPad Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode, is it on or off? The battery is connected to the charger the whole time.

1 Like
5

Thanks for answering my questions @MarcosAraujo. The external SSD is a potential source for the issue. You were editing cue points when it locked up, and cue point edits get written back to the drive continuously if that SSD is set up as a USB Library — so an external drive dropping out or going to sleep mid-write is worth ruling out before anything else.

A few things to clarify:

  1. Did it freeze again during a fresh session with the keyboard detached, or did you remove the keyboard while it was already frozen?

  2. Where does your music actually live — on the SSD, or on the iPad? And is the SSD added as a USB Library, or just as a folder under Files?

  3. Your iPadOS version, from Settings > General > About > iPadOS Version. (You gave me the iPad model, which I have — it’s the OS build I’m missing.)

  4. Next time it locks up, hold the Command key down for a second. If the keyboard shortcut list appears on screen, djay is still running fine and only touch input is being lost.

The test I’d most like: copy 15–20 tracks to On My iPad in the Files app, unplug the SSD, and run a normal 45-minute session off internal storage. If it stays clean, we’ve found the boundary.

Until then, for anything time-sensitive, keep your set on internal storage. Not a fix, just a safer setup while we dig into this.

7

1 - I had to close Dejay to get things back to normal, and after a while, it started freezing again without the keyboard.

2 - All my music is stored on the SSD because the files are all music videos. Only MP3 folders are stored internally, though I rarely use them.

3 - iPad iOS version: 26.6.1

4 - I’ll keep an eye on this to try it out.

1 Like
8

Hi @MarcosAraujo, thanks for answering my questions. #2 definitely changes things as I had assumed you were working with audio files not video files.

First thing to check: djay supports videos encoded in H.264 or MPEG-4, up to 1080p at 30 fps, and recommends H.264 at 30 fps or below for best results. Music video files often come as 1080p60 or 4K HEVC, which is outside that. Pick two or three of the files you were using when it froze, and in the Files app tap and hold > Get Info to check resolution, frame rate and codec.

Second, I need to revise the test I gave you. Please copy music videos to On My iPad — enough for 30 to 45 minutes, not MP3s — then unplug the SSD and run a session. Same media, different storage. That isolates the drive properly.

If you can manage a second run afterwards, play a set of your internal MP3s with the SSD still plugged in. Between those two we’ll know whether it’s the drive or the video.

One more: do you have an external display or projector connected via HDMI while this is happening?

9

Hello! It’s been a week since my last reply. I’m going to consider this topic completed for now so I can focus on others. However, please feel free to respond and we can definitely revisit this. Thanks!

11

Hi! Thanks for the feedback. Here are the details based on my setup and recent observations:

  1. File Specs: 99% of my music videos are 720p at 29 fps, and the rest are 1080p at 29 fps. I don’t use 4K, HEVC, or 60 fps formats because I realized early on that djay works best with these exact specs.

  2. Isolation Tests: Playing MP3s or video files stored directly on the iPad’s internal storage works without any issues.

  3. What triggers the freeze: I noticed that the freeze happens while multitasking. I keep djay running on a playlist (editing beatgrids, deleting duplicates, etc.), then minimize djay and open the iOS Files app to delete those duplicate files directly from the external SSD. After switching back and forth between djay and the Files app a few times, djay freezes up—only the spacebar continues to play/pause the audio, but the UI becomes unresponsive.

  4. External Display: No, I am not using any external display or projector connected via HDMI during this process.

It seems that modifying or deleting files on the external SSD via the Files app while djay is actively referencing or maintaining a file hook to that drive causes djay to lock up. Have you seen this type of background file access crash before?

Best regards,

1 Like
12

Hi @MarcosAraujo, this is excellent detective work. There is a related report about djay not handling externally modified files well, "Release Date" and other metadata tags not reading correctly . Mostly stale metadata on desktop, and one case of a waveform vanishing when a live track’s tags were edited. Nobody’s described a full lock-up like yours before, so your sequence is still the new part. It does suggest your instinct about the file hook is pointing at the right area.

One small correction, because it matters for logs: this is a hang, not a crash. djay is still running, so it may not leave a crash report behind at all.

Before I write this up, four things to tighten the repro — the more of these you can answer, the stronger the report:

  1. Switch between djay and the Files app several times without deleting anything. Does it still freeze?

  2. Delete a file from a folder on the SSD that djay has never referenced. Does it freeze?

  3. Do the same delete-while-djay-is-open routine with files on internal storage. Does it freeze?

  4. During the next freeze, hold Command for a second and tell me whether the shortcut list appears.

The workaround in the meantime: quit djay completely, not just minimize it, before you do any deleting in the Files app, then relaunch. Slower, but it should keep you out of trouble.

Worth knowing too — there’s an open suggestion asking for track deletion from an external drive inside djay, which would remove the need for this whole detour. Worth a vote: https://community.algoriddim.com/t/delete-songs-within-djay-from-external-drive/42190

Thanks again!