Major Issues with Library Display and Search Function in djay Pro 5.2.10

[djessa]

Dear Algoriddim Team,

I’ve recently made the switch from Serato DJ to djay Pro and, while I genuinely love the app’s performance and interface, I’m experiencing significant issues with the library display and search functionality that are affecting my workflow as a DJ.

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System Information:

• Device: MacBook Pro 14” (M1 Pro, 2021)

• OS: macOS Sequoia 15.3.2 (24D81)

• djay Version: 5.2.10

• Hardware Controller: Pioneer DJ Rev7

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1. Metadata Not Displayed Properly

Many of my MP3 files are shown using only their file names instead of correctly displaying title, artist, and other metadata. These same tracks appear perfectly fine in Serato DJ, so I’m confident the metadata is intact. For example, instead of showing Ginuwine – Pony (FLAC), it may just display the filename or incomplete data.
Interestingly, when browsing the same files through the My Files (Finder) section in djay Pro, all metadata is displayed correctly—meaning the information is clearly accessible, but not consistently shown in the main library view in MY COLLECTION

2. Search Function Is Inaccurate and Case-Sensitive

The search feature feels quite limited:

• Searching “Pony flac” in Serato finds Ginuwine – Pony (FLAC) instantly; djay Pro does not.

• Typing “X Change” does not return DJ X-Change due to the hyphen.

• A search for “party up” should bring up DMX – Party Up, but instead yields hundreds of unrelated results that simply contain “party” in any field.

The lack of fuzzy search and the need for exact formatting (case, hyphens, etc.) is inefficient and unreliable in a live setting.

3. Track Duration Not Working
The total duration of every track is also displayed as 0:00 , meaning I can’t see how long a song is

4. Cue Point Playback Behavior Is Inconsistent

When loading a track where Cue 1 is set somewhere in the middle or end, djay Pro starts the song from the beginning instead of from Cue 1 (set in settings). This breaks the expected behavior from other DJ software like Serato, where the track starts directly from the first cue point. For battle-style or quick-mix DJs, this adds unnecessary steps and delays, as I need to manually hit Cue 1 again—costing precious seconds during live transitions.

5. Tab Key Navigation Is Inconsistent

Another frustrating detail: when I press TAB after typing in the search bar, the focus doesn’t jump to the track list as expected. Instead, it goes elsewhere in the UI, and I have to press TAB two or three more times just to reach the actual search results. This slows down workflow significantly and breaks expected UI behavior.

6. Metadata Is Correct in the ‘Match Active Deck’ Section

Curiously, when using the Match Active Deck feature, the correct metadata does show up. For example, the file

_20Nelly__20-20Nasty_20Girl_20_8b_20Intro_20Dirty.mp3

is shown as:

Artist: The Notorious B.I.G feat Jagged Edge, Diddy, Nelly

Title: Nasty Girl (8b Intro Dirty)

This suggests that djay Pro is capable of reading metadata correctly—but that it’s inconsistently applied throughout the UI. It would be fantastic to see this consistency carried over to the library browser and search results as well.

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Honestly, I’m surprised that someone like DJ Angelo, who is part of your official team and clearly a high-level performance DJ, hasn’t flagged these issues already. Many of them feel fundamental and affect basic usability for both pro and casual users.

These are core features that need improvement for djay Pro to be a viable professional tool long-term. I hope these issues can be addressed soon—thank you for your continued work on this great platform.

Best regards,

DJ Essa

[DJ_Big_Blender]

Thanks for this.
Indeed, the search function in djay is not top-notch. I noticed this as well, and in February of this year, I also posted my suggestions about it.

Let’s hope they will improve this soon.

You can read it here:

Better search functionality for less false negatives

Feature Request: Improve Search Functionality in Local Music Section Dear Algoriddim Team & Fellow DJay Users, I’ve noticed an issue with the search functionality in the Local Music section of Algoriddim DJay, and I’d love your support in getting this improved! Let me explain: Currently, when you search for a track title or artist, DJay searches across all available text fields, including: Album, Composer, Grouping, Genre, and Comments. While this m…

[Slak_Jaw]

Hi @djessa, welcome to the Community! Sorry for the delay reply here. Thanks for the detailed and constructive feedback. I have shared all of this with our dev team. In the meantime, I’ll try to address some of the things you have noted:

1. Music Import Process: can you please detail the process you used to import your Local Music into djay? For example, are you using iTunes/Music to sync your files with djay?
2. Missing Track Duration: if you R-Click on one of these tracks in the Library View and select Analyze, does the track duration populate?
3. Cue Point 1: In the djay Settings>General>SONG LOADING>Jump to Cue Point can you please confirm what setting you are using? It sounds like you may want to set this to Cue Point 1 or Earliest Cue Point (1-8)
   
   

[Armigo]

@djessa

Metadata Not Displayed Properly

Hi there
Welcome.
Am on djay v5.2.10 and i want to reassure you that the issues you mentioned are almost ALL related to issue 1 quoted above; AND that this issue is isolated to your library NOT djay perse.
If metadata isn’t coming off well, search is as good as dead for that track too!
I have sat on my interface and tried to duplicate your major library issues (except issue #4&5) and none happened on my end; i.e

1. Search is not case-sensitive at all (i tried pony for Pony and all pony’s came up irrespective of character or hyphens
2. metadata can sometime delay to update if the editing was done outside djay (say, serato, kid3 or mp3tag editor) while djay was open and same track was on deck. but once you close djay & relaunch, metadata updates automatically (no need to re-load track on deck).
   HOWEVER; BEWARE, (refer to screenshot)
   
   
   
   IF the same track exists in your mac’s Music app as a synced local file and within djay you have “Local Music” checked, AND the same track also exists in your “My Collection” section albeit with a different id3tag, then what happens is that, metadata will NOT display correctly in djay just like you have experienced above. Djay takes priority metadata from Music app, Music app does not auto-update externally edited metadata until it has PLAYED the track. So the correct way i did it in the past when I was uninformed enough to use both Local Music and My Collection was that I would edit metadata (in kid3, serato, etc), then open Music app and play the song in there first to ensure Music app updates it, then open djay and double-check it’s in sync.
   FOOL-PROOF SUGGESTIONS:
3. Switch OFF Local Music in djay as in screenshot above and only use My Collection.
4. Work on your library and keep a clean id3tag ( I tend to also ensure my filenames reflect my id3 tags (Filename format: %{artist} - %{title}. It makes the filepath short.
5. Stay clear of funny non-ASCII characters such as

• Accented letters: é, à, ö, ñ, etc.
• Non-Latin alphabets: 漢 (Chinese), こんにちは (Japanese), به متنی(Persian), etc.
• Symbols: ©, ®, €, £, µ, ¥, etc.
• Emoji: , , , , etc.

[djessa]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your quick response! I’ve gone through your points and here are my answers and a follow-up question:

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1. Music Import Process

I imported my collection using the djay Setup Assistant, specifically because I wanted to keep my existing Serato Crates.

I do not use iTunes or the Apple Music app. In the setup, I also selected “Automatically add imported tracks to My Collection from various Folders.”

2. Missing Track Duration

Unfortunately, right-clicking and selecting Analyze does not populate the track duration. It remains at 0:00.

3. Cue Point 1 Behavior

I already have “Jump to Cue Point 1” selected in the General > Song Loading settings.

However, as mentioned, if Cue 1 is placed somewhere in the middle or towards the end of the track, djay still starts the song from the beginning upon loading.

I suspect this may be due to some buffering or loading logic that overrides the intended start point.

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My Question:

If I were to start fresh and not import my Serato Crates, what would be the best method to sync my local music with djay’s Collection?

Would you recommend manually recreating my crates from scratch instead of relying on the Serato import?

Thanks again for your help – I really want to make djay my main platform moving forward, but I need a stable and reliable collection setup for professional use.

Best regards,

DJ Essa

[djessa]

Hi Armigo,

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply and the screenshots.

You’re absolutely right regarding case sensitivity — I double-checked and indeed, search is not case-sensitive, so that was a misstatement on my part. However, search still fails when dealing with hyphens or partial matches in artist names. For example, searching for “X Change” doesn’t return “DJ X-Change” in My Collection, while it works perfectly in Serato.

Regarding metadata:

• I do not use the Music app or iTunes at all.

• The only import I did was the Serato library import during the initial djay setup .

• As mentioned earlier, metadata appears perfectly fine in the lower “My Files” section , but is broken in the upper “My Collection” section , where my Serato crates were imported.

Disabling Local Music in djay didn’t change anything. Even playing the tracks in the Music app (as you suggested) and reloading them in djay didn’t update the metadata. It seems djay still pulls the filename instead of ID3 data in My Collection.

I understand your suggestion about renaming files and ensuring clean tags, but I’m managing a library of over 50,000 tracks, and I’ve already gone through a huge cleanup with MP3Tag. Unfortunately, those changes ended up messing with my Serato library, which I still rely on occasionally for gigs, as djay’s search and library features aren’t yet 100% reliable for me.

Again, it’s strange that everything displays perfectly in “My Files”, even in the search results. The issue seems isolated to My Collection, especially with tracks imported through the Serato setup.

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My main question now is:

Would you recommend resetting djay completely and starting fresh without the Serato import, then manually importing all my files and recreating my crates within djay from scratch?

Would that solve the metadata inconsistency in “My Collection”?

Thanks again for your support — I really want to fully transition to djay, but right now the library behavior is holding me back.

Best regards,
DJ Essa

[djessa]

Hi again,

I believe I may have finally found the root cause of the issue — and it seems to be directly tied to the Music Import Process during the first launch of djay when I chose to import my Serato DJ library.

That initial import appears to cause:

• Tracks to be read incorrectly

• Durations to show as 0:00

• Metadata to be missing or replaced with filenames (e.g. 20Nelly_20.mp3)

However, when I manually drag my music folder into “My Collection” , djay:

• Prompts me about duplicates (to which I click “Skip”)

• Updates the tags correctly, even in Crates (Playlists) (My Collection Section)

• Properly reads and displays ID3 metadata, artist/title, and track durations

This completely restores my library view — everything displays as expected.

That said, some files do show up as duplicates now.

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My question:

Is there a quick and reliable way to remove duplicate tracks in “My Collection” after manually re-importing the music folder?

Thanks again — I’m finally getting closer to a stable setup and really appreciate your support!

Best regards,

DJ Essa

[Slak_Jaw]

@djessa

I already have “Jump to Cue Point 1” selected in the General > Song Loading settings.

However, as mentioned, if Cue 1 is placed somewhere in the middle or towards the end of the track, djay still starts the song from the beginning upon loading.

Thanks for the additional info @djessa. Can you please capture a short video of this and upload it here?

when I press TAB after typing in the search bar, the focus doesn’t jump to the track list as expected. Instead, it goes elsewhere in the UI, and I have to press TAB two or three more times just to reach the actual search results. This slows down workflow significantly and breaks expected UI behavior.

Do you expect TAB to go to the main track grid or the list of search results? As currently if you have the search field active with results showing in the side panel TAB will take you to the list of search results.

Is there a quick and reliable way to remove duplicate tracks in “My Collection” after manually re-importing the music folder?

I’m checking with the engineering team on this…

[Slak_Jaw]

Hi again @djessa, can you please try using the Crates source and see if the tracks in that source have the same issue (i.e. use the file name instead of the track data)?

@djessa

Is there a quick and reliable way to remove duplicate tracks in “My Collection” after manually re-importing the music folder?

Unfortunately, we don’t currently have a duplicate file detector feature in djay.

[Armigo]

@djessa

I may have finally found the root cause of the issue — and it seems to be directly tied to the Music Import Process

Great news there!
Now try updating to djay v5.3 and see if the residual issues are gone too.
Goodluck

[djessa]

@Slak_Jaw

As currently if you have the search field active with results showing in the side panel TAB will take you to the list of search results.

Hi again,

Thanks for your follow-up question. I’ve updated to 5.3. issue still there:

To clarify: yes, I expect the TAB key to jump directly to the list of search results (main track grid) after typing something into the search bar using CMD+F — especially when I’m trying to navigate quickly without using the mouse.

To demonstrate the issue clearly, I’ve recorded a screen capture showing exactly what happens:

1. I press CMD+F to activate the search bar and type in a query.

2. When I press TAB to jump to the results, the focus first disappears momentarily.

3. Then, I need to press TAB two or three more times to finally land on the actual list of results.

4. Along the way, focus passes through other parts of the UI (e.g. playlists section, library view, etc.).

This slows down the workflow and feels unintuitive — especially during live performance or fast browsing sessions.

Expected behavior would be: search → TAB → immediately land on result list.

Let me know if you’d like me to send the screen recording — happy to share!

Best regards,

DJ ESSA

[Slak_Jaw]

Thanks for the additional info and video @djessa. I have passed this onto engineering for further review.

[Slak_Jaw]

Hi @djessa, engineering has identified the TAB issue and is working on a fix. This should be addressed in an upcoming release (likely 5.3.2). Thanks!