Hi everyone,
I would like to give some feedback about djay and Rekordbox One Library, especially for DJs using large local collections on iPad, macOS and Windows.
First, I want to be clear: I really like djay as a performance app. The playback engine is excellent, the iPad version is very powerful, and the general idea of using One Library is very attractive. The problem is not the DJ side of the app. The problem is library maintenance.
At the moment, djay can already read Rekordbox One Library. It can import tracks, add them to playlists, and on iPad it correctly creates the Apple file bookmarks needed to access tracks stored on an external SSD.
So the difficult part already exists.
What is missing is a simple but very important feature:
Update / Sync from One Library
Not a full re-import. Not duplicated playlists. Not manually adding tracks again and again. A real incremental sync.
For example, if I update my Rekordbox One Library with new tracks or changed playlists, djay should be able to:
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compare the current djay library with the One Library source;
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add only the new tracks;
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create the required iPad/macOS file bookmarks for those new tracks;
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update existing playlists instead of duplicating them;
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remove tracks or playlist entries that no longer exist in One Library;
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keep the One Library playlist order and track order;
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preserve date added values;
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avoid re-reading or rebuilding everything unnecessarily.
This is especially important on iPad, because simply copying MediaLibrary.db from Windows to iPad does not work reliably. iPadOS needs Apple file bookmarks, and those bookmarks must be created by djay/iPadOS when the files are accepted by the app. The issue is not just the file path. The visible path can be correct, but without the bookmark djay can still report that the file is unavailable.
That is why an official incremental One Library sync inside djay would be the clean solution: djay already has the correct permission context to create the bookmarks. A third-party tool cannot reliably create bookmarks for djay.
For DJs with small libraries, this may not be a big issue. But with large collections, for example 35,000 tracks or more, the current workflow becomes very heavy:
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initial One Library import is possible;
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but updating the library later is painful;
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searches and large playlists can become slow;
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maintaining the same playlists across Rekordbox, djay iPad, djay Windows/macOS and other DJ software becomes much harder than it should be.
What I would love to see in djay is:
One Library > Update existing djay library
with options like:
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update playlists;
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add new tracks only;
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remove missing tracks;
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preserve dates;
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preserve analysis/cues where possible;
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create missing iPad/macOS bookmarks automatically.
In short: djay already knows how to import One Library and create the correct Apple bookmarks. Please add a fast incremental update/sync mode so users do not have to rebuild or manually maintain the library every time.
This would make djay much more usable for DJs with large local collections.
Best regards.