MusicBee and Serato : files go back to the inbox when analyzed

[Mythique]

Hey there,

I love MusicBee but there's seem to be slight issue with the way it works with Serato DJ. Pretty much everytime I play a track in Serato DJ it writes new tags, the music can't be play anymore from MusicBee, and it goes back to the inbox.

Here is how my library is organized :


Serato accesses directly the files in F:\Music\

An example :
- I want to play some tracks from Ratatat in Serato DJ. They're located in F:\Music\Ratatat\Classics\, because my library is auto-organized by MusicBee.
- I play the track in Serato, it analyzes it and register the new tags (BPM and Key) in the song file.
- The song is now unplayable in MusicBee, and goes back again in the "inbox" section.
- Sometimes musicbee will tell me that the files that I played can't be located, and asks me if I want to delete them. But it does not always happen.
- This time when I tried with the ratatat songs, I tried the "locate missing files" functionnality :

As you can see, the files have a weird tmp extension. I don't now the exact process, but I think Serato creates a tmp file when analyzing and then register the info in the "normal" file. But I don't know why it would changes things for musicbee.
By the way, not all files appear with the "locate missing files" functionnality. There is thirty other tracks that went in the inbox when I analyzed them...

This behaviour is kind of annoying, and I don't know how I could fix it. It seems to be a rare issue as I didn't find any info about this when I googled the issue. Please let me know if you find a way to fix this. Maybe it's just a configuration issue.

Cheers.

[redwing]

Serato creates a tmp file when analyzing and then register the info in the "normal" file.

I don't know about the program but that would be the reason. So it deletes the file into a temp file and then rewrites the original file. For MB, the file it's watching suddenly disappears, so it says it can't locate it any longer. Later when it's recreated, MB finds it and sends it back to inbox because it's a new file.

If you change new file action to "add to library", the files will reappear in the library. But it would be best if the program creates a temp file in another folder like Windows Temp folder, leaving the original file alone. Find if it has temp folder setting or ask them.

[Mythique]

Thank you for your answer. I'll try to investigate this and monitor what happen to the files exactly when Serato analyzes them. I find it really weird that Serato would delete the original file (but I guess it could happen...).
What I don't understand is why suddenly MusicBee thinks the original file as become the tmp file. What I understood was:

- Lets say we play the file "F:\Music\Ratatat\Classics\01 Montanita.mp3".
- If I analyze this file in Serato, at some points a tmp file is created "01 Montanita.mp3~randomletters.tmp". I would guess its Serato that creates the file, but it could be musicbee?
- The weird thing is that MusicBee seems to recognize the original file has changed its name from "01 Montanita.mp3" to "01 Montanita.mp3~randomletters.tmp". I'm just making assumption, but I don't know. If MusicBee would interpret the "01 Montanita.mp3~randomletters.tmp" file as a new file, it would be put in the inbox, but it does not seem to be the case.

I'm sorry I can't be clearer right now, I don't have much clue about what's going on. I might need to see if the behaviour is the same when I closes MusicBee when I run Serato.

Please let me know if you have more insight about this. I'll try to research the problem when I get home, and check where the tmp file might comes from and what really happen to the files (hopefully there's a windows app/script that analyzes files changes in a directory).

[redwing]

I meant the same music file after being recreated will be regarded as a new file by MB. Try this. Move a file in your monitored folder to a non-monitored folder and add it back. Then MB will send it to inbox even though it has the same path and filename. Also you will lose some metadata saved only in the MB's database about the file like play count and date added.
If you can't change the program's behavior, try not running MB while it's rewriting files.

[captain_paranoia]

How about turning off continuous file monitoring in MB?

What 'analysis' is Serato doing? Something that MB can't do?

[Mythique]

How about turning off continuous file monitoring in MB?

Well it was as simple as that. Thanks... I feel kind of stupid but hey, problem solved and it might help someone.

What 'analysis' is Serato doing? Something that MB can't do?

It's a DJ software, I use it to mix music. When I play a track with this software it will try to find the key of the track, and its bpm.

[redwing]

Even with continuous monitoring turned off, MB still detects changes for some files real time. That's why I didn't recommend that.
But if that solves your issue, I have nothing more to add.