If you are experiencing issues using the new ‘Music’ application with macOS 10.15 Catalina, please use the troubleshooting steps specific to this macOS here:
If you've been a dedicated iTunes user for a long time, the iTunes library integration is a great way to bring your music library into Serato DJ in a way that is familiar and easy to navigate with very little library upkeep. Any changes made in iTunes will be reflected in Serato DJ so you won't be maintaining two libraries.
However, by loading a third party library into Serato DJ there are a few issues you may run into, and we've outlined these below, but before reading any further, make sure you've checked out our troubleshooting iTunes article first.
Why can't I see my Apple Music Files in Serato DJ?
Files from the Apple Music streaming service, that is exclusive to iTunes and iOS devices, are not supported in Serato DJ. Files from the Apple Music streaming service are DRM protected, and won't be playable in any other software. This is why songs from the Apple Music streaming service don't show in Serato DJ software.
A full list of supported file types can be found here.
Checked all the right boxes but the iTunes library still isn't loading?
Occasionally, the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' is generated with a slightly different name to what Serato DJ is looking for.
In some situations, this file is generated as 'iTunes Library.xml' (to mirror the iTunes Library.itl file) and not 'iTunes Music Library' when this happens, Serato can't find or load the iTunes library, so nothing happened when 'Show iTunes Library' is toggled in the 'library + display' tab of the setup menu.
To resolve this, open the iTunes folder (you can check the location by going to the advanced tab in iTunes preferences under 'iTunes Media folder location') locating the 'iTunes Library.xml' file and renaming this to 'iTunes Music Library.xml' Serato DJ will then find and load the iTunes library.
Updated tags not showing in Serato DJ until the track is loaded/tags rescanned?
Due to how iTunes interacts with other software (EG Serato DJ) this is quite an easy issue to run into if you import your iTunes library into Serato DJ. To understand what's happening here you'll need to know a little bit about how iTunes allows other software read & import the iTunes library & playlists.
Basically what iTunes does is writes out a list of tracks in your library, alongside the existing tags (to speed up load time) the file path, and other library info like your playlists etc this is then made accessible to other software to load the files alongside the iTunes metadata so that the library integrates in a familiar way. This file is 'iTunes Music Library.xml' and it lives in the iTunes folder.
This file only has track info updated when the tags are updated in iTunes, if the files aren't altered in iTunes then the info written in this file isn't updated.
When Serato reads this file; and loads the iTunes library, we take all the tag info from this file and populate the library panel with this info, no analysis required to bring this info up in Serato DJ (but you should always analyze new files added to your library).
Unfortunately, as a side effect of this (by this I mean; 'this file only has track info updated when the tags are updated in iTunes' & 'we take all the tag info from this file and populate the library panel with this info') any tag updates made to iTunes library files in Serato DJ (or any application other than iTunes), won't show (unless the file is loaded to deck or tags have been rescanned) when loading the iTunes library after the software is closed.
To resolve this, you'll need to update all tags for your iTunes library, which is quite easy to do (but we recommend you do this after a bulk tag update, as file by file is quite tedious) to do this;
1. Close all programs/software running on your computer.
2. Launch iTunes.
3. Click on your 'Songs' within the 'Library' menu, to show all the files in your library.'
4. Select all files by pressing Command + A (Mac) or Control + A (Windows).
5. Right click on the highlighted area and select "Get Info" from the drop-down menu.
6. Click 'edit Items' when asked if you want to edit multiple items.
Open up Serato software. Uncheck and recheck the "Show iTunes Library" checkbox in the Setup screen. Your iTunes library should now display with all updated tags in Serato DJ.
Missing almost all tags on your songs after using iCloud Music Library?
This is caused by iTunes Match, which is a part of the iCloud Music Library service Apple provide. What this does is when you send your iTunes library to iCloud, it scans the metadata information and audio fingerprinting to find a copy of the same file on Apples' servers (this is actually really beneficial if your library is full of low-quality audio files as they're replaced with 256kbps AAC files of the same song and allows you to easily sync your library across devices) HOWEVER, this replaces the existing file on your computer with a copy of the file from Apple servers, meaning your cue points,flips, beat grid info, saved loops and just about all other tags will be gone.
If you do not have a backup of your iTunes library from before this happened, you'll need to reset your tags as there is no way to recover this information.
We strongly advise against using iCloud Music Library or iTunes match for your DJing library.
iTunes library crashing Serato DJ on load?
This can happen for a few different reasons, such as the size of your iTunes library, how bloated your 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file is or the xml could be corrupt, or it could even be a combination of these.
If you're not using Serato DJ 1.9.x or above, this could just be the software you're using. We've been working hard over time on improving and expanding the library size that the software can handle without crashing, the older the software is, the smaller library it can handle before crashing - so make sure you're running the latest version of Serato DJ, you can download this here.
If you find that your iTunes library is quite bloated in relation to your library size, an iTunes library of 20k songs will have a .xml file of around 20-25mb in size so if it's far out of that ratio, it could do with a refresh.
To refresh this file, close iTunes then head to the iTunes folder, right click and rename the iTunes Music Library.xml file to 'iTunes Music Libraryold.xml'. Open iTunes, play a track or two then close it, a new 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file will be generated (if you check the file size you should see its come down in size) try load the iTunes library into Serato DJ again, you should find it loads after doing this.
The process above can also be used to resolve any corruption within the .xml blocking the file from loading, so it's a bit of a 2-birds-1-stone troubleshooting step.
Moved your iTunes library to a new hard drive and now have duplicates in your Serato library?
As mentioned above, when the iTunes library is loaded into Serato DJ, we take the track data from the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' and write this to the Serato database, and .crate files (this occurs when iTunes files are added to crates)
If you move the location of your iTunes library, the file location won't be updated in Serato DJ straight away, so the first time you open Serato DJ after moving the iTunes library you'll probably notice a large chunk of (or potentially all of) your iTunes library is showing duplicates in Serato DJ. This is because Serato Dj is seeing two copies of the same file from separate locations.
Given the files are no longer in the previous location (that Serato DJ references from the databaseV2 file/.crate files) if you tried to play this copy of the file, it will be flagged as a 'missing' file and turn orange. Using relocate lost files won't work if there are duplicates in the library because the file is technically 'found' meaning that there is one working reference to the file in your library, the valid reference being the one imported from iTunes and the 'missing' file is saved in your crates.
To resolve this, open the setup menu, go to the 'Library + Display' tab and disable the iTunes library, which removes the 'found' instances of the same song from your Serato DJ library, running 'Relocate Lost Files' after doing this will allow the software to update the file path info for the missing files, and when you reenable the iTunes library from the setup menu the duplicates will be gone.
If none of these situations are applicable to the iTunes problem you're facing open a help request with the support team here.