In order for Serato DJ to run smoothly, it's important to make sure that all corrupt files are removed. To detect these, you need to analyze all files with in Serato DJ. If you have any corrupt tracks, you will see an image indicating these.
It is a good idea to re-analyze all files often, especially every time you update your Serato DJ version.
If the Analyzer is crashing or freezing, Serato DJ can’t analyze all the files, and it will be difficult to determine which files are corrupt and need removing.
NOTE: When you re-analyze files, this will overwrite existing beat-grids. While this may mean a little more work in the short run, it will save a big headache (and possible embarrassment), and make Serato DJ more stable.
For more information, please view our article on Beatgrids in Serato DJ.
To resolve this we need to take steps that will help figure out which corrupt files are causing the analyzer to crash or freeze.
Please do the following:
- Open Serato DJ, and sort the library by Artist Name. This will help us keep track of where we should continue analyzing from.
- Click on the ALL Crate, click on the first song at the top of the list, and hit Ctrl+A on your Keyboard (Cmd+A for Mac). You should notice all the files will be selected in Blue.
- Drag and drop these files on top of the Analyze Files button in Serato DJ. This will start to re-analyze all your files in the order that they are organized. Let it run until it freezes or crashes.
- If it freezes, you should be able to see which songs were being analyzed by looking at the analyzer section in Serato DJ. Write these four song names down.
NOTE: If, at the bottom of the program it says “Writing Tags” to a different file that is not listed in the analyzer, this file may also be corrupt. Write it's name down also.
- Restart Serato DJ and locate these songs in your ALL Crate. Drag them (one by one) onto the Analyze Files button. Let Serato DJ re-analyze the file until it’s done. If it freezes or crashes again, that file is corrupt.
- Re-open Serato DJ, search for that song within the ALL Crate, and delete it.
NOTE: For our development process, and to make the software even more sturdy, once you've located which files are corrupt, and causing the program to freeze, please create a new help request, stating the issue you were having, and attaching the corrupt tracks that caused the freeze.
This is the process that you'll need to follow for all your corrupt files.
- Go into the ALL Crate, click on the song that came after the corrupt file you just deleted, and scroll all the way down to the end of your library. Hold down the Shift button on your keyboard, while you click on the last file in the list. All files in-between will be highlighted blue.
- Drag and drop these songs on top of the Analyze Files button and let it run. If it freezes again, just rinse and repeat, (writing the names down, re-analyzing one by one, deleting the corrupt file, continuing to analyze) until all files have been successfully analyzed.
If Serato DJ doesn’t freeze, but crashes completely:
- After Serato DJ crashes while analyzing files, leave the program closed. DO NOT RE-OPEN THE PROGRAM.
- Go to your internal drive:
- C:/My Music/_Serato_ folder (Windows)
- HD/Users/Music/_Serato_ (Mac)
- Open the OverviewBuilder.Log. This file should list all of the songs that were just analyzed. The last file within the list should be the corrupt file.
NOTE: If your computer has multiple cores and analyzes more than one song at a time, the corrupt file might not be the last file in the list. It could be within the last two or four files, depending how many files your computer analyzes at once. In this case my computer analyzes two files at once, so I would write down the last 2 songs listed.
- Open Serato DJ, search for the suspect songs in the ALL Crate, and re-analyze them individually, as described above. Once you find the one that causes a crash, restart Serato DJ and delete it from the ALL crate.
NOTE: For our development process, and to make the software even more sturdy, once you've located which files are corrupt, and causing the program to crash, please create a new help request, stating the issue you were having, and attaching the corrupt tracks that caused the crash.
- To continue removing the corrupt files from your library, select and analyze the songs listed after the last corrupt file. Again, rinse and repeat this process until all your files have been successfully analyzed, and all corrupt files have been deleted.
If you are still having problems, and need further help, please read this article on preparing and analyzing your files, or feel free to get in touch by creating a new help request.