I've been using VDJ on windows for over a decade. I want to experiment with VDJ and other software on a MAC, so I bought a 2015 MacBook Pro, i7, 16GB RAM, 2GB dedicated video card, 1TB SSD drive, etc.
I keep my music on a 4TB External, lots of songs, genres and videos, I'm an open format DJ that does a wide variety of events and DJ Videos.
I'd like to be able to go back and forth from my main PC to the MAC while I test the MAC in a variety of situations, meaning I'd still consider my PC Laptop to be the 'main' DJ computer for now, but I would want to update the database files for the MAC to see any new music added, any changes to playlists, history etc.
Going from my main PC to my backup PC, this is pretty easy. I copy the VDJ database, history, and playlist folders from the 'main' PC to a folder on my external, plug in the external to the backup PC and copy the VDJ folders onto the backup in the 'my documents' folder. (I back up both the main and backup computer VDJ files and keep an archive for them in case anything happens, I can go back to what I had before.
However, going to a MAC I'm having a few issues:
* First of all, I think my database for my songs is mainly on my computer and not on the external, even though all my music/videos are on the external. I think this happened years ago and has always been like this. I think if the database for the songs themselves was on the hard drive, I could see my root folders pop up with the music tags etc intact as I go from one computer to another, regardless of whether it was a Mac or PC, but that's not the case for me, I have to copy the computer CDJ folder from 'my documents' to the target secondary computer for that to work on PC, and for MAC, I have to rename the file paths in the database file in 'documents' on the MAC. I'd like to move my main music database for the music on the external, onto the external drive, can someone help me with that?
* If I have to keep the songs in the database on the computer, then I need to figure out issues with renaming the file path on the Mac database. On the MAC after pasting the VDJ folder from the main computer into the MAC documents folder, I open and edit the database file and change the path from FilePath="F:/ to FilePath="Volumes/F/ after renaming the name of the drive to F. Once I do this, when I open VDJ, there's a folder I've previously saved called 'Club Music' as one of my favorite folders. When I go from PC to PC, if I've copied the main database folder over, then this Club Music folder appears with all of it's sub folders. But when trying to run off the Mac, this Club Music folder appears, but none of the sub folders or songs are there, even after changing the file path to the songs. The songs do appear to come up when searching for them, so I think I renamed their file path properly, or they would not come up in search, correct?
* Now on to History and Playlist folders, according to what I read, it says you have to open and edit each individual file for all your history or all your playlist folders? This would take forever to not lose anything going from one platform to another, surely there is a better way to do this, does anyone have any tips? I love being able to play around and see what I played on a given night last year or a few years ago, and I have a bunch of different playlists that I use, which I would hate to have to edit every single file, I can't believe this is the only way to go between Mac/PC platforms, please tell me there's a better way.
Another interesting thing is that I don't see my Serato Crates come up in VDJ on the Mac. What's interesting is that since all my music is on the external, with Serato all the crates seem to come up fine on the Mac in Serato, as much as I love VDJ for a lot of things, I wish all my stuff came up on the Mac as easily as it did in Serato.
Any ideas here? Thanks in advance.
I keep my music on a 4TB External, lots of songs, genres and videos, I'm an open format DJ that does a wide variety of events and DJ Videos.
I'd like to be able to go back and forth from my main PC to the MAC while I test the MAC in a variety of situations, meaning I'd still consider my PC Laptop to be the 'main' DJ computer for now, but I would want to update the database files for the MAC to see any new music added, any changes to playlists, history etc.
Going from my main PC to my backup PC, this is pretty easy. I copy the VDJ database, history, and playlist folders from the 'main' PC to a folder on my external, plug in the external to the backup PC and copy the VDJ folders onto the backup in the 'my documents' folder. (I back up both the main and backup computer VDJ files and keep an archive for them in case anything happens, I can go back to what I had before.
However, going to a MAC I'm having a few issues:
* First of all, I think my database for my songs is mainly on my computer and not on the external, even though all my music/videos are on the external. I think this happened years ago and has always been like this. I think if the database for the songs themselves was on the hard drive, I could see my root folders pop up with the music tags etc intact as I go from one computer to another, regardless of whether it was a Mac or PC, but that's not the case for me, I have to copy the computer CDJ folder from 'my documents' to the target secondary computer for that to work on PC, and for MAC, I have to rename the file paths in the database file in 'documents' on the MAC. I'd like to move my main music database for the music on the external, onto the external drive, can someone help me with that?
* If I have to keep the songs in the database on the computer, then I need to figure out issues with renaming the file path on the Mac database. On the MAC after pasting the VDJ folder from the main computer into the MAC documents folder, I open and edit the database file and change the path from FilePath="F:/ to FilePath="Volumes/F/ after renaming the name of the drive to F. Once I do this, when I open VDJ, there's a folder I've previously saved called 'Club Music' as one of my favorite folders. When I go from PC to PC, if I've copied the main database folder over, then this Club Music folder appears with all of it's sub folders. But when trying to run off the Mac, this Club Music folder appears, but none of the sub folders or songs are there, even after changing the file path to the songs. The songs do appear to come up when searching for them, so I think I renamed their file path properly, or they would not come up in search, correct?
* Now on to History and Playlist folders, according to what I read, it says you have to open and edit each individual file for all your history or all your playlist folders? This would take forever to not lose anything going from one platform to another, surely there is a better way to do this, does anyone have any tips? I love being able to play around and see what I played on a given night last year or a few years ago, and I have a bunch of different playlists that I use, which I would hate to have to edit every single file, I can't believe this is the only way to go between Mac/PC platforms, please tell me there's a better way.
Another interesting thing is that I don't see my Serato Crates come up in VDJ on the Mac. What's interesting is that since all my music is on the external, with Serato all the crates seem to come up fine on the Mac in Serato, as much as I love VDJ for a lot of things, I wish all my stuff came up on the Mac as easily as it did in Serato.
Any ideas here? Thanks in advance.
Posté Fri 10 Jan 20 @ 7:36 am
Ok, now I'm really confused. I thought I was logged into VDJ as myself, but now it's calling me a home user? I have a pro infinity license, what is going on here? I was on the new Mac, but logged in so I could download the full version of VDJ, it's calling me by my name, but my regular account details are missing.
Posté Fri 10 Jan 20 @ 7:39 am
karz10
ok now somehow I got logged back in as myself properly, but I still have the same issues I posted above
Posté Fri 10 Jan 20 @ 7:50 am
trcm
Hello VDJ Support Team
Looking for help with similar issue as I will like to go between PC and Mac keeping all files and database the same .
I have been using Bootcamp on the MAC using windows and have A MSI PC as back up.
Like to use MAC OS to run VDJ and migrate between the PC.
Appreciate Your Help
Thank You!
Looking for help with similar issue as I will like to go between PC and Mac keeping all files and database the same .
I have been using Bootcamp on the MAC using windows and have A MSI PC as back up.
Like to use MAC OS to run VDJ and migrate between the PC.
Appreciate Your Help
Thank You!
Posté Fri 21 Aug 20 @ 4:18 pm
Rune (DJ-In-Norway)
Where is your music stored then? external drive?
Can also see some of the logic to where VirtualDJ stores its data etc here:
https://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/How-to-Transfer-To-A-New-Computer.html
Can also see some of the logic to where VirtualDJ stores its data etc here:
https://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/How-to-Transfer-To-A-New-Computer.html
Posté Fri 21 Aug 20 @ 4:58 pm
djles.co.uk
I have found the best method is to have all music, videos, karaoke databases stored on an external 2tb hard drive formatted as NTFS.
On the Mac side there is a plugin you can buy (UK £15.95) called 'Paragon NTFS for Mac' which allows you to read and write to NTFS drives. It is completely transparent. I have been using it since 2010. I have a Mid 2010 MBP with High Sierra bootcamped with Windows 7 and my current 2017 Touchbar MBP with Catalina bootcamped with Windows 10. I use the same external hard drive for all of them with no problems, it is seamless.
Paragon NTFS for Mac
On the Mac side there is a plugin you can buy (UK £15.95) called 'Paragon NTFS for Mac' which allows you to read and write to NTFS drives. It is completely transparent. I have been using it since 2010. I have a Mid 2010 MBP with High Sierra bootcamped with Windows 7 and my current 2017 Touchbar MBP with Catalina bootcamped with Windows 10. I use the same external hard drive for all of them with no problems, it is seamless.
Paragon NTFS for Mac
Posté Sat 22 Aug 20 @ 6:25 am
kradcliffe
I have Windows and Mac on my machine. I created a partition D drive formatted in exFAT so both the Windows and Mac side can read and write to it. No need for any conversion software.
I'm never in the Mac side at all but it's a handy bridge between both operating systems.
I'm never in the Mac side at all but it's a handy bridge between both operating systems.
Posté Sat 22 Aug 20 @ 6:32 am
Rune (DJ-In-Norway)
kradcliffe wrote :
I have Windows and Mac on my machine. I created a partition D drive formatted in exFAT so both the Windows and Mac side can read and write to it..
External or a drive other than the default OS drive would probably be the easier way yes :)
Posté Sat 22 Aug 20 @ 10:09 am
trcm
Where is your music stored then? external drive?
Yes All Music & Video are on an external which is formatted exFat.
Which can go between PC and Mac.
If I take the database and settings in My Document on the PC and copy to VDJ My Documents on the using Mac (OS) will it work and be identical.
Yes All Music & Video are on an external which is formatted exFat.
Which can go between PC and Mac.
If I take the database and settings in My Document on the PC and copy to VDJ My Documents on the using Mac (OS) will it work and be identical.
Posté Sat 22 Aug 20 @ 8:39 pm