Tutorial - How to backup and restore the TDJ metadata (grid, musical key, bpm, hotcues)

Hi guys,

If you ever lost your cue points or bpm and grid adjustments in TDJ, and/or if you afraid this could happen in future …
... then maybe my new tutorial could help.

And hey! … I’m not an NI guy, never saw the source code of TDJ, it's not NI approved … it’s based on my tests and my own experiences. I can’t guarantee that it will also work on your iPad or iPhone. Also don’t know whether it will work with future TDJ or itunes versions. If you lose any TDJ cue’s or grid’s because of my instructions… it’s not my fault … ok ! 

The attachment includes the tutorial (pdf file).

As always … all feedback welcome
No risk ... no fun. Enjoy !

Kalo

 

You're the best Kalo. I'm going to jump into this before my next sync.

Best,
Brandon

 

Thanks a lot Brandon ! Yes, it’s always a good idea to make a backup. Latest before any new iTunes sync or any TDJ/iOS/itunes update ... or even better: do it asap or NOW, making a backup file will cost you less than 1 min time
… you never know, when you will need this backup file for a 'Restore'

 

Hi Folks,

There are often the same questions:

• What can I do if my hot cues got lost ?
• How to backup and restore my TDJ metadata (adjusted grids, bpm, and hot cues)?
• Do I need TraCoMerger for this ?

Answers (without any guarantee .. all based on my own experiences .. not confirmed from NI):

What can I do if my hot cues got lost ?

• If you ever did a local backup of your file ‘collection.nml.gz’ (on Dropbox) at a time when your Songs had hot cues ... then don't worry. You can restore at a later time quite easy, see instruction (pdf) above.
• If you never did a backup or lost the file then there is no way to get the hotcues back

How to backup and restore my TDJ metadata (adjusted grids, bpm, and hot cues)?

• described in Instruction (pdf) above

Do I need TraCoMerger for this ? … there are 2 use cases:

1. As long your master collection is available on same PC/Mac, using the same itunes installation, referenced to the same song files ... you can use the simple workflow. No TraCoMerger or any other tools needed, this workflow is described in instruction above. The idea behind: NI offers the feature to sync TDJ metadata between 2 iOS devices. With a simple trick (renaming of the Dropbox folder) you can force TDJ to restore from an older backup to the same device itself. This simple workflow works also if your current iOS synced collection is different to the collection at the time of the backup. TDJ restores metadata only to the songs which are currently in iOS music collection.
   == / update: this simple workflow does not longer work since TDJ moved from Dropbox to iCloud /==

1. In case your current iTunes installation is different to the time of the earlier backup OR the source/desitination devices are different, then TraCoMerger needed. the simple workflow 1 above would not work. Why ?: itunes references internally to song ID’s, which are different on each itunes or PC/Mac, so TDJ can not know, which (older metadata) belong to which new songs. TraCoMerger works also in this case, because the reference is based on the tag Trio title/artist/album. This allows several use cases (examples only):
   - transferring metadata from one iOS device to another (even if different Apple accounts) OR
   - from TDJ to Traktor (or vice versa) OR
   - between ‘same’ songs in different itunes collections (from different PC/Mac or after reinstall of itunes)
   - transfer of metadata between different 'physically' song files: e.g. changed tags (genre, cover art etc..) or after any recoding of the audio files
   - etc..

In summary:

• as long you stay on same itunes collection:the simple workflow (described in pdf attachment above) should work. No TraCoMerger needed.
• and as long you have a backup of your file ‘collection.nml.gz’ (on Dropbox) with hot cues .. a restore of the hot cues is quite simple.

I updated the instruction (pdf) in first post of this thread.



## Update (July, 1st, 2017):
## the new TDJ version 1.6.8 supports iCloud (Dropbox not longer supported) so pls. be aware: the Instruction.pdf above is not longer valid, i will update as soon as possible.

 

Hi, I'm using an ipad 3 and just updated to the last version of TDJ. However, I cant update ios anymore so cant back up with icloud! Is there any other way that I can backup cue points/meta data etc?

 

not sure i got it. TDJ 1,6.8 requires iOS 8.2 or later, which iOS do you have .. can't you launch TDJ ? .. and why do you think you can't use iCloud ? Did you install the iCloud app from app store, if yes: open the iCloud folder .. there should be a Traktor DJ folder, right ? Sorry 1000 questions

 

Hi Kalo, I'm using ios 9.3.2. When I updated TDJ a couple of days ago, I got a message which was something along the lines of "Dropbox no longer supported, please update ios to sync with iCloud". I cant install the icloud Drive app without updating the ios & I dont want to update ios to 9.3.5 without backing up TDJ! Does that make sense? Is there any other way that I can see what's been backed up to icloud? Thanks.

 

maybe test to open your icloud on PC/Mac: www.icloud.com
check, maybe TDJ 1.6.8 created a Traktor DJ folder already (i do not think that TDJ does need the 'icloud app' to mirror the meta data into iCloud).

Btw: what you always should do: backup your older collection.nml.gz from dropbox manually to a safe place, in case you ever lose metadata (after TDJ reinstall) we can use the older Dropbox file to import to new iCloud send me a private message, i can support you in this if needed, no problem

 

Hi folks,

some good and bad news. I spent the last weeks in working on workflows to backup and restore TDJ meta data. I also worked on new versions of TraCoConverter and TraCoMerger the last weeks.

Bad news: the earlier (simple) workaround to restore meta data from older backups does not longer work since TDJ 1.6.8 supporting iCloud (as successor of Dropbox). The workaround (in first post) was based on the idea to replace (overwrite) the current collection.nml.gz with an older backup. A renaming of the Dropbox folder allowed to force TDJ reading the older file. As TDJ (iCloud) version does not longer support Dropbox, this could not longer work. Unfortunately replacing the current with an older backup on iCloud does not work, TDJ will reject the collection.nml.gz and ignore. So I see no possibility to restore via simple replacing any longer.

Good news: My new TraCoMerger can modify your older backup file into a 'new' (merged) one. So using my new TraCoMerger 2.2 will still allow you to restore older backup files. Seems TraCoMerger is now mandatory to restore backup files

kalo

 

Where is this .pdf file? I'm logged into the forum and can't seem to find the link..

 

It is removed, because the pdf does not longer work with TDJ cloud version (details see in 'bad news' in post above),meanwhile TraCoMerger seems mandatory to restore data (still quite easy and more flexible anyhow)