Why a player refuses a track

Every one of these has ruined a moment in someone's set. They're all easy to avoid once you know about them, and Playproof's stick check looks for every one.

The player lists the track but won't load it

On Pioneer players this shows as E-8305 or “unsupported file”. The usual reasons:

• A WAV saved in a newer way. Many WAVs from Bandcamp and music software are saved with a newer type of header (the bit at the start of the file that says what's inside). Older Pioneer players refuse them. The sound is fine. Playproof rewrites the header and leaves the sound exactly as it was.
• A WAV saved as “32-bit float”, which music software often does. Many players can't play it. Playproof converts it to 24-bit, with no audible change.
• FLAC or Apple Lossless on an older player, like the CDJ-2000NXS. See which player reads what.
• A file of higher quality than the player can play, like a 96 kHz file on a player that stops at 48 kHz. Playproof converts it down. You won't hear the difference.
• Apple Lossless with an .m4a name. It has the same ending as an AAC file but is something else inside. Playproof opens the file to tell them apart.
• Old copy-protected iTunes files and compressed AIFF files. These can't play on any player.

The player doesn't see the stick at all

• The wrong format. No player reads NTFS or APFS, and older players don't read exFAT. Use FAT32. Setting up a USB stick
• The wrong layout. The stick is GPT instead of MBR. The usual Format window doesn't change this, but Stick Maker does.
• More than one partition. Some players only read the first.
• A hub or adapter between the stick and the player.

Your playlists or cue points are missing

The player can always show your folders. Playlists, cue points and beat grids come from the library your DJ software puts on the stick:

• Pioneer players read one of two kinds. The CDJ-3000 and older read Device Library. The CDJ-3000X, CDJ-1500X, XDJ-AZ, XDJ-AN, OPUS-QUAD and OMNIS-DUO read OneLibrary. rekordbox 7.2.13 or newer can put both on one stick. OneLibrary and Device Library
• Denon players and the Numark Mixstream read an Engine Library, which Engine DJ (Denon's free app) puts on the stick. They can also play a stick of plain files and work out the tempo themselves.
• Software updates sometimes break exports. Update well before a gig, never on the day, and check the stick afterwards.

Tracks show up as file names

Some players can't read the artist and title stored in a WAV file, so they show the file name instead. AIFF files don't have this problem, which is why Playproof converts to AIFF for Pioneer players. Keep your file names readable, just in case.

Tracks that start with “._”

If you see files like ._Track.mp3 next to your real tracks, a Mac made them. They're hidden on the Mac, but some players list them as tracks that won't load. Playproof's stick check removes them.

Very long names and deep folders

Players stop reading very long file paths (over about 255 characters) and folders nested very deep. Normal libraries never get there, but downloads in many layers of folders sometimes do. The stick check warns you.

Denon players

• Denon recommends exFAT, but FAT32 works too. The SC6000 also reads Mac OS Extended; the SC5000 doesn't.
• Denon says the PRIME 4+ needs the MBR layout.
• Denon players read almost any music file, Ogg included, so Playproof rarely needs to convert anything for them. It mostly just checks.