How to Import a rekordbox XML: Settings, File Locations and Missing Tracks

A rekordbox XML is a small text file that describes tracks: where each audio file is, its BPM and key, its beat grid and its cue points. DJ tools, including ours, use it to hand rekordbox a track that is already prepared. This guide follows the rekordbox 7 manual and rekordbox's published XML format, and covers the three things that usually go wrong: a setting that is off, a file that is not where the XML says, and a track that is already in your collection.

What a rekordbox XML contains

The format is documented by rekordbox ("XML file format for playlists sharing"). For each track it can carry:

• Location — the path of the audio file, written as a file://localhost/ address that includes the file name. rekordbox's format document calls it "essential for each track".
• AverageBpm and Tonality — the tempo and the key.
• TEMPO — the beat grid: where the first beat is (Inizio), the BPM, the time signature and the beat number in the bar.
• POSITION_MARK — cue points and loops. Num 0, 1 and 2 are hot cues A, B and C; -1 is a memory cue.

The audio is not in the XML. The XML only points to it, which is why the file location matters so much.

Step 1: put the audio files where the XML expects them

Before you open rekordbox, check that every audio file sits exactly at the path the XML names, with exactly the same file name. If you downloaded the files with a browser, a file the browser renamed, because the folder already held a file of that name and it added a number, is enough for rekordbox not to find it.

If you unzip an archive that already contains a folder on Windows, "Extract All" proposes one more folder named after the archive. Remove that extra folder from the path, or move the files up into the folder the XML expects.

Step 2: show the rekordbox xml library

In rekordbox, open Preferences → View → Layout and tick rekordbox xml under Media Browser. Without this, the rekordbox xml tree does not appear at all.

Step 3: tell rekordbox which XML to read

Open Preferences → Advanced → Database and, under rekordbox xml, set Imported Library to your XML file. Imported Library names one file, so when you want to import a different XML, point Imported Library at it again.

This step is easy to miss. The panel from step 2 can be visible and still empty, because no file is chosen here.

Step 4: import the tracks or a playlist

• Tracks: select rekordbox xml in the Media Browser, double-click rekordbox xml in the tree view, click All Tracks, and drag the tracks to Collection.
• A playlist: double-click rekordbox xml, then double-click Playlists, and drag the playlist under your own Playlists.

If you change the XML file while rekordbox is open, use the refresh button of the rekordbox xml library to load its latest state.

Keep the imported beat grid

Two things can keep the XML's grid from sticking:

• Re-analysis. The manual says that when tracks are re-analyzed, a beat grid you adjusted is overwritten by the re-analyzed one. If Auto Analysis is on, decide whether you want rekordbox to analyze these tracks at all.
• A track that is already in Collection. rekordbox's manual does not say how an import treats a track that is already in your collection. To be sure the grid and cues come from the XML, import tracks that are not in Collection yet, or remove the old entry first.

Once a track is right, rekordbox's Analysis Lock (right-click the track, or the Track menu) makes it skip analysis and grid editing, so the grid cannot be overwritten by mistake.

Why a track is missing or cannot be read

How Aleatoria uses rekordbox XML

Synthesizer tracks and AI tracks with a measured tempo can be downloaded with a rekordbox XML. It carries the beat grid and cue points when the timing is known: always for synthesizer tracks, whose grid comes from the score that wrote them, and for AI tracks whose measured grid is reliable; otherwise it carries the title and tempo without cues, and rekordbox analyzes the track itself. Recent synthesizer tracks also come as a DJ pack while their files are stored: the mix, Drums only and No bass versions and the XML in one archive, with a README of the import steps. You enter the folder your browser saves downloads to, and the XML points there (for a DJ pack, into the folder inside the archive); if you move the files later, create the XML again. The tags and file names are explained in our guide to BPM and key tags, and the DJ features in AI DJ tools. You can try it with a track from the studio.