How to go back to the 2.0.29 the new version 2.1 is too buggy

Rekord Buddy Support
#1

My Rekord Buddy Version: 2.1.4

My OS Version: MacOS 10.14.6

Steps required to reproduce the problem:
Rekord Buddy 2.1.4 is a mess, Can’t sync Traktor with Rekordbox.xml, many things doesn’t work properly and the GUI interface is very confusing, I wanna go back to the previous release 2.0.29, where I can find the installer?

  1. Drag and drop cause crashes many times
  2. Can’t delete playlist in the Rekordbox.xml ( I delete and then save but when I reopen the app the playlist is still there)
  3. It’s hard to drag a playlist from below, for example if you have a lot of playlists on Traktor and wanna drag one on Rekordbox you can’t move up.

What I expected to happen:
I want simply sync my Traktor cue points with Rekordbox as before

What actually happens instead:
Crashes and malfunctions.

#2

I’ve been using RB since v2.0 came out and it has always worked flawlessly for me to sync everything from Traktor to Rekordbox. 2.0.24 finally added every feature which I had needed and requested and was rather happy.

Now, nothing. I too want to go back to 2.0.2x

I have a feeling the new RB is only compatible with Traktor 3 and that’s gonna be a paid upgrade for me which I do not want or need.

#3

Using 2.1.8 now. Can finally transfer playlists from Traktor to Rekordbox but exporting the whole collection still produces a crash. Step in the right direction though so keep up the good work.

#4

I’m not a big fan of this new drag and drop interface, just a simple click on sync was fine to me, anyway if this is the new direction at least it should work properly.

2 Likes
#5

The short answer is “I don’t provide past/unsupported builds” but this deserves a longer answer so here it is. As you guys know by now, I’m always trying to be transparent about everything.

First, I will be the first to agree that this sucks and that 2.1 as it shipped initially had many issues that I set on correcting as fast as I can. This is not an excuse for this situation, just making sure everyone knows that I’m aware this is less than ideal.

Second, Rest assured that those issues are not things that we were aware of before shipping nor are they issues that happen on my machines here unfortunately, otherwise those would be already fixed.
When 2.1 was in beta, I tried to find as many issues as I could. Some people jumped on the beta and helped find issues too but at some point, we exhausted the number of problems we could find given our dataset (both in people and collections).

The complexity of combinations for each user out there (both OS installs and collection/track data) makes it impossible to test everything and I can’t afford a real testing department so I was left with no choice but to ship the best build I could and be ready to fix any issues the popped up when the build started getting used in the ‘real world’. I knew there wear going to be issues, I just didn’t know what they were.

So over the last week I’m been diligently fixing everything in order of priority. I currently have 12 known issues, only 3 are being seen by more than one user. For a user base of thousands, that’s not too bad.

The reason I won’t provide old builds is twofold: First, the old builds are not bug free and I can’t split my time between fixing old things and fixing new things. So I only officially support and provide the latest build. Second, if I did provide an old build, people will use the old build and I’ll be back to not having any way to find/fix the issues that the new builds have. It’s a catch 22.

So, thank you for bearing with me during those difficult few days. This is obviously an exceptional step since 2.1 is a complete rewrite of the codebase but I’m working toward fixing everything. When version 2.2 comes out in beta, help out as much as you can by giving it a try and that way we will ensure that the final release for it will be much smoother sailing.

And thanks for everyone who posts kind words. It means a lot since I feel really bad for putting everyone in this situation in the first place. It’s necessary but I understand it sucks.

1 Like
#6

Traktor hasn’t changed their NML format in a long time so while earlier versions of Traktor are not supported, they should work fine. Feel free to open a new topic in support if you see any issues and I’ll make an exception and look into making sure that your issue is taken care of.

#7

Thanks for the reply. I don’t envy your position, especially with how rude some of your customers are.

1 Like
#8

Issue when dropping collections on rekordbox should be fixed in 2.1.13.

#9

It was not my intention to create controversy or bad moods :slight_smile:

#10

I totally understand. I think it was good because it gave me an opportunity to clarify why I made the decision. It may not please everyone (that can never happen) but at least there is some reasoning behind it.

If you’d like to suggest some ways to make the new workflow better, start a thread and let’s get talking.

#11

Hey Damien –

Thanks for all the hard work on Rekord Buddy, it’s very useful! I’m also a developer (and designer) and can understand and appreciate all the effort put into this app - that being said, I updated and am now dealing with a very buggy app. I read your explanations on why you don’t provide past builds but I feel like it’s a little too strong armed. Forcing people to use a new version so you can get QA feedback on bugs is not a good method for fixing issues. I honestly think you should have a legacy build download page so everyone can use what version works for them. I get it if you’re just making updates to bug fixes but you’re also completely changing the UI/UX - forcing people to figure out a totally different system and workflow - which no software development company would ever do. (eg: Google’s “try the new interface” vs “switch back to the old interface”). I traded a completely fine working version of Rekord Buddy to something that I’m scared will screw up my data. You can easily provide a legacy build download page and caveat that none of those builds are no longer being supported. The most difficult part would be just to email everyone saying how this forum is organized and how to provide feedback for only the latest build. You could also warn people to keep a copy of their version of Rekord Buddy before upgrading in case they want to revert. Anyways, this is really frustrating and really liked the version of Rekord Buddy I was using previously (the one with the “import from/export to” system), it worked flawlessly for me and had no bugs.

2 Likes
#12

I love 2.0.29 but gonna try the new one (I have copied the 2.0.29 app in to downloads so can revert if dont like)

Are there any tutorial videos on the new workflow on 2.1 drag and drop?

#13

ok tested the new drag and drop, I have dragged whole collection from traktor to rekordbuddy and both collections have 5000 tracks approx which is correct.

I deagged from rekordbuddy to rekordbox which worked fine, bought a couple of new tunes and did the above again…I now have the correct songs in traktor and rekordbuddy collections howver I have 3 times as many in rekordbox!!! 15000 tracks, why are these duplicating???

#14

I think this is very well said. I’m no developer, but it just seems like the right thing to do. And I think many other companies already do the same thing, no?

#15

Couple of issues with that though. A) Unlike companies like Google or any other company bigger than me (I only have one person on hand, me), anything that I do has to take time away from other things. So If I spend time making versions with disclaimers, dialogs to switch back or update, etc…etc… that’s time I’m not spending doing something that could be more useful. B) My other point was that if people use old versions, then I’m not making any progress on sorting out issues that I’m unaware of with the new version.

I think it’s important to keep the alternatives in mind. Tough decisions are tough because they are not perfect, no matter what side you choose. This is one of those decisions. While there are some people that preferred 2.0, there are also a lot of people that found it buggy and confusing. I had to make a decision and the one I made was to make 2.1 not buggy because it’s the build that works on Windows too and then we can improve the workflow. Dragging a collection in 2.1 does exactly the same thing as import/export on 2.0 so we’re not far anyway.

Finally it’s important to repeat once again that it’s misleading to say that I use users for QA. I tried to do as much QA as I can internally, then during the beta period but as I mentioned in my original post, the chaotic nature of user installs and user collections makes it impossible for me to test out every combination, especially given my resources. So holding back on release doesn’t mean the app would have been QA’d better, it just means it would have never shipped.

#16

I think the worst mistake in these things is trying to amaze customers with fireworks and impressive options. What we really need is a stable, fast and reliable application. I went back to version 2.0.29 (569) and honestly for me it’s more than enough. I create and update my playlists in iTunes, import in Traktor to create the cue points and then use the fantastic Rekord Buddy to get the same cue points in Rekordbox… end of the games!
If this process works well and fast I am a happy customer and willing to pay for more speed and stability. From my point of view speed and stability are more important than other useless thousand options. This is my sincere opinion. The less time I spend in Rekord Buddy the happier I am, for these two things I would be ready to pay again.

#17

I am with markino and christophermiles. 2.1 is not working for me and I have a gig Saturday. First attempt crashed, second attempt froze, dragging seems to fill the UI with orange but do nothing, latest 2.0 installer I have is 2.0.22 which doesn’t seem to work with Traktor 3 so now have no way of using Traktor, my $60 Rekord Buddy has in effect deleted itself, why throw good money on a subscription after bad? Only 3 bugs seen by more than one user?! Been using it 20 minutes and have sent you 6 crash reports so far [now two days later and almost nothing works - I am exporting m3us and importing into Serato]. Also, the last thing I want is partial synchronization - I want all or nothing and the ability to lock the source. What I now seem to have is duplicates of everything, as folders and playlists, with ‘2’ appended. I can’t see how to sync. I try to delete all but selecting several and deleting only deletes one. I’ve no idea how to achieve what 2.0 did. I’m going to save this mess as I don’t know whether RB will get through a sync again.

I get that you can’t support 2.0, but I don’t agree that we should all be forced to be crash test dummies on our collections which are our livelihoods. I am a developer and wouldn’t release the current version on my test team, let alone paying clients. Please provide the installer for 2.0.29 - or a refund. You can always refuse support requests. Also, from a hard-nosed business perspective, (which - let’s be honest - is the reason the subscription-free version is no longer available regardless that we’ve paid for it), I urgently need to sync now, and Rekord Buddy is not there for me, so you’re pushing people to try the free alternatives. Retire 2.0 once 2.1 is solid and people like me, who are extremely risk averse with their collections, won’t go trying out the cheaper alternatives and will do the safe option of starting the subscription when nudged. It doesn’t make sense to use us as test subjects - those who feel backups are risk free and don’t mind rolling up their sleeves, are not the ones those whose livelhioods depend on it and therefore pay for something free software does.

1 Like
#18

Damien - do you have any thoughts on why why rekordbox collection keeps doubling in size?

#19

@technicaltitch and @jimmyjamesh As I mentioned before you seem to have issues that have not shown up before and that I don’t see on my setups here. You’re not crash test dummies, you just have something that I can’t reproduce on my end. If I can’t reproduce then I can’t fix it.

There are currently a dozen open issues that for the most part only affect one or two users. I can track that because I have all the error reports available to me. I know it doesn’t help if the issues affect you but I just want to put things in perspective: 2.1 is working for the majority of people and I am now working to fix all the remaining issues. Every new build has extra info reported to me when the app encounters a problem (directly on the user’s machine which allows me to debug issues that I can’t reproduce).

Please open new topics for your separate issues and let’s fix them together.

@markino I understand where you are coming from. There was no way to please everyone which is why this was a hard decision to make. I still stand by it though and I think in the long run it will prove to be the right one.

#20

Just because you cant reproduce it doesnt mean it is not an issue.

You have not asked me for any info so how do I know if you are looking in to my issue?

My rekordbox collection has now tripled in size randomly!

Traktor library says 5900 tracks which is correct, rekordbox within rekordbuddy shows 16783.