Serato Trick: How To Stop Duplicate Tracks Reappearing

Working out how DJ software works can be infuriating, but often it’s due to gaps in our knowledge about how our computers do stuff, not the fault of the software.

A common problem is when you think you’ve deleted a track in your DJ software but at some point down the line, it reappears. This is most obvious where we accidentally get two copies of the same track in our collection and go ahead and delete one, only to have it reappear later.

What’s actually happening is that you’re not deleting the unwanted copy of the track at all, just removing it from you DJ software’s catalogue – so next time your DJ software scans your computer or music folders for whatever reason, it spots the second copy again, and it reappears in your library.

Watch this on YouTube

If you’ve ever removed a track from your iTunes library and you get that little popup that says “Do you want to delete this track from your computer as well?”, and ticked “yes” to make sure it really goes away for good – well, that’s the extra step you have to take when you remove the track from your DJ library to make sure the unneeded file really does go for good. In Serato’s case, the software doesn’t have a popup that asks this.

Luckily, it’s easy! Watch the video for a talkthrough of how it’s done. Once you know, it’s a ten second job every time – but you do have to know the trick.

UPDATE: You can hold down “Shift” while doing the Ctrl/Cmd + Delete shortcut, to achieve the same thing (thanks to those of you who pointed that out in the comments). However, the method detailed here also gives you a chance to check exactly where the duplicate track is located – so you can be sure what you’re deleting is the unwanted copy, not the “master” copy.

Have you found this trick useful? Anything else you’d like us to cover in these little tips and tricks? Let us know in the comments below.