With version 2 of Stage Traxx it can happen that songs are displayed as MISSING. This article will explain why this happens, how to correct the problem and most important how to prevent it from happening.

If you are using Stage Traxx 3 you don't need to continue reading.

Why songs can go missing

This section will get a bit technical but it is important to explain why this problem happens.

The iTunes music library is a big database. Songs stored in the library can not be accessed like normal files but only with an API controlled by Apple. When adding a song from the library to Stage Traxx, iTunes will provide a so called persistentID. With this identifier it is possible to access the audio file if it is not copy protected (like songs from the Apple Music subscription).

Unfortunately this persistentID is not persistent at all. Up to iOS7 (or maybe even earlier), this ID never changed. Starting with iOS7 Apple starting changing the IDs occasionally when syncing your iPad with iTunes. Now (iOS14) it seems that Apple decided to even change this ID much more often. I'm not sure yet when the ID changes, but syncing your device is still one of the times where IDs change.

Now, when iTunes changed the ID to a song and Stage Traxx tries to access it, it will get a kind of file not found error. Now, Stage Traxx needs to locate the song by other means. And the only means it has is to search in the iTunes library for the song title and artist name. If it finds a match, it will update the persistentID stored in Stage Traxx and everything is fine. But if there is no match, Stage Traxx can no longer resolve this issue by itself and will mark the song as missing.

How to prevent these problems

... if you want to keep using the iTunes music library

You need to make sure that all your songs are properly tagged in iTunes and contain at least a title and artist. To do this open iTunes or the Music app (on MacOS). Then right click on a song and select Get Info. In the window that shows up, make sure Title and Artist are set.

After you have properly tagged your library, sync back the changes to the iPad as described here: https://support.stagetraxx.com/d/3-changed-lyrics-not-visible-in-stage-traxx

Because syncing the iPad will most probably change the persistentID and changing the tags will make it impossible for Stage Traxx to locate the song, you will now need to follow the steps in the section Repair song link in Stage Traxx below.

... if you don't want to use the iTunes music library any longer

Export your songs from iTunes on your computer as files (just drag and drop them into a folder). Then use iTunes file sharing to transfer the songs into the Stage Traxx app. Now these songs show up as Local files in Stage Traxx. This also has the advantage that they are included in all your iPad backups.

Then delete these songs from the music library on the iPad. Now they will show up as missing in Stage Traxx and you can point these songs to the local files by following the steps in the section Repair song link in Stage Traxx below.

Repairing missing songs

To repair the problem, you should first decide for one of the options above on how to prevent the problem from happening again. If you don't do that, there is a high chance that you will have to repeat these steps again and again because the problem will resurface!

Disable Apple Music subscription

Songs in the Apple Music subscription are copy protected. 3rd party apps have no direct access to the audio data which is needed if you want to manipulate the audio stream with EQs and pitch shifting. So it is necessary to disable the subscription to make sure that your songs are not replaced by copy protected versions from the subscription.

Check if Stage Traxx can still access music library

Open iPad settings, the scroll down until you see Stage Traxx and make sure that access to the music library is enabled.

Check if the songs are available in the iPad music app

Make sure that the songs did not get lost and are still visible and playable in the stock iPad music app.

Repair song link in Stage Traxx

This needs to be done for each song separately. You really don't want to have to repeat this process multiple times. Therefore, make sure to follow one of the approaches described in the How to prevent these problems section.

Open Stage Traxx
Open the Playlist Manager (top left button)
Select a playlist with missing songs for editing by tapping on the (i) button
Missing songs are red, select one red song
Tap on the "Repair link" button on the bottom of the window
Browse to the correct song in the iTunes library or local files and select it