The red icon almost always means the file path changed. The track is still on disk — Rekordbox just lost the breadcrumb. Bulk repair takes minutes.
You open Rekordbox and tracks that worked yesterday are showing the red "missing file" icon. The audio file is almost certainly still on disk — what changed is the path Rekordbox stored when you imported the track. Common triggers: macOS reorganized your home folder during an OS update, you renamed a music folder, you moved your library to a bigger drive, your external SSD remounted with a different mount point, or Time Machine restored files into a slightly different path.
Supported today
Rekordbox · Serato DJ · VirtualDJ (incl. Favorite Folders) on Windows 10+ and macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel). No DJ software? Folder Library mode audits plain music folders too.
Rekordbox stores absolute paths, which means any reshuffle of folders or drive mount points breaks the link. Rekordbox's own Relocate Missing Files tool works from one folder at a time. MLD searches multiple folders and drives at once, ranks every candidate by name and track length so you can pick the right one when two files share a name, and writes back to the encrypted master.db.
macOS occasionally reorganizes home folder contents (especially during major version upgrades) or remounts external drives at different paths. Both invalidate the absolute paths Rekordbox stored. Files are usually fine — the references just need updating.
Tracks on an unplugged drive aren't actually missing — they're offline. MLD distinguishes the two and keeps offline tracks in the library rather than flagging them for cleanup. Plug the drive back in and the offline indicator clears.
MLD takes a timestamped backup of master.db before any write. The encryption key is preserved. If something looks off after the repair, restore the backup with one click.
Then they're not coming back via this route. MLD flags those separately as "file genuinely missing from disk" so you can clear them from Rekordbox if you want.
Yes. MLD handles Rekordbox 6.x and 7.x encrypted master.db formats.
Free tier covers scanning and detection. Pro is a one-time lifetime license, or a monthly plan if you prefer. Current pricing is on the homepage.
It finds Rekordbox, Serato and VirtualDJ on its own, and reads plain music folders when you use none of them. Nothing to configure before the first scan.
macOS 10.15+ or Windows 10+. Notarized and code-signed. See pricing
