Playproof

Setting up a USB stick

When a player can't see your stick, it's usually how the stick was set up, not the music on it. Set it up right once, and you can stop worrying about it.

The easy way

Open Playproof's USB formatter and choose the players you'll meet. It tells you the right format, and on Windows and Mac it gives you Stick Maker, a small program that sets up the stick for you:

Setting up a stick erases everything on it, so copy off anything you want to keep first.

Which format?

FAT32: use this
Every DJ player reads it. Its only limit is that a single file can't be bigger than 4 GB. Tracks never are, but a long WAV recording of a set can be.
exFAT: only if every player reads it
Like FAT32, without the 4 GB limit. Denon recommends it for its players. The newer Pioneer players read it too: CDJ-3000 (firmware 1.20 or newer), CDJ-3000X, CDJ-1500X, XDJ-AZ, XDJ-AN, OPUS-QUAD, OMNIS-DUO, XDJ-XZ and XDJ-RX3. The CDJ-2000NXS2 and older don't, and many booths still have them.
Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
Most Pioneer players and the Denon SC6000 read it, but Windows can't write to it. Only worth it if you only ever use a Mac.
NTFS and APFS: never
These are Windows' and Mac's own formats. No DJ player reads them. Windows often picks NTFS for big sticks, and the player won't see the stick at all.

The layout: MBR

A stick also has a layout underneath the format, called the partition table. There are two kinds: the older MBR, which every player reads, and the newer GPT, which many players don't (including the CDJ-3000 and XDJ-AN). New sticks often come as GPT, and a Mac sets them up as GPT unless you say otherwise. Stick Maker and the steps below always use MBR.

Use one partition per stick: some players only read the first one.

Doing it yourself on Windows

Don't use the Format option in File Explorer. It only offers FAT32 for sticks up to 32 GB, and it keeps a GPT layout if the stick has one.
Show the steps for Windows

Unplug other USB drives and memory cards first, so you can't pick the wrong one.

  1. Open the Start menu, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.
  2. Type diskpart and press Enter.
  3. Type list disk. Find your stick by its size (a 64 GB stick shows as a little less, like 57 GB) and note its number.
  4. Type select disk 2, using your stick's number. Check it twice: the next step erases whichever disk you selected. detail disk shows what you picked.
  5. Type clean to erase the stick.
  6. Type convert mbr to give it the MBR layout.
  7. Type create partition primary, then assign letter=P, then exit.
  8. Type format P: /FS:FAT32 /Q /V:PLAYPROOF and answer Y. (For exFAT, use /FS:exFAT.)

Stick bigger than 32 GB? The format command can only make FAT32 on it if your PC has Windows 11's April 2026 update (KB5083631), which Microsoft is rolling out slowly. If it says the stick is too big for FAT32, use Stick Maker instead.

Doing it yourself on a Mac

Show the steps for Mac

With Disk Utility: open it and choose View → Show All Devices. Select the stick's top entry (the device, not the one indented under it) and click Erase. Choose Format MS-DOS (FAT) for FAT32, or ExFAT, and Scheme Master Boot Record.

With Terminal: type diskutil list and find your stick (it says external, physical). Note its name, like disk4. Then type:

diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 PLAYPROOF MBRFormat /dev/disk4

Use ExFAT instead of FAT32 for exFAT. A FAT32 name can be up to 11 capital letters or numbers.

Mac tip: Macs leave hidden files on every stick, with names starting with ._. Some players list them as tracks that won't load. Playproof's stick check removes them. Stick Maker for Mac can also stop Spotlight from adding more.

Doing it yourself on Linux

Show the commands for Linux 
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,TRAN
sudo umount /dev/sdb?*
sudo parted /dev/sdb --script mklabel msdos mkpart primary fat32 1MiB 100%
sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n PLAYPROOF /dev/sdb1

Replace sdb with your stick, found by its size in the first command's list. For exFAT, install exfatprogs and use sudo mkfs.exfat -L PLAYPROOF /dev/sdb1.

Choosing sticks