First: the track that's already playing keeps playing — the player loaded it into memory. You have the length of that track to solve this calmly. Here's the minute-one move, then the proper fix.
Pro DJ Link shares one stick across every linked player — load your next track from the OTHER deck's USB via the link browser. No link? Phone into the spare channel buys you minutes. Awful, but silence is worse.
This is almost always how sticks get corrupted in the first place: pulled while the player was still writing. Hold USB STOP, wait for the light to stop flashing, THEN pull. Every time, every player.
Disk Utility → select the stick → First Aid. If it mounts afterwards, copy everything off it immediately, reformat it (FAT32/exFAT), and re-export from rekordbox fresh.
Right-click the drive → Properties → Tools → Check (or chkdsk E: /f in a terminal). Same drill after: rescue the contents, reformat, re-export.
Two sticks, same playlists, different pockets — export twice from rekordbox, it takes minutes. One is none. And retire any stick that's corrupted twice; flash memory fails progressively, never just once.
FAT filesystems keep their table of contents in one fragile spot, updated on every write. Cut the power mid-write — which is what yanking a stick is — and the table lies. First Aid and chkdsk rebuild the table; the second stick means you never bet the night on one point of failure.
Fixed it? The manual this came from covers the CDJ / XDJ the same way — every control, every failure mode, in plain English with diagrams. CDJ-3000 — The Complete Visual Guide — £9, instant PDF.
Get the manual → £9 Or keep using the free stuff →