CD ripper very slow to find metadata

[NewWorldGuy]

Hi, I recently purchased CDS Ripper, and I'm having a couple issues. Hoping someone can advise:
1) The ripper typically does not begin to search for Metadata unless I actively click Rescan or Retry.
2) The metadata search takes several minutes, often longer then the rip itself (it's usually accurate, though).

[Spoon]

Just tried, 4 seconds to read metadata. Which Operating system do you have? any security software?

[Glevum Owl]

Having the same problem with the length of time searching for metadata. Currently taking anywhere between 2 - 6 minutes. Everything was fine the last time I ripped a CD two weeks ago.

dBpoweramp 17.7
Mac Mini M1
Sequoia 15.3.2
No security software at present.

[Spoon]

Uncheck the providers until you can find which one is slow for you.

[edwardlowy]

FWIW - I found this just yesterday as well. Went to rip a new CD and it took a heck of a time to check Metadata. Never happened before to me.

[monte15]

Hi. Not sure if the thread is still active, but this is the issue (slow metadata retrieval) I came here to search on as well. A few months back I purchased a suite of dBpoweramp apps, primarily to use the CD Ripper to digitize my CD collection before selling. I purchased the fully registered Reference version, read through the guide and set up the options as I thought they would best suit me. I love the product, it's exactly what I was looking for, and works quite well.

Over the past weeks I have probably ripped over a thousand CDs, so a pretty good sample size. For the first few hundred, the metadata retrieval process was super quick, it would run through the 7 preset active metadata providers and return results and album cover art within I'd say 5-10 seconds from the CD spinning up after inserting into the drive. However, for the last couple of hundred discs, the metadata retrieval process has gotten excruciatingly slow. It can take 30 seconds to over two minutes+ to pull down the same data. In some cases it even takes longer than the actual rip. A week or two ago I saw the notification for the latest software update (Release 2025-04-17) and updated my software, hoping the issue would be resolved, but it was not. I then began to troubleshoot a bit, and I noticed that when you insert the disc and it spins up, as the automatic retrieval process starts there is a little notification text that runs along the top window letting you know what metadata service is being accessed. It reads "Retrieving CD metadata" and below that "Reading: [name of metadata provider]". I observed that it flies through the providers until it gets to Discogs, which is always where it hangs up (at least according to the notification text). This is where the delay always presents itself. After that, it flies again and completes. I should say that all of the metadata retrieved, including Discogs, looks to be working correctly and returning good results, it's just that the Discogs pull can take a very long time. I then experimented, and sure enough, when I unselect Discogs as a provider to return metadata, the entire process is super fast again. In fact, even if I compltete the metadata retrieval and then turn Discogs on and rescan, it reverts to taking a very long time again. I thought possibly there was some kind of caching issue because I've ripped so many CDs recently, but I couldn't find any options or settings anywhere to clear any metadata cache.

It's odd because I have always had Discogs metadata on, and the problem has only started the last few weeks (but happened both pre and post the new software, so don't think there was any problem there), seems like it's an external issue with Discogs? It's a shame because I would like to continue using Discogs data as well, but it is adding a lot of time to my process, and there are thousands of CDS to go. Is this a commonly reported problem recently? Thoughts?

-Monte

For reference, I am using:
- dBpoweramp CD Ripper Release 2025-04-17 [64-bit]
- Windows 10 Pro [64-bit]
- Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 laptop with a Lenovo USB Slim drive
- No actively running security software. I do have Malwarebytes installed, but it's now expired and not active. Also, it was installed the entire time that the metadata retrieval was working perfectly.

[Spoon]

Just tested with 2025-04-17, all metadata read in under 4 seconds. Discogs is not controlled by ourselves (we have our own freedb server, AccurateRip Meta and run our own MusicBrainz server). GD3 and Discogs are not run by us.

[monte15]

Thanks for the quick reply. I suspected it might be on their end, everything else with the software works perfectly for me. I'll see if I can dig up any information on external issues with Discogs. I tried re-installing, testing web connection, etc. It just stopped working the same way for whatever reason. I suppose there are 6 other metadata providers anyway, if I want efficiency I can just deactivate Discogs usage. and spot test it every week or so to see if there's any improvement. Maybe they throttle 3rd party API connections or something similar? The waiting minutes add up over thousands of CDs! Thanks again.

[Spoon]

It is possible it is related to your IP address yes.