# How to determine if Scan function is working
**URL:** https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-to-determine-if-scan-function-is-working/401874
**Category:** MusicBrainz Picard
**Tags:** acoustid, scan, audiofingerprinting, musicbrainz
**Created:** [October 17, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-to-determine-if-scan-function-is-working/401874 "2018-10-17T00:59:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rvmeush1947](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/rvmeush1947)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-to-determine-if-scan-function-is-working/401874/1 "2018-10-17T00:59:38Z")
I have tried multiple times to get the Scan function to work to identify a song. As far as I can tell, nothing is happening. I don’t see any songs identified and I don’t see any status or error messages generated about the failure to identify a song signature. I signed up for an account at AcousticID and got an API key value to plug into the MB Fingerprinting preferences.
Is there any test I can perform to try to identify what might be happening?
Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/outsidecontext)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2018, 8:20am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-to-determine-if-scan-function-is-working/401874/2 "2018-10-17T08:20:13Z")
A few things to check:
1. If you scan a file you should afterwards see a AcoustId tag in the tags like this:
2. Try with multiple files if any of them produces a fingerprint. Not all files will get processed by fpcalc, e.g. if it is only a few seconds long or in a format not supported by fpcalc.
3. Check Help → View Error/Debug Log for error messages
---
### Author:  [@rvmeush1947](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/rvmeush1947)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-to-determine-if-scan-function-is-working/401874/3 "2018-10-18T15:45:56Z")
Thanks for your feedback. I tried again to fingerprint a song, but nothing happened again. I checked the error log and it said **E: 11:07:46,828 acoustid.\_on\_fpcalc\_finished:170: Fingerprint calculator failed exit code = 3, exit status = 0, error = Unknown error**
I looked at the preferences for fingerprinting and the version of fpcalc shown was 1.4.3.
I tried looking up the error message but didn’t find anything helpful. Any other ideas would be welcomed. Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/outsidecontext)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-to-determine-if-scan-function-is-working/401874/4 "2018-10-18T15:53:37Z")
Ok, that’s interesting. If it shows the version in Options that means fpcalc itself is found and works in general. 1.4.3 is also the latest version.
So my guess is on fpcalc having a problem with the file. What kind of file is it?
---
### Author:  [@rvmeush1947](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/rvmeush1947)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 3:56pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-to-determine-if-scan-function-is-working/401874/5 "2018-10-18T15:56:41Z")
The file I used is an mp3, as are most of my files. I would think that format should work.
---
### Author:  [@rvmeush1947](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/rvmeush1947)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2018, 11:17pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-to-determine-if-scan-function-is-working/401874/6 "2018-10-18T23:17:36Z")
I did a bit more experimenting to try to figure out the problem with fpcalc. The first experiment was to load an older version of fpcalc. I used the previous version 1.4.2 and it failed, but the error code was slightly different - **E: 19:09:57,546 acoustid.\_on\_fpcalc\_finished:170: Fingerprint calculator failed exit code = 2, exit status = 0, error = Unknown error** In this case the exit code was 2 rather than 3 when I used fpcalc ver. 1.4.3.
the second experiment was to load a Windows version of MusicBrainz in a Parallels virtual machine running Windows 7. Using the same music file - the scan operation worked properly. I would hate to resort to using Windows in order to get Scan to work.
Any other ideas for how to diagnose the problem with the Mac version of MB?