Duplicating database on a backup laptop

I have RB installed on two laptops, one being a backup macbook air.

I have my music all on laptop 1 as well as an external drive.

I followed Pulse's video however I cannot get both laptops to have identical working databases. Here's what I did.

I copied music from #1 to USB. I moved database from #1 to USB.

I kept the music on my thumbdrive as backup and then imported DB from the USB to laptop #2. I relocated all files and pointed them to my USB.

That allows my laptop #2 to function perfectly, however once you move a DB from internal to USB, rekordbox deletes the old version, which means I'm missing my DB from laptop #1.

I cannot restore back from the USB since it was used to restore to laptop #2.

Any suggestions or workarounds? I'm a software developer and saavy with command line, yet I cannot get two versions of my RB DB between laptops. I tried copied the .edb files between units but I end up loosing all my song previews!

Pulse, Keiko and others -- do you have any suggestions or easy way to make this work?

DJ Chase October 26, 2016 17:29

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Date Votes

6 comments

May have solved my own issue. This method seems to work best to make an exact replica of Rekordbox collection on a separate system using a thumbdrive to store the files

1. Copy music directory from laptop 1 to USB (for me it was /music/ which has about 10 subfolders

2. go into rekordbox, choose library - backup and save it to USB. It saves it as a ZIP file with the date

3. Go to second laptop, load rekordbox, choose library-import

4 restart rekordbox

5. select all tracks in collection, choose relocate and point it to teh USB stick

6. Enjoy having rekordbox with a duplicate library saved on a thumbdrive

Hope this helps people

DJ Chase October 26, 2016 19:39 1 vote

Would this method also work with having an exact copy of music and database on the internal drives of both computers ?

Kevin Pugh July 11, 2018 20:10 0 votes

@Kevin > Backup on computer one, restore on computer two. You'll have a duplicate copy of the database from that time. Be aware that any changes made to individual databases CAN NOT be merged.

Pulse July 12, 2018 02:48 0 votes

Hi Pulse,

How do I copy the backup database onto ext drive. I get a message that it is too large.

I have two MacBook Pro. #1 is running music from ext drive and has music internal (incase ext drive has issues at a gig, at least I have music internally also). The ext drive is large. Total 96,000 track in the rekordbox dj collection. I want to duplicate this library onto second MacBook. I want to plug in my backup ext drive to the second mac and have it show up exactly the same (I will also duplicate the music folders that are internal as well onto second mac) - basically exactly the same structure. How do I move the backup file to that second mac so I can simply restore from backup? It will not move the backup file to ext drive which is Fat32, too large. Only thing I can think of is upload backup file to dropbox and then download to second laptop. Its still a large file. will this work.

Wilson Narayan August 30, 2018 11:54 0 votes

Here is what my setup is.

Computer 1:
All Music is stored on an internal HDD.
Rekordbox DB is managed on Computer 1
Done a backup of the rekordbox DB without music on Computer 1 and stored the zip file on a USB device.

Computer 2:
I copied all Music Files from Computer 1 to Computer 2 keeping the original file structure. I did it over the Network.
Copy the rekordbox backup from Computer 1 to Computer 2.
Restore the backup on Computer 2
Verify the database with the missing files agent and relocate if necessary.

As Pulse said - these are independant databases. If I am making updates to one of the DB's I have to backup the DB and restore it on the other Computer. New Tracks have to be copied on both machines to keep the music files in sync as well.

That works perfectly for me.
Computer 1 is a standard PC with a large screen connected to my home setup. Computer 2 is a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 when I am on the road.

Frank Richter August 30, 2018 12:06 0 votes

@Wilson > You can't save files larger than 4GB to a FAT32 drive; you'll need to save it to either an exFAT, NTFS, APFS, or HFS+ formatted drive. Don't forget, you could save it locally then AirDrop or local network share it from one computer to the other.

Pulse August 30, 2018 22:29 0 votes