Have a feature request or suggestion? Post your idea here!

Post

3 followers Follow
0
Avatar

Transferring library to new laptop

Hi, 

I just recently bought a DDJ 1000, and I've had to upgrade my laptop now, too, as the one I was using wasn't fat enough. 

I searched on the forum, and I found a video, but it seems to be a few years old.

My question is that when I try to backup my library, there's an option to backup music files as well. I don't know if this is a recent addition, but does this mean I can pretty much just move my whole library this way, without having to locate all of my files? I'm pretty unorganised, so they're scattered across my computer. This would make my life much easier. I would have tried to do it, but I need to buy a bigger external storage device, as the one I have now is too small, but if it doesn't work the way I hope it does, I'd rather not waste my money,

I hope that was easy enough to understand!

Thanks

Ryan Reid

Official comment

Avatar

On old computer:

File > Library > Backup Library

Yes to backup your music.

Copy the created ZIP and backup music folder to your other computer.

On new computer:

File > Library > Restore Library

Point it to the ZIP file, it will ask where you want to store the music files, then the library will be updated with the new file location.

It's literally that easy.

Pulse
Comment actions Permalink

Post is closed for comments.

2 comments

0
Avatar

Hmm, this is a good question, and something a lot of us will end up trying to figure out in the future.

I don't know the answer, but if disk space is a concern, maybe try to create a new User account?  Then, in Rekordbox on the new User account, load a few tracks from different drives (the more scattered, the better, and make sure they are test tracks or copies, as you will delete them later), then back those up through Rekordbox.  Make sure those tracks are actually backed up, then delete them from your drives.  Go back to Rekordbox and try to restore them.  Do they restore to their original locations?  Or are you given the option to restore them to a different location?  If it's the former, then you might be out of luck.  If it is the latter, then you might be able to back up all of your tracks, then restore them onto your new laptop.

I have a feeling that Rekordbox backs up the exact paths of every track when backing up the database (not talking about when backing up the music files), so after you restore, the live database will try to look for the music files in the locations of the paths that it has indexed... meaning that you might have to re-create the path locations of your music when restoring.  Yuk.

However, there is a function to re-target music files in Rekordbox.  I haven't had to do this many times, but when Rekordbox cannot locate a music file (but it is still in the database), you are given an option to find the music file again, then re-target it.  If I recall correctly, it may be possible to batch this by multi-selecting missing tracks in Rekordbox, then giving a general location for RB to search for each track.  Perhaps this is the way to go?  Basically, backup your database, don't worry about backing up the music files through RB, manually copy all of your music to the new laptop, restore the database onto your new laptop, let RB throw the missing files errors, then tell RB to crawl through your laptop to find the new locations of music?

I hope that the RB dev team can give an easier method...

Todd 0 votes
Comment actions Permalink