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How to · VirtualDJ

Create filter folders in VirtualDJ.

Filter folders are VirtualDJ's smart playlists: rule-based folders that fill themselves from your database and stay current as it changes. Here is how to create one and write rules that are actually useful.

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An expanded vibe in Vibes listing every track tagged with it, working like a smart playlist

Crates that maintain themselves from your own rules.

Create filter folders in VirtualDJ, step by step.

A filter folder evaluates a rule against every track VirtualDJ has in its database and shows the matches. You define the rule once and the folder keeps itself up to date, which makes filter folders the right tool for anything you would otherwise rebuild by hand every month. If you just want a hand-picked list in a fixed order, a regular list folder under My Lists does that; a list folder is VirtualDJ's name for a playlist. Filter folders are for lists that build themselves.

01

Open the create dialog

Right-click My Lists in the browser's Folder List and choose Add Filter. VirtualDJ asks you to name the folder first, and once you confirm the name the new folder appears under My Lists and the Filter Folder Criteria window opens, which is where the rule that fills the folder is written.

02

Start from a built-in example

VirtualDJ ships ready-made filter folders in the Filters folder inside the folder list's Ideas section: Recently added, Most played, Last played, Duplicates, Genres, Decades, and Compatible songs. Open one that is close to what you want, then check the Filter Folder Examples page of the VirtualDJ manual for the syntax behind rules like it before writing your own. It is the fastest way to learn the query language.

03

Write your own rule

Rules combine fields, comparisons, and logic, for example "bpm>=120 and bpm<=126" for a tempo band, or a rule matching a genre plus a minimum play count. You can also use ordering expressions such as "top 100 nbplay" for a most-played chart or "sort by bpm". The dropdown menus in the criteria window help with field names and syntax, so use them: a folder that comes back empty is usually a typo in the rule rather than an empty library.

04

Refine until the folder earns its place

Open the folder, check the results, and tighten the rule until the matches are tracks you would genuinely play. A filter folder that returns 800 tracks is a search result, not a crate. Stacking two or three conditions with Add Conditions, such as tempo plus genre plus rating, is usually what makes one useful.

The catch

Filter folders are only as good as the metadata behind them. If BPM, key, genre, or ratings are missing or wrong in your database, the rules quietly return wrong results, so the metadata cleanup has to come first.

3 selected

Where Vibes fits

Rules need clean data underneath

Vibes does not export to VirtualDJ, so it cannot create filter folders there; its export targets are Rekordbox, Serato, Traktor, and Engine DJ. What Vibes gives a VirtualDJ user is the layer filter folders depend on: analyzed BPM and key on every track, ratings, and mood tags applied at speed across the same files VirtualDJ reads. And in Vibes itself, Combinations surfaces overlapping tag groups automatically, no rule syntax required.

See how it works
Local analysis fills in BPM and key for every imported track, the two fields most filter rules depend on
Rate tracks from the keyboard in bulk so rating-based rules have real data behind them
Combinations automatically surfaces tracks that share multiple vibes, like a smart crate you never had to define
If you also run Rekordbox, Serato, Traktor, or Engine DJ, every vibe exports there as a ready-made playlist or crate

Organize in Vibes, export to VirtualDJ.

Your playlists, tags, ratings, and cue points travel back to the gear you play on, so nothing you do in Vibes is locked away.

Track 001 by Artist A

Track 001

Artist A

128
3A
Track 002 by Artist B

Track 002

Artist B

124
5B
Track 003 by Artist C

Track 003

Artist C

132
8A
Vibes App
Playlists
Vibes
Mood
Aggressive
Euphoric
Melancholic
Mysterious
Peaceful
Playful
Tense
Function
Arrangement
Sets
Club Night 12/28
NYE Closing Set
Rooftop 01/04

Frequently asked questions

The honest answers, including the trade-offs.

No. Vibes has no VirtualDJ integration, so filter folders must be created inside VirtualDJ itself. Vibes helps indirectly by making sure the metadata your rules filter on, BPM, key, and your own tags and ratings, is complete and consistent across the collection before you write the rules.
Yes, that is their whole point. A filter folder re-evaluates its rule against the database, so new tracks that match appear and tracks that stop matching drop out without you touching anything. Unlike a list folder, you never drag tracks into a filter folder manually.
Start with maintenance and prep folders: recently added tracks, tracks you have never played, and a tempo band you play most, such as 122 to 126 BPM. Those three cover new-music review, digging for forgotten tracks, and quick pulls during a set, and each teaches you a different part of the rule syntax.
VirtualDJ does not use the word crate; that is Serato's term. The equivalent is a list folder under My Lists, which is VirtualDJ's name for a playlist: right-click My Lists, choose Add List, name it, and drag tracks from the file list onto it. A list folder holds shortcuts to your files, not copies, so one track can live in several lists. If you want a list that builds itself from a rule, that is a filter folder. The organize your library in VirtualDJ guide covers the manual side.
To add songs to VirtualDJ playlist and list folders, drag tracks from the file list onto the list; Shift or Ctrl selects several at once. To save a playlist on VirtualDJ you do not need a save button for a list under My Lists: VirtualDJ stores it itself, since VirtualDJ 2024 as a .vdjfolder file in its MyLists folder rather than an .m3u, and keeps your edits. The Sideview working lists are the exception: use Save in the Sidelist or Save List in Automix to keep one.
A list folder keeps the order you built it in, and you change it by dragging tracks up or down inside the list. Clicking a column header such as BPM or Title sorts the view instead: a display sort, not a new saved order, and Reset sort order in the header's right-click menu brings the original back. A filter folder is different: its order comes from the rule, so add an ordering expression such as "sort by bpm" or "top 100 nbplay" for a specific sequence.

From a Vibes customer

The import worked perfectly. Have created several sets now and my life is so much easier
Danny

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Last reviewed September 2026.

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