Manage crates and subcrates in Serato DJ Pro.
To create crates in Serato DJ Pro, click the Add Crate button in the crate panel on the left, name the crate, and drag tracks in. Subcrates nest inside by dropping one crate onto another crate's name. Here is the full workflow by hand, and a faster way to get there.
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Vibes converts your vibe tags, Sets, and Combinations into Serato .crate files on export.
Manage crates and subcrates in Serato DJ Pro, step by step.
Serato DJ Pro stores your library in crates, which live in the left panel. You can nest crates inside other crates as subcrates for genres, moods, or any grouping you like, and one track can sit in as many crates as you want. The steps below cover building the structure, ordering the tracks inside it, and taking tracks back out. They match Serato DJ Pro 4.0; where an older version differs, the step says so.
Create a new crate
Click the Add Crate button in the crate panel on the left, type a name for the crate, and press Enter. The crate appears in your crate list and is ready to receive tracks. Serato writes the crate to disk on its own; there is nothing to save. If the Protect library option is on in the Setup screen, crates cannot be renamed or removed until you turn it off.
Add tracks to a crate
Drag tracks from the main library view or from another crate and drop them onto your target crate in the left panel. You can also select multiple tracks and drag them in one move. A track can be placed in as many crates as you like: crates hold references, not copies, so no files are duplicated.
Create a subcrate
Drag one crate onto another crate's name in the left panel, a little to the right of the panel edge. The crate you drag becomes a subcrate of the crate you dropped it on. Subcrates can be opened and collapsed, so a long crate list stays easy to browse, and smart crates can be subcrates too. If you want the parent crate to show every track from its subcrates, turn on Include subcrate tracks in the Setup screen.
Reorder and rename crates
To reorder crates, drag a crate to the very left of the crate panel: dropping it at the edge keeps it at the top level and moves it in the list instead of nesting it under the crate beneath the cursor. The same move promotes a subcrate back to the top level. In Serato DJ Pro 4.0, drag reordering only works while the Crate Sort type is Custom; under Alphabetical or Date Added you can move a subcrate to a different parent but not reorder within the same parent. Double-click a crate name to rename it.
Change the order of songs in a crate
There are two ways to change order of songs in Serato. Click any column header (BPM, Key, Artist, Added) to sort the crate by that column; click it again to flip between ascending and descending. For a custom running order, drag tracks up or down inside the crate. If dragging has no effect, a column sort is still active: click the # column header at the far left so the crate falls back to its own order, then drag. Hold Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) and click a second header to add a secondary sort, for example BPM then Key.
Remove a song from a crate
To remove a song from a crate in Serato, open the crate, select the track, and press Ctrl + Delete on Windows or Cmd + Delete on Mac. The track leaves that crate only. It stays in All and in every other crate that holds it, and the file is untouched. Two related shortcuts are easy to mix up: Alt + Delete (Option + Delete on Mac) removes the track from the whole library, All and every crate, while the file stays on disk. Ctrl + Shift + Delete removes it from the library and sends the file to the trash, so avoid that one unless you mean it. Pressing Ctrl + Delete while in the All crate also removes the track from the library.
The catch
Building a complete crate structure by hand is repetitive work: every gig prep cycle means dragging tracks into new crates one by one, and any change to your tagging system means rebuilding crates from scratch.
Euphoric
Melancholic
Mysterious
Aggressive
Peaceful
Rave
Afterhours
Club
HomeThe faster way
Tag once in Vibes. Export your entire crate structure in one click.
Vibes writes .crate files directly into Serato's library folder on export. Every vibe tag, every Set, and every Combination becomes a crate automatically, with no manual dragging required.
See how it worksOrganize in Vibes, export to Serato DJ Pro.
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
Artist A
AfterhoursMysterious
IntrospectiveTrack 002
Artist B
Cozy FloorPeacefulHomeTrack 003
Artist C
RaveAggressive
Festival
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From a Vibes customer
The import worked perfectly. Have created several sets now and my life is so much easier
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Last reviewed September 2026.
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