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How to · Serato DJ

Set up a new laptop for Serato DJ.

Serato needs three things carried across, not two: the _Serato_ folder in your Music folder, the Serato Library folder in Application Support (macOS) or AppData > Local > Serato (Windows), and your music files. Copy all three to an external drive, put them back in the same places on the new laptop, then open Serato, click Rescan ID3 Tags in the Files panel and drag your music folder onto Relocate Lost Files.

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The Vibes library table with BPM, key, energy and vibe columns after a Serato import

Import the copied library into Vibes, then export the crates back to Serato.

Move Serato library to new computer, step by step.

Serato keeps your crates and your settings in two different places, and neither of them holds your music. Get all three across in the right order and your cue points, loops and crate structure arrive intact.

01

Quit Serato and find the three folders

Close Serato DJ Pro completely before you copy anything, so the database is not being written while you copy it. You need the _Serato_ folder in your Music folder, the Serato Library folder in Application Support on macOS or AppData > Local > Serato on Windows, and one folder holding all your music files.

02

Copy every _Serato_ folder to a drive

Connect an external drive, open Finder or File Explorer, go to Music on macOS or My Music on Windows, and copy the _Serato_ folder across. Serato creates a _Serato_ folder on every drive you have added music from, so check your external drives too. If the target drive already has one, merge them carefully or you can lose crates.

03

Copy the Serato Library folder

On macOS, click Finder or the desktop, hold Option, choose Go > Library in the toolbar, then open Application Support > Serato. On Windows, paste C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Serato into File Explorer. Copy the Library folder to the drive. It holds your history sessions, preferences and crate order, and it is the folder most guides leave out.

04

Copy the music, and never rename a file

Put all your audio into one tidy folder and copy that to the drive as well. Do not rename anything on the way. Serato matches each track by its original filename and path, so a renamed file comes back as missing, and Relocate Lost Files has nothing left to match it against.

05

Put the folders back on the new laptop

With Serato closed on the new machine, move the _Serato_ folder into its Music folder and the Library folder into Application Support > Serato or AppData > Local > Serato. If either already exists, rename the existing one first, for example LibraryOLD, so you can still fall back to it. Then copy your music folder wherever you want to keep it, or leave it on the external drive.

06

Rescan ID3 tags, then relocate

Open Serato, click Files to open the Files panel, then click Rescan ID3 Tags. Every copied track now flags as missing, which is exactly what you want. Still in the Files panel, browse to the new music location and drag that folder onto Relocate Lost Files. Turn off Show iTunes Library in Setup > Library + Display first, or you get duplicate entries.

07

Sign in and check a few crates

If your hardware needs a license, open the My Account drop-down at the top right of Serato DJ Pro and click Login. Once you hit the maximum simultaneous activations, signing in prompts you to deactivate an older computer, or you can clear one first under Manage Devices at account.serato.com. Then open a few crates and load a track to confirm the cues came across.

The catch

Serato has no real merge. If the new laptop already has a _Serato_ folder, or your music lives across several drives that each carry one, Serato's own guide says two databases cannot be fully combined: you build a new master folder by hand from the Subcrates folders. Decide which library is the master before you start copying.

DJ Software
Rekordbox
Rekordbox
Import XML or Database
Serato
Serato
Import Library Database
Traktor
Traktor
Import NML Collection
Engine
Engine
Import Engine Database
File System
Local Folder
Scan directory
Audio Files
Select files

The faster way

Rebuild the library on the new laptop from the files themselves.

Vibes reads your music files directly, so the move does not have to depend on one database folder surviving the trip. Point the Import Wizard at the copied Serato library or at the plain music folder, Smart Import detects the source, and Vibes analyzes BPM, key and energy for anything the old database was missing. When the new laptop is set up, export your playlists and vibes back to Serato as a crate folder tree. There is no cloud sync involved: Vibes works on the files you own, and the export goes through Serato.

See how it works
Import Wizard and Smart Import auto-detect a Serato library, so crates and tags come in without hand-mapping folders
Duplicate finder catches the copies you collect when an old folder and a new folder both land on the new laptop
Track analysis fills in BPM, key, energy and sections for anything that arrived without them
Export playlists and vibes back to Serato as a folder tree, with optional Camelot key or BPM sub-folders

Organize in Vibes, export to Serato DJ.

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.

Yes, with one caveat about licenses. Hardware that is Serato DJ Pro unlocked works on any computer you connect it to, with no license needed. If you use a paid license, Serato allows a maximum number of simultaneous activations: signing in on a new computer prompts you to deactivate a previous one, or you can clear it yourself under Manage Devices at account.serato.com. Your library does not follow your account, so set the second laptop up separately.
Manually, with Serato closed. Serato writes automatic database backups to Serato/Library/Backups, 15 minutes after you open the library and then every 24 hours, plus whenever the database structure changes. There is no restore button in the app. Close Serato, copy the backup file back to its original location, delete the old database file, and rename the backup to the original name. Restoring overwrites anything you changed since that backup, so work through a full rebuild carefully.
Copy three things to an external drive: the _Serato_ folder from your Music folder, the Serato Library folder from Application Support on macOS or AppData > Local > Serato on Windows, and one folder holding your music files. Serato also keeps a _Serato_ folder on every external drive you play from, so back those up too. Serato Studio stores its library and project information in the same Application Support folder. Full routine: back up your Serato library.
Copy the music and the crate data together. The quickest way inside the app: open the All crate, press Command+A or Control+A to select everything, then drag the selection onto your USB drive in the Files panel and choose Copy when prompted. Serato writes its own _Serato_ folder onto that drive, so the crates travel with the files. Smart crates do not transfer to a portable library. More detail: export crates to USB.
Copy the _Serato_ folder, the Serato Library folder and your music folder to an external drive, then put all three back in the same places on the new machine with Serato closed. Open Serato, click Rescan ID3 Tags in the Files panel, then drag your music folder onto Relocate Lost Files. The same three-part logic applies if you are moving rekordbox, Traktor or Engine DJ at the same time.
For a single crate rather than the whole library, open the Files panel in Serato, click the crate you want, and drag it onto your USB drive in that panel. Choose Copy rather than Move when prompted, watch the progress bar below the panel, then eject the drive as you normally would. The audio files travel with the crate, so it opens on any computer running Serato. Gig checklist: prepare a USB for a gig.
Almost always the drive format. macOS can read an NTFS drive but cannot write to it, and Windows cannot read Mac OS Extended at all, so a drive formatted for the other machine looks read only or refuses the copy. FAT32 works on both but rejects any single file larger than 4 GB. Back the drive up, reformat it with Disk Utility or the Windows Format dialog, and check it is not password protected.
You can work off the drive instead of copying afterwards. Add music to Serato from the USB drive and Serato creates a _Serato_ folder on that drive, so cue points, loops and overviews are written to the drive itself rather than your internal disk. This only works if the drive is formatted so Serato can write to it. Serato also advises against using the same drive for a macOS Time Machine backup.
Put every audio file into one root folder first, then copy that single folder to the drive in Finder or File Explorer. One tidy folder matters later: Serato matches missing tracks by file path, and Relocate Lost Files can fix a whole folder in one drag instead of hunting through scattered locations. Never rename a file during the copy, and eject the drive properly before you unplug it.
Three usual causes. Show iTunes Library was left on in Setup > Library + Display, which produces duplicate entries instead of a clean relocation. The files were renamed during the copy, so Serato has nothing to match. Or the wrong folder was dragged: use Relocate from folder and point it at the exact music folder. If the crates never come back, rebuild them from the audio itself, since Vibes reads plain folders and exports Serato crates.

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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Every step is checked against the current version of Serato DJ.

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Last reviewed June 2026.

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