Library & files
Backup
Backing up a DJ library means copying two separate things: the audio files, and the database holding the cues, grids, playlists and history. Losing either one loses years of work, and they live in different places.
In practice
Back up the database, not just the music. You can buy the tracks again; you cannot buy your cue points back.
Three things, on a schedule you actually keep: the audio root, the application’s database folder, and a fresh collection XML. The XML is the one that saves you when the database itself is the problem, because it is plain text and readable by anything. Do it before every software update and before every new machine, which are the two moments libraries actually die — dead drives are the story people tell, but corrupted databases are what happens.
3
Things to copy
Database
The one people forget
Before updates
When libraries actually die
Where these come from: Standard library-backup practice for Rekordbox, Serato and Traktor — not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see the portable copy.
Why it matters
Most DJs back up the music and lose the library. The audio is replaceable — you bought it once and could buy it again — while the cue points, the corrected beatgrids, the crates and the play history exist nowhere else and cannot be reconstructed at any price.
The failure is rarely a dead drive. It is a database corrupted by a bad update, a library rebuilt on a new laptop, or a folder reorganised into a thousand missing files, and none of those are helped by a copy of the audio.
Frequently asked
What exactly should I back up?+
The folder holding your audio, the application’s database folder, and a current collection XML. The last one is the safety net for the case where the database is what broke.
Is a USB stick a backup?+
No. It holds an exported subset in a device format, not your working library, and it is the item most likely to be lost or corrupted of anything you own.
How often should I back up?+
Whenever you have done work you would hate to redo, and always before a software update or a new machine. Those two moments account for most real losses.
Related terms
Library database
Your DJ software keeps its own database of everything it knows about your collection — file locations, beatgrids, cue points, crates, play history. The audio files sit elsewhere on disk; the database is what turns them into a library.
XML export
An XML export is a single text file describing your whole collection — every track’s path, tags, tempo, key, cues and playlists. It is how one piece of DJ software hands a library to another.
Library sync
Library sync keeps one collection consistent across more than one machine — a laptop, a desktop, a studio computer — either through the vendor’s cloud service or by keeping the database and audio on a drive you carry.
Two USB sticks
Bringing two identical prepared USB sticks is the standard club precaution. Sticks fail, get left in players and get taken by mistake, and the second one turns any of those from a disaster into a pause.
Explore: Library health check · Library database · XML export · All DJ terms