Library & files
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.
In practice
Pick one machine as the master and let the others read. Two authoritative libraries is not sync, it is a merge.
Cloud services sync the database and, on paid tiers, the audio; they are the least effort and the most dependent on a connection you may not have. The manual alternative — audio and database both on one external SSD, opened from whichever machine you are at — costs nothing and never conflicts, at the price of carrying the drive and mounting it at the same path everywhere. Either way, back up before the first sync rather than after the first surprise.
One master
The rule that avoids merges
DB + audio
Both halves have to travel
Same path
What an external drive needs
Where these come from: How vendor cloud sync and portable-drive workflows behave in practice — not catalog figures.
Why it matters
The problem it solves is that a library is not a set of files, it is files plus a database, and the database is what diverges. Prepare a track at home and edit its cues at the studio and you now have two versions of the truth, with no mechanism to reconcile them.
The rule that makes any approach work is having one machine that is authoritative. Sync services handle propagation but they do not handle two people — or two of you — editing the same track in the same hour, and the resulting merge is nobody’s idea of a good evening.
Frequently asked
Does cloud sync include my audio files?+
Only on the tiers that pay for storage. The cheaper tiers sync the database and expect the audio to already be on each machine, which surprises people at the worst moment.
Can I just put my library on an external drive?+
Yes, and it is the most reliable option — audio and database together, opened from whichever machine you are at. It only works if the drive mounts at the same path everywhere.
What happens if I edit the same track on two machines?+
One edit wins and the other is lost, usually silently. Designate one machine as authoritative and treat the others as read-only.
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.
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.
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.
Device library
A device library is the database written onto a USB stick alongside the audio, holding the playlists, cues, grids and search index the player reads. It is a separate export from your computer’s own library.
Explore: Rekordbox playlist converter · Backup · Library database · All DJ terms