How to back up your DJ library — before the laptop dies

June 24, 2026 · 7 min read · by the CrateBridge team

Here's the uncomfortable truth about DJ library backups: the music is the replaceable half. Tracks can be re-bought or re-downloaded. What can't be re-downloaded is the decade of work layered on top — cue points, loops, beatgrids, crates, playlists, play histories. That all lives in your DJ software's database, and if your backup doesn't include it, you don't have a backup. You have a music folder.

What you're actually protecting

Every DJ app keeps its database somewhere different. The short map:

Serato — the _Serato_ folder (in your Music folder, plus one on each external drive you use). Crates, cues, and analysis all live here.
rekordbox — the master.db database in Pioneer's application support folder. rekordbox also has its own backup function under File → Library.
Engine DJ — the Engine Library / Database2 folder on your computer and on every performance drive.
VirtualDJ — the database.xml files plus the folders beside them in your VirtualDJ home directory.
djay Pro — its media library database, kept in the app's own support folder.

A complete backup is music files + every one of these databases you use, captured while the software is closed.

The 3-2-1 rule, DJ edition

The standard advice holds: three copies of your library, on two different kinds of storage, one of them off-site. In practice for DJs: the working copy on your laptop, a local clone on an external drive, and a cloud copy that survives the scenario where the laptop bag — computer, SSD, and all — walks off at a gig.

Your options, honestly

An external drive and discipline

Free minus hardware, and better than nothing by a mile. Weaknesses: it only works when you remember to run it, the drive usually lives in the same bag as the laptop, and most people copy the music but forget the databases above.

Generic cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, Backblaze)

Great at bulk files, so it covers the replaceable half well. Two caveats: don't let it sync a live database (apps writing during upload is how corrupt conflicted copies happen — snapshot the database with the app closed instead), and remember that restoring still means re-importing and relinking everything in each DJ app.

My DJ Cloud

A purpose-built DJ backup service, and a good one — it understands that the database matters and backs it up continuously alongside your music. Its scope is deliberate: it's an insurance policy, not a sync system, so it won't keep a second computer current or bridge between DJ apps. If pure backup is all you want, it's a fair pick.

CrateBridge

CrateBridge (ours) comes at backup from the other direction: it syncs your library — files, crates, playlists, cues, loops — across your machines and DJ apps through CrateBridge Cloud, which means an up-to-date off-site copy exists as a side effect of normal use rather than as a chore. Restoring isn't a restore at all: sign in on the new machine and sync your library back down, straight into your DJ software's own database. It also keeps a "Recently Removed" safety net, so a deletion isn't instantly final. The free tier covers importing your library and one DJ app; Cloud plans add the across-machines sync and storage.

Do this today

Close your DJ software.
Copy your databases (the folders listed above) and your music to an external drive.
Get one copy off-site — any of the cloud options above beats none.
Then decide how you want this to happen automatically, because the manual version only protects the you who remembers to run it.