There are two things you need to keep if you wish to transfer your Serato library and database over to another computer or for backup on a hard drive.
To successfully back up or transfer your library you will need:

• Your _Serato_ folder (located in your User 'Music' folder)
  This is essentially your database, library, crates and preferences. Remember, Serato will create a _Serato_ folder on every drive you retrieve music from. So check your external drives for _Serato_ folders too. You will need to merge these to collect all your crates.
• A folder of all your music files (.mp3 files, .wav files etc)
  This can be a folder you have created where you will keep all your music files. Sub-folders can be organised however you like, it's just easier to manage one folder for this particular situation.

Keeping both of these folders will ensure you can migrate your music to a new computer, or backup your files if you wish to keep your crates and song database. If you have missing files and want to relocate them, please make sure you read this article on relocating files using the 'Relocate Lost Files' feature.

Backing up your data

This section will take you through the steps to move your library from your internal hard drive to an external hard drive for backing up:

1. Ensure your Serato Software is closed.
2. Connect your external hard drive to your computer.
3. Open Windows Explorer (PC) or Finder (Mac) and navigate to your 'My Music' (PC) or 'Music' folder (Mac).
4. Copy the "_Serato_" folder over to your external drive. If your external drive already has a _Serato_ folder, you will need to merge them, otherwise you may risk losing crates or songs.
5. Copy all your music files over to your external hard drive (preferably in one tidy folder) NOTE: Never rename the files themselves when you copy them, they must retain the same original filename (as Serato software is reading it's file name in the correct file path, if this gets broken Serato software will read the track as missing in the library.
   You should now have two folders backed up on your external hard drive; the _Serato_ folder containing important Serato information, and the folder full of all your music files:

You have now successfully backed up your music, crates, library and database information.
If you wish to move these onto a new computer, follow the steps below:

Restoring the back-up on a new computer

After you have backed up your data (see above), you can now transfer it to a new computer. These steps are pretty much the opposite of the steps to backup, as you are just putting all the information back in it's correct location:

1. Ensure your Serato software is closed.
2. Connect your external backup hard drive to your computer.
3. Move the _Serato_ folder from your backup external hard drive to the 'My Music' (PC) or 'Music' (Mac) folder on your internal drive. If there is already a _Serato_ folder there, rename the existing folder to something else and put the new one in it's place. Renaming the existing _Serato_ folder will keep the information in case you want to restore from that database later.
4. Move the music files into a location on your computer where you will be keeping all your music. You can also keep these on your external hard drive to save space.
   NOTE: Never rename the files themselves when you copy them, they must retain the same original filename.
5. Open your Serato software.
6. Click the Files button, to open the Files panel, then click the Rescan ID3 Tags button. Once this is complete, all the files you've copied will now be flagged as missing in your library (don't worry, this is what we want to happen).
7. While still in the Files panel, navigate to the new location where you have copied your music files. Drag this folder onto the Relocate Lost Files button (this button is also in the Files panel). The software should start to read the new location and your files will relocate in your library.When this completes, your library and crates will be matched up to the new location of your files on the internal drive.
   

You have now successfully restored your library from a backup.

Please contact the Serato Support team if you have any issues regarding file migration, by lodging an inquiry here.