Tutorial: Switching from macOS to Windows
This tutorial explains how to switch your music library from macOS to Windows (or the other way around) and keep your playlists, cue points and all your hard work intact.
This works for Rekordbox (5 & 6), Serato, Traktor, VirtualDJ and Engine Prime. These are the DJ apps supported by rekordcloud.
This tutorial is specifically for macOS to Windows but the other way around works essentially the same.
Follow these steps and make sure to follow instructions carefully. Step 3 is the crucial step where you can make mistakes so be careful there.
1. Copy your music
Start by copying or moving your music to your Windows PC. If your music is on an external drive, then simply connect that to your Windows PC.
If all your music is on an external drive:
Look up the drive's volume name on macOS and write that down. We'll need it later.
If your music is on your internal drive:
Make sure you copy the top-most folder (e.g. /Users/Christiaan/Music) to your Windows PC or to an external drive.
Write down the full path of this top-most folder, we'll need it later. Write down where you've copied this folder on your Windows PC too.
2. Upload to rekordcloud
Login to the Companion App on your Mac and upload your DJ app library to rekordcloud. More info about uploading can be found in the wiki.
3. Change file references
Using the Relocate Files feature in rekordcloud, you can change where your DJ app looks for your music.
Fill in the path you wrote down earlier from macOS on the left side. Put down the new Windows path on the right side. Rekordcloud will show a preview of the changed paths on the right.
In my case I'm changing simply changing the main drive from macOS to the main drive on Windows. So I'm going from / to C:/
You can use any path here, so use what is best suited for you. Higher in the Relocate Files list is better since it will change more tracks.
It should look something like this:
Check if the paths on the right exist on your Windows PC. This should be exact. Any small mistake here will cause the track to be shown as missing later.
Confirm when they are correct and rekordcloud will change them.
If you only had one top-most folder for all your music, then you only need to do this once. If you have your music spread out over several folders or drives, you need to do this multiple times.
Remember that Windows paths always start with a drive letter (e.g. C:/Users/...) so if you see a preview on the right that starts with a slash (e.g. /Users/...) then those tracks will not be found. You need to correct those.
4. Download your library
On your Windows PC, make sure your external drives are still connected and that you've downloaded the DJ app you want to use. Start it at least once. You'll have an empty library there that rekordcloud will fill up.
Now download and install the Companion App on your Windows PC too. Login and go to Download Library. Make sure "Full Download" is selected and start the process.
If you changed the file references in step 3 the right way then this step should succeed without problems.
If you use Serato and any file reference is wrong then rekordcloud won't be able to write to it, since it's not found. In that case, go back to step 3 and try to correct the paths and try again.
5. Check the results
Open up your DJ app and check if any of your tracks files are missing. If you did everything right in step 3, nothing should be missing at all.
In case that there are files missing, go back to step 3 and correct those. Then simply download your library (step 4) again.
Questions?
Feel free to message me here and I'll do my best to help you!
Don't forget that rekordcloud can do a million other cool things too to give you the best possible library there is!