Technology · Production

Rekordbox Missing Files After Moving Your Music? How to Relocate Everything Without Losing Cues

By Daan Visser · Nov 11, 2026 · 8 min read

Short answer

Rekordbox shows missing files after you move music because its library stores the full file path of every track, not the audio itself. Fix it by opening File, then Display All Missing Files, adding the new drive or folder under Preferences, Advanced, Database, Auto Relocate Search Folders, and running Auto Relocate. Cues, grids and playlists come back once the paths are updated.

You finally moved your music onto a fast external SSD, or you bought a new laptop and copied everything across. You open rekordbox and half your collection has a little exclamation mark next to it. The tracks will not load, the playlists you built for Saturday look broken, and you are wondering whether years of hot cues just disappeared.

They did not. Missing files in rekordbox are almost always a path problem, not a data problem, and you can usually fix the whole library in one pass. This guide explains what is going on, the bulk fix, the manual fix for stubborn tracks, and the habits that stop it happening again.

Why does rekordbox show missing files after moving music?

Rekordbox never stores your audio. Its library is a database that remembers, for each track, the exact location of the file plus everything you added: beatgrid, hot cues, memory cues, comments, ratings, colours and playlist membership.

When you move a file, that remembered location no longer points to anything. Rekordbox looks where the file used to be, finds nothing, and marks it as missing. Copying music to a new drive causes the same problem: the database still points to the old location, and once you remove the old copy, the links break.

The usual triggers are:

Moving or copying your music folder to an external drive or a new computer.
Renaming a folder, or renaming files with a tagging tool.
An external drive that mounts with a different letter on Windows, or a different name on a Mac.
Importing tracks straight from a USB stick or download folder, then unplugging or clearing it.
Switching between Mac and Windows, where paths are written differently.

The good news: because your cues live in the database, not in the audio file, relinking the path brings everything back.

Before you fix anything: back up the library

Spend two minutes on a backup first. In rekordbox, open the File menu, go to Library and choose Backup Library. Save the backup somewhere other than the drive you are working on. If a relocate goes wrong, you can restore and try again.

Second rule: do not delete the old copy of your music yet. Keep both until every track in the new location is relinked and you have played a few from each playlist.

How to relocate all missing files in rekordbox at once

Rekordbox 6 and 7 can search for missing tracks for you. The steps, as described in the rekordbox 7 manual:

Open Preferences, go to the Advanced category and the Database tab.
Under Auto Relocate Search Folders, choose the file types (Music, and Video if you use it).
Tick the option for user specified folders (the exact label varies slightly between versions) and add the drive or folder where your music now lives. Add the top level folder, not each subfolder.
Close Preferences, open the File menu and choose Display All Missing Files.
In the Missing File Manager, select all the tracks and click Auto Relocate.

Rekordbox searches the folders you added and reconnects every file it can match. On a large collection this can take a while, so let it finish before you touch anything else.

Auto Relocate works best when the files keep their names and your folder structure stayed the same. If you moved the whole music folder in one piece, it usually catches nearly everything.

How to fix the tracks Auto Relocate cannot find

Some tracks will stay missing. Common reasons: the file was renamed, it sits in a folder you did not add, it was a duplicate, or it no longer exists anywhere.

For a single track, select it in the Missing File Manager, click Relocate and browse to the file. If you select a group of tracks from the same album or folder and relocate the first one, rekordbox can often pick up the rest in that folder.

If a file really is gone, check your old drive, your downloads folder and your cloud backup before giving up. If you have to rebuy or redownload it, put the new file in your master music folder and relocate the missing entry to it. Relinking keeps the original cues; re-importing it as a new track starts from zero.

Only delete a missing entry when you are sure you will never need its cues. Deleting it removes it from every playlist too.

Mac and Windows traps: drive names and letters

This is the reason the problem keeps coming back for many DJs. Rekordbox stores the full path, and on both systems that path includes the drive.

On Windows, an external drive gets a letter such as D or E. If it mounts as F the next time because another device is plugged in, every path breaks. Open Disk Management and assign your music drive a fixed letter so it always mounts the same way.

On a Mac, the path includes the drive's name. If you rename the drive, or plug in two drives with the same name and macOS adds a number to one, the paths no longer match. Give your music drive a unique name and never change it.

Moving between Mac and Windows is the hardest case, because the paths are written differently. Expect to run Auto Relocate after the move, or use a dedicated library conversion tool, and test before a gig.

Moving to a new laptop: the order that avoids missing files

Most missing file disasters happen during a laptop upgrade, because people copy the music and the library in the wrong order. The calmer route:

On the old laptop, back up the library and copy your master music folder to its final home, ideally an external drive you will keep using.
Relocate the old laptop's library to that drive first and check that nothing shows as missing.
On the new laptop, install rekordbox, restore the library backup and plug in the same drive with the same name or letter.
Run Display All Missing Files. If the drive path matches, there should be little or nothing to fix.

Doing the relocate on the old machine first means you are only changing one thing at a time.

How to stop rekordbox losing your files again

Keep one master music folder, on one drive, with a fixed name or letter. Every new track goes there before you import it.
Never import straight from Downloads, a USB stick or a promo folder you clean out later.
Rename and retag files before you import them, or inside rekordbox, not with an outside tool afterwards.
After any big move, open Display All Missing Files before your next gig, not in the booth.
Back up the library every week you add music, and keep a copy of the music folder itself on a second drive or cloud storage.

The night before a gig is the worst time to discover an exclamation mark. Check the Missing File Manager the day you change anything about your drives.

Does this affect my USB sticks for CDJs?

Your exported USBs carry their own copy of the audio and their own database, so they keep working at the club even if your laptop library is broken. The problem shows up the next time you export: tracks that are missing in your collection cannot be exported, and the playlist on the stick can end up incomplete.

So fix the collection first, then re-export or sync your USBs. If a gig is close and the laptop library is a mess, play from a USB you exported before the move and sort the library out afterwards.

What to do this week

Back up your library, set your music drive's name or letter so it never changes, add that drive to Auto Relocate Search Folders and run Display All Missing Files. Relocate what Auto Relocate misses by hand, play a few tracks from each gig playlist, then re-export your USBs. Only then delete the old copy of your music. One quiet hour now saves a very loud problem in the booth.

Quick answers

Will I lose my hot cues if I relocate tracks in rekordbox?

No. Hot cues, memory cues, beatgrids and comments are stored in the rekordbox database against the track entry, so relocating simply points that entry at the file's new location. You only lose cues if you delete the missing entry and import the file again as a brand new track.

Why does Auto Relocate miss some tracks?

Auto Relocate matches files in the folders you specify. It struggles when files were renamed, moved into folders you did not add, duplicated, or deleted. Add the right top level folder in Preferences and run it again, then relocate the remaining tracks by hand from the Missing File Manager.

Can I move my whole rekordbox library to an external drive?

Yes, you can keep your music on an external drive and relocate the library to it. Give the drive a permanent name on a Mac or a fixed drive letter on Windows, and keep it connected when you open rekordbox and when you import new music, otherwise tracks will show as missing again.

Is rekordbox XML a good way to fix missing files?

XML is useful for moving a library between computers or software, and some DJs use it to rebuild playlists after a move. For a simple drive change, Display All Missing Files and Auto Relocate are faster and safer. Back up your library before trying any XML import.

Should I delete missing tracks from my rekordbox collection?

Only when you are certain the file is gone for good and you do not need its cues. Deleting the entry removes it from every playlist and cannot be undone without a backup. Search your old drives and cloud storage first, and relocate to a redownloaded copy if you can.