Most working DJs end up with two machines: a desktop in the studio where the digging, tagging and prep happens, and a laptop that goes to the gig. The problem is obvious the first time you set cues at home and open the laptop at the venue to find none of them there. There are three common ways to solve it: Rekordbox's own Cloud Library Sync, a DIY setup with Dropbox or iCloud, and Lexicon. They work very differently, and each one fails in its own way.
Option 1: Rekordbox Cloud Library Sync
Rekordbox has a built-in cloud sync that uploads your tracks and playlists to a cloud storage service so your other devices can access them. On desktop it is built around Dropbox, and you need your own Dropbox account. Google Drive support was added for Rekordbox for iOS/Android in 2024.
What it costs: Cloud Library Sync is tied to the paid plans. Pioneer DJ's announcement puts it on the Creative and Professional plans, or on other plans with an add-on Cloud Option, and free users only get a small trial. Check the plan page for current pricing.
Where it works well:
- You only play Rekordbox, on every machine
- You are happy paying for both the Rekordbox plan and enough Dropbox storage for your music
- You want it to happen in the background without thinking about it
Where it hurts:
- It's Rekordbox-only. If you also play Serato DJ Pro at one residency, Engine DJ on a standalone, or Traktor Pro 3 at home, none of that work comes along. Your library is locked into one app.
- Duplicates. If the same track gets imported on more than one device it can show up twice, and Pioneer DJ has a FAQ entry on finding and deleting the extra copies.
- Your music has to live in Dropbox. Rekordbox moves or copies tracks into your Dropbox folder, which changes where your files are and how much cloud storage you need.
Option 2: DIY with Dropbox or iCloud
The free approach: put your music folder and the DJ app's database folder in Dropbox or iCloud and let them sync. It looks clever, and then it breaks.
Why syncing the database folder goes wrong:
- DJ app databases are not built for file sync. A file sync tool sees a changed file and copies it. If the app on the other machine is open, or the sync is halfway done when you launch it, you end up with a corrupt or conflicted database. Dropbox's "conflicted copy" files are a sign it has already happened.
- Absolute paths don't match. Your database stores the full path to every track. On a Mac the same Dropbox folder lives under your own user folder, on Windows it is somewhere like
D:/Dropbox/Music. Different user names, different drives, different operating systems all mean different paths, and every track shows up as missing. - Drive letters and volume names change. Windows can give your external SSD a different drive letter depending on what else is plugged in. macOS can rename a volume if two drives share a name. Either way, every track on that drive goes missing.
- You analyse everything twice. If you rebuild the library on the second machine instead of moving it, you redo BPM, key and beatgrids, and any grid you fixed by hand is gone.
Syncing the music files with Dropbox is fine. Syncing the live DJ app database is the part that causes the trouble.
Option 3: Lexicon on both machines
Lexicon handles this differently. It does not try to live-sync two open databases. You keep one Lexicon library as the source of truth and move it between machines on purpose, then sync it out to whatever DJ app each machine runs. The Local Path Mappings section of the manual says it plainly: the feature "does not automatically sync multiple Lexicons", and restoring a database overwrites the current one, so you only make changes on one Lexicon at a time.
Moving the library: Cloud Database Backup
Your Lexicon database holds your tags, cue points, playlists and settings. To move it:
- On the machine you have been working on, go to Backup ➡ Database Backup ➡ Cloud Database Backup and create a backup.
- On the other machine, open the same menu and restore it.
Cloud Database Backup is on the Ultimate plan. Without it, use Backup ➡ Database Backup ➡ Create Database Backup, copy the ZIP over (USB stick, or Dropbox is fine for a ZIP), and restore with Restore Database Backup. Details are in the Database Backup section of the manual.
Restoring a backup replaces the database on that machine completely. Always back up on the machine you just worked on before restoring on the other one.
Moving the music: Cloud Storage
A database backup does not include your music files. That is what Cloud Storage is for:
- Right-click any track or playlist and choose Upload to cloud
- On the other machine, use Backup ➡ Cloud Storage ➡ Restore Files to download missing tracks, or right-click a playlist and choose Download from cloud
- Any uploaded track can also be streamed: restore your database on another computer and you can play tracks Lexicon downloads on demand, even if you never copied the files over
Limits: Essential includes 1,000 tracks and Ultimate includes 10,000. A track counts once per 25 MB started, so a 60 MB WAV counts as 3, and lossless libraries hit the limit sooner. The optional Cloud Storage add-on removes the limit (fair use policy applies, and files must be under 300 MB each, so long mixes are out).
Making paths match: Local Path Mappings and Find Lost Tracks
This is the fix for the drive letter and volume name problem.
Local Path Mappings (Ultimate, in the settings under Advanced) lets a secondary Lexicon look for your music somewhere else without relocating anything. You pick one install as your primary Lexicon and set up mappings only on the secondary ones. The manual's own example: primary has music at D:/Music/, the laptop has the same drive at G:/Music/, so you add a mapping Remote D:/Music/ ➡ Local G:/Music/. It also works across operating systems, for example a Mac with music in Dropbox under the user folder and a Windows PC with the same Dropbox at D:/Dropbox/Music/. When you add new music on the secondary machine, Lexicon saves it with the primary's path, so the database stays consistent.
No Ultimate, or a one-off move? Find Lost Tracks under Utility does a precise find and replace on the start of each track's path: source D:/Music, target E:/Music, and D:/Music/House/track.mp3 becomes E:/Music/House/track.mp3. For a quick fix, right-click missing tracks (they show an orange triangle) and choose Relocate. A smartlist with the File Missing rule shows you everything that is still missing.
Into the DJ app on each machine
Once the library is restored and the files are found, sync from Lexicon to the DJ app on that machine. Because the library lives in Lexicon, the laptop can run Rekordbox while the desktop runs Serato DJ Pro or Engine DJ, and both get the same playlists, cues and grids.
No need to re-analyse. BPM, key and beatgrids come from your Lexicon library. For Rekordbox, turn off auto analysis so your grids are not overwritten, and if you want waveforms, analyse with only Phrase selected. Lexicon also sets Rekordbox's analysis settings to only Phrase when it syncs.
Which one should you pick?
- Rekordbox only, never anything else, happy to pay for Dropbox: Rekordbox Cloud Library Sync is the least effort.
- Anything involving syncing a live DJ app database with Dropbox or iCloud: don't. Sync the music files if you like, but move the library with real backups.
- More than one DJ app, a mix of Mac and Windows, or you just want one library that stays put: Lexicon. Use Cloud Database Backup to move the library, Cloud Storage for the music, and Local Path Mappings so a different drive letter is never a problem again.
The one habit that matters with any of these: edit on one machine, back up, restore on the other. For the full walkthrough, read our guides on using Lexicon on two different computers and moving Lexicon to another computer.
