This article explains how to move your Scratch LIVE library and crates to an external drive. Once complete, your Scratch LIVE crates and library will be completely portable, allowing you to use your own crates and music with any computer running Scratch LIVE.
This article is not applicable to DJs using iTunes to organize their music.If you are an iTunes user, now may be a good time to make the switch and start using Scratch LIVE to manage your music.
Make sure you have upgraded to Scratch LIVE version 1.8.1 or higher before starting.
As always, before moving/deleting anything off your system, make sure you have a back up to revert to if something goes wrong.
Step 1: Move your music library
This is pretty self explanatory, just drag and drop your music files / folders to the external hard drive that you want to use, as you would with any other normal transfer.
Remember we are moving our files, not making a copy. Once you are certain your music is all on your external drive, delete it off your computer (internal) drive.
Do not move your whole "my music" / "music" folder. This contains more than just your music files, including your Scratch LIVE folder. Its important at this stage to leave that where it is.
A good way to set up your music library on your computer is to separate your actual music from the rest of the folders that get dumped in your root music folder. Notice in the screen shot below, my actual music files are stored in a tidy folder called "music library". This means you can move your music library around without worrying about moving the data for Ableton/ iTunes/ Garageband etc.
Step 2: Create a _ScratchLIVE_ folder on the new drive
To create a _ScratchLIVE_ folder:
- Open Scratch LIVE
- Create a crate file by clicking on the + sign in the lower left corner of Scratch LIVE screen.
- Click the 'import' tab.
- Highlight your new external drive in the import window.
- Drag and drop a track from your external drive into the crate file you created.
- Now close down Scratch LIVE, (with your external drive still connected) and a folder named _ScratchLIVE_ folder will be created.
In the example below I am dragging a single .mp3 file from my external drive into a crate named "DEMO CRATE"
Step 3: Move the contents of your Scratch LIVE folder
In steps 1 and 2, we moved our music library and created a _ScratchLIVE_ folder on our external drive.
Now we need to move the contents of our Scratch LIVE folder on our computer hard drive to the external drive.
- Open finder (Mac) or Windows explorer (Win). It makes it easy if you open two instance of finder / explorer and set them side by side. (Use the Shortcut ctrl N)
- Navigate to the ScratchLIVE folder on your computer (internal) hard drive.
- Select and copy all of the contents. (ctrl -A, followed by ctrl -c)
- Open the _ScratchLIVE_ folder on your external hard drive, and paste what you copied (ctrl-v)
- It will ask if you want to replace some of the files. Choose to replace them.
Copying the entire contents of your ScratchLIVE folder ensures that:
- Your personal settings are copied, eg crate order will stay the same. (.pref files)
- Your recorded files in the Recording folder are transferred (recorded folder)
- All the music in your library shows up - not just the music in crates. (Database V2 file)
Step 4: Rename your ScratchLIVE folder
Once you have completed step 3, Rename the Scratch LIVE folder on your computer's (internal) drive.
If you don't perform this step Scratch LIVE will read from both the folder on your internal drive, and the folder on your external drive, creating a big mess when you open up Scratch LIVE.
Rename it to ScratchLIVEback - Scratch LIVE won't recognize it, but it will allow you to keep it on your system as a backup.
Note: When you run Scratch LIVE again, it will automatically create a new ScratchLIVE folder on your internal drive, but you can leave this alone. There is no need to delete it.
Step 5: Use 'relocate lost files'
Your music files and your Scratch LIVE data is all on the external hard drive but your music will show up red and "not found" in your library. All you need to do is show Scratch LIVE the new location of your music using 'relocate lost files'.
- Open Scratch LIVE
- Click on the 'files' icon.
- Click on the middle icon in the upper right of the Scratch LIVE screen (PC) or the green icon in the upper left corner of the SSL screen (Mac) to minimize the screen allowing you to see your desktop.
- Navigate to your external hard drive in finder (Mac) or explorer (Win), highlight the folders your files are in, and drag/drop them onto the 'relocate lost files' tab inside SSL.
Detailed instructions on using relocate lost files can be found here: Relocate lost files article