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How to Relocate Lost Files in Serato DJ (Fix the Yellow Tracks)

Updated · by the MixGoat team · Tool: Cloud Backup

Short answer

Serato highlights a track in yellow when the file is no longer at the path stored in its library, which happens after moving a folder, renaming an external drive, a changed Windows drive letter, or tidying Downloads. To fix it, open the Files panel in Serato DJ Pro, click Relocate Lost Files, and either let Serato scan every attached drive or drag the folder the music now lives in onto the button to restrict the search. Serato matches the missing entries to files it finds, rewrites the paths in database V2 and in every crate that lists them, and the track turns white again. Your cue points, loops and beatgrids were never at risk: Serato stores them in the audio file's tags, not in the database, so they come back with the file.

Step by step

  1. 1

    See how many tracks are missing and where they used to be

    In Serato DJ Pro, click All in the crate list so you are looking at the whole library, and look for yellow rows. Right-click a column header and enable the Location column to see the path each yellow track expects; that path tells you what changed (a different drive name, a folder that moved into a subfolder, or a file that was renamed).

  2. 2

    Try the cheap fix first: put the path back

    If the Location column shows an external drive, plug that drive in; Serato re-checks paths when a drive mounts. If the drive was renamed on macOS, rename it back in Finder. If Windows gave it a new drive letter, assign the old letter in Disk Management. If a whole folder moved, moving it back to the old location fixes every track at once with no scan.

  3. 3

    Open the Files panel and click Relocate Lost Files

    Click Files in the toolbar. The Relocate Lost Files button appears at the top of the panel. Click it to have Serato search every connected drive for files that match the missing entries; on a large collection this takes a few minutes and the count of yellow tracks drops as it goes.

  4. 4

    Drag a folder onto the button to narrow the search

    If you know where the music is now, find that folder in the Files panel and drag it onto Relocate Lost Files instead of clicking. Serato only looks inside that folder and its subfolders, which is faster and avoids matching an old duplicate somewhere else on the disk.

  5. 5

    Rescan ID3 Tags if anything looks stale

    Relocated tracks read their cues from the file on load, so hot cues and saved loops reappear immediately. If BPM, key or cue colours look wrong because the file was edited in another program while it was missing, select the tracks and press Rescan ID3 Tags in the Files panel so Serato refreshes the cached values in database V2.

  6. 6

    Check the crates, including the ones on external drives

    Open each crate that held yellow tracks. Relocate updates the .crate files in Subcrates as well as database V2, so they should be white. Tracks that were on an external drive have their crates in that drive's own _Serato_/Subcrates folder, which only loads while the drive is connected; if a crate is still yellow, the fix is usually mounting the right drive, not another scan.

Why Serato loses files in the first place

database V2 stores each track under a path relative to the root of the volume it sits on (Users/you/Music/... on macOS, Music/... on an external drive), and each Subcrates/*.crate file repeats that path for every track in the crate. Anything that changes the path breaks the link: dragging a folder into a subfolder, renaming an artist folder, a Downloads clean-up, OneDrive or iCloud moving the Music folder, a renamed external volume, or Windows assigning E: to a drive that used to be D:. Serato does not follow the file the way Finder does, so the entry simply points at nothing until you relocate.

Relocate Lost Files matches by file name, so a renamed file is the one case it cannot recover. For those, delete the yellow entry, add the renamed file again and re-cue it, or restore the original name first and relocate.

What is at risk and what is not

This is where Serato differs from Rekordbox. In Rekordbox the cues live in master.db and a missing track that is deleted from the collection takes its cues with it. In Serato, hot cues, saved loops, beatgrid, key and track colour are written into the audio file as Serato Markers2 and its sibling tags, so a missing track has lost nothing except its place in your crates. Even removing a yellow entry and re-adding the file brings the cues back. What lives only in _Serato_ is crate membership, Smart Crate rules, history sessions and play counts; that is what relocating protects, and what a _Serato_ backup exists for.

Preventing yellow tracks

Keep the library on one drive with one top-level folder and never rename it. If the music is on an external drive, give the drive a name you will not change, and on Windows pin its drive letter. Do all renaming and moving before adding files to Serato, or use a tool that updates the library when it moves files. Back up _Serato_ and the music together (see mixgoat.com/guides/how-to-back-up-serato-library): a restore that puts both back at the same paths needs no relocating at all, and if you are moving machines the full procedure is in mixgoat.com/guides/move-dj-library-to-new-laptop. MixGoat Cloud Backup keeps the _Serato_ folder and your files as one snapshot, so a restore to the same paths comes back white.

Back up _Serato_ and your music with MixGoat

Cloud Backup snapshots the _Serato_ folder, master.sqlite and your files together, and restores them to the same paths. Part of the GOAT plan.

Back up _Serato_ and your music with MixGoat

Frequently asked questions

Why are my Serato tracks yellow?
Yellow means the file is not at the path Serato has for it. The file was moved, renamed, or is on a drive that is disconnected, renamed or has a new drive letter.
Relocate Lost Files found nothing. What now?
Check the drive is actually mounted and that the file name has not changed, since Serato matches on name. Drag the exact folder onto the Relocate Lost Files button rather than scanning everything, and make sure that folder is visible in the Files panel.
Do I lose cue points when a file is missing in Serato?
No. Serato keeps cues, loops and beatgrids in the file's own tags, so they are wherever the file is. The database only caches them. Relocate the file and the cues load with it.
Why did every track go missing after I changed the drive letter?
Serato's internal library stores full paths for tracks on other drives, so D: becoming E: breaks all of them. Assign the old letter in Disk Management; Serato re-checks paths when the drive mounts and the tracks turn white without a scan.
Can I relocate a single track instead of the whole library?
Serato has no per-track relocate. The nearest thing is dragging the folder that contains the file onto Relocate Lost Files so only that folder is searched. It finishes in seconds for a small folder.
Will relocating fix my crates too?
Yes. Serato rewrites the paths in Subcrates/*.crate along with database V2. Crates for tracks on an external drive live in that drive's _Serato_ folder and only appear while the drive is connected.