Years of hot cues, loops, grids and playlists are sitting on the old machine. Move them the wrong way and you'll spend a month re-prepping your whole collection. Move them the right way and the new laptop feels identical in under an hour.
Your cues, loops, beatgrids, playlists and play history live in rekordbox's database, not in the audio files. Copy only the music across and you arrive on the new laptop with tracks but none of your prep — the exact disaster this page exists to prevent.
File → Library → Backup Library. When it asks whether to include the music files, say yes, and point it at an external drive with enough free space for your whole collection. This packs the database and the audio into one restorable backup — it can take a while on a big library, so don't do this an hour before a gig.
Install rekordbox, sign in with the same account, then File → Library → Restore Library and point it at the backup on the drive. rekordbox rebuilds the collection with every cue, grid, loop and playlist exactly where you left it.
Open a few playlists, load a few tracks, check the cues are where you left them, and compare the collection's track count against the old laptop. Only when the new machine checks out do you retire the old one. A backup you haven't test-restored isn't a backup.
Back up without the music files (small and fast), restore on the new machine, and plug the same drive in. The database's paths survive as long as the drive's name (Mac) or letter (Windows — set it in Disk Management) is unchanged. Any stragglers that show as missing can be re-linked in minutes — here's the Relocate walkthrough.
A DJ library is two things — the audio files, and a database describing them — joined only by file paths. Backup Library moves both and rewires the paths for the new machine, which is why it works where hand-copying folders quietly loses everything you'd prepped.
Sorted? The manual this came from covers the CDJ-3000 end to end the same way — every control, every failure mode, in plain English with diagrams. CDJ-3000 — The Complete Visual Guide — £9, instant PDF.
Get the manual → £9 Or keep using the free stuff →