SeratoDJ 4 - all crates disappeared 🫪

[gregd88]

After spending whole day organising stuff in Lexicon all my crates from Serato Dj 4.0.5 disappeared… I know it’s says it’s in beta but at least how can I bring it back from backup? Has all my work today will be gone (I guess)? As you can see I still have all my crates in Lexicon but none of them in Serato… Already tried manually copy-paste ‘subcrates’ folder to ‘Serato’ with no luck… I’ve already tried ‘full’ and all ‘playlist’ sync…
Please help!

[Christiaan]

Did you use todays Lexicon update? v1.10.3 ?

[Christiaan]

There is a backup of your crates so it’s all still there (and in Lexicon). A Serato 3 sync should put the crates back as well and Serato 4 reads them.

[gregd88]

Yes i have the latest version - updated it today during my analyse files in lexicon session (1.10.3).

[gregd88]

Ok I will try that, thank you for quick response!

[gregd88]

That’s the message when opening Serato, I’ve tried Serato 3 full sync and playlist sync with no changes unfortunately…

[Christiaan]

There should be a backup zip file in your Serato/Lexicon folder, see How to restore a Lexicon or DJ app backup?

[gregd88]

thanks, but it didn’t help… I’ve even tried with earlier manually saved backup swapping whole ‘serato’ folder. Luckily I was moving library from old to new computer so I’m still able to get old files and start from scratch. I will wait for another update of Lexicon cause it cost me to much effort and time today.

[gregd88]

it might be something wrong with new searto version as well according to this topic here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Serato/comments/1r0f6gi/empty_crates_and_serato_unusable/

[djnicknystrom]

This happened to me today I was so frustrated. I prepped everything, went to my gig plugged into play and opened Serato to find all my crates are gone. Lexicon will NOT SYNC to Serato. I have spent 3 hours trying to reinstall, uninstall to fix with no luck. I had to DJ out of my master folder tonight which sucked. Please help me fix this issue. All my stuff in LEXICON is the way I want it and it says it successfully syncs to serato. Then I open serato and nothing, zero crates. PLEASE HELP!!!

Running into the same issue today—this is not user error and seems to be affecting multiple people.

Setup:

• Serato DJ Pro 4.0.5
• Lexicon DJ (latest) 1.10.3
• New Mac (Apple Silicon) M4 2024

Issue

• All crates disappeared in Serato
• Tracks + cues still there
• Lexicon shows all playlists
• Sync = “successful”
• No crates appear in Serato

Also:

• No Subcrates folder in _Serato_
• No .crate files being created
• No “Export to Serato” option anywhere in Lexicon (only Rekordbox shows)

Key insight

Lexicon is NOT exporting crates at all—even though sync says successful

This appears to be metadata-only sync (cues, etc.), not playlist → crate export.

Additional issue (new Macs)

Serato may also be partially broken due to macOS permissions:

• Prepare window doesn’t work
• Dragging tracks silently fails

Bottom line

• Serato can be fixed and works
• Lexicon playlists are intact
• But Lexicon → Serato crate export is not happening

Questions for others

• Do you see a Subcrates folder in _Serato_?
• Are .crate files being created at all?
• Do you have ANY “Export to Serato” option in Lexicon?

Feels like a Lexicon + Serato 4 compatibility issue or broken integration.

Would love confirmation if others are seeing the same!

[djnicknystrom]

Same for me! It let’s me choose the folder but when you hit sync nothing happens. I also have that Serato error message at the bottom that you are showing.

[djnicknystrom]

SO I made this post right before getting ready to go to bed, opened Serato and there are all there? What in the actual heck?

[djnicknystrom]

After 3 hours of troubleshooting with CHATGPT and coming to this forum finally I was able to resolve. Apologies for the posts and rants but as you can imagine it’s a DJ’s worst nightmare to show up to a gig and have no crates after literally just prepping them before getting there.

FIX:
Do what they suggested, do a Serato 3 sync not the new 4 beta. Once I did that then opened up Serato everything is back. I even was able to crate a new playlist in Lexicon and sync it with Version 3 and it DOES show up in Serato. I will stay on V3 until we get stable support. Thanks all!

Silverlining: I had to DJ based soley on playcount and memory tonight. Thankfully it was a vibes gig so nothing high pressure like my normal wedding. It did make me thing I have way to many crates so maybe a blessing in disguise? LOL

Cheers!

[Christiaan]

I will do a release later today with an improvement in this area, I have a few ideas that can help

[gregd88]

Thank you for posting such a detailed description of the problem — I’m glad it worked for you. I’ve tried everything, including a full sync and a playlist-only sync with both Serato 4 and Serato 3, but nothing helps.

No matter what I do, the issue remains. I even copied a full backup of my _Serato_ folder from a few hours earlier, but nothing changed. When I manually copy the Subcrates folder into _Serato_, the crates appear briefly, but after I open Serato and then close it, they all disappear again. Each time I launch Serato I get the error: “Operation failed. Crates and files may not appear correctly.”

All my crates are still fully intact inside Lexicon, so the data is not lost — it just isn’t reaching Serato. I’ve been troubleshooting with Claude and here is what I’ve tried or am planning to try next:

1. Full Disk Access on macOS — Verified that Serato DJ Pro is listed under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access and toggled ON. Without this, macOS silently blocks Serato from reading and writing its own library, which can cause the “Operation failed” error.
2. Restore from _Serato_Backup — Checked ~/Music/ for a _Serato_Backup folder (Serato’s own automatic backup), renamed the broken _Serato_ folder and replaced it with the backup copy. Unfortunately, this did not resolve the issue.
3. Reset Serato’s hidden Application Support folder — Went to Finder → Go → Go to Folder and navigated to ~/Library/Application Support/. Found the Serato folder there, renamed it to Serato.old, and relaunched Serato so it would regenerate a fresh one. This folder stores preferences and session cache that can sometimes conflict with the main database.
4. Delete and rebuild database V2 — Navigated to ~/Music/_Serato_/, renamed the file database V2 to database V2.broken to force Serato to generate a clean one from scratch on next launch, then tried a fresh Playlist Sync from Lexicon to repopulate the crates.

[Christiaan]

I just released an update the reverts to the previous behavior on Serato 4 sync so this should not happen anymore. It also adds a setting to Serato 4 so it doesn’t automatically import old Serato 3 crates anymore. Let me know how it works please. You might need to restore a backup first

[djnicknystrom]

Would you suggest I try the Serato Sync 4 or stay on the 3? I tried to use Serato 4 but it’s showing this error. I open serato and close it but it still displays this error. I’m fine staying on V3 if needed it seems to be working.

[gregd88]

I’ve tried syncing with newest Lexicon version and it’s not doing anything, after sync there are no files in ‘subcrates’ folder like it can’t save files in ‘serato’ for some reason…

[djnicknystrom]

Did you try the version 3 sync? After doing that my Serato is fixed along with my crates.

[gregd88]

Yes I’ve treid both and nothing changes in serato… That’s how it looks like in lexicon