Crates does not need to copy or move your files to import them.

You can simply import your existing music folders, and Crates will index them in place, preserving your current folder structure exactly as it is.

• Right-click on Collection
• Select Import files or folders
• Choose folders to import 

Note: If you use Actions like ‘Move to Collection’, or ‘Move to Archive’, Crates may move or reorganize files as part of the workflow (these can be changed in Settings > Actions).
These are optional features designed for handling unsorted files, and are not required for library imports.

1. Spread the word

Word of mouth is still the most powerful way people discover Crates.
Tell the music people in your life: DJs, collectors, curators, radio hosts, music nerds,
or anyone juggling 20 open music tabs and looking for a trusted home for their music.
Send them a playlist you made in Crates, show them how you use it, or share a gem you’ve discovered — that’s usually all it takes.

You can also mention Crates in places where music people hang out:
Reddit, Discords, forums, or conversations about music tools, curation, ownership and discovery.
If someone is looking for a better way to manage or explore music, point them our way.

We also have a reward program so that both of you benefit — check it out on our website.

2. Leave a Rating or Review

Honest ratings and thoughtful reviews help new users discover Crates and understand what makes it different.
If you’ve had a good experience, you can leave a review here:

App Stores

• Crates iOS on the iOS App Store
• Crates Chrome Extension on the Chrome Web Store

Software & Product Listings

• AlternativeTo (rate or review)
• Slashdot (write a review)

Community Mentions

• Reddit discussions e.g. on r/musichoarder

Even a short review makes a real difference.

3. Submit helpful bug reports and feedback

We are a small independent team. Crates runs across different systems, OS versions and setups and edge cases are real. Instead of limiting what users can do to avoid bugs, we prefer flexibility. That means we rely on engaged users to trace issues, report them and we’ll do our best to fix them.

When we get careful feedback containing steps to reproduce, logs or even a screenshot or video, it really helps to tackle the issue. This applies to anyone using the current version of Crates — you don’t need to be technical, just be detailed.

Check this article that contains step-by-step  instructions:

How to report bugs and issues

4. Become a Beta Tester

Want to go one step further? You can join the beta program.

This is focused on pre-releases — helping us improve things before they reach everyone.

As a beta tester, you:

• Get early access to new features (including mobile builds)
• Help us catch bugs before public releases
• Submit in-app feedback (with screenshots or screen recordings)
• Influence product decisions directly

Join the beta program here: https://crates.app/beta-testing-program/
When a pre-release is out, you’ll get an email to test it (testing opens up gradually).

5. Become a Contributor

Have dev or technical skills and want to go deeper?

For starters, we’re building an add-ons system that will allow external contributors to build their own extensions.
If you’d like early access, want to discuss APIs, or shape v1 — reach out at: 📩 support+devs@crates.app
Tell us what you want to build!

If you want to go even further — fixing bugs, owning parts of the codebase, or contributing long-term — we’re always looking for like-minded, dedicated music power users to Join the Team. Reach out and tell us who you are and how you’d like to contribute.

6. Follow & Stay Connected

If you’d like to support us, you can follow or subscribe:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crates.app/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070420125149
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@crates_app
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@crates.app
• X: https://twitter.com/crates_app
• BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/crates-app.bsky.social

How it works

• Your friend gets 5€ off when they become a Supporter through your referral link.
• You receive a special thank-you gift once they upgrade.
• You’ll be notified when someone signs up through your link.

It’s our way of saying thanks for helping grow the Crates community.

How to refer a friend

1. Open Tell a Friend inside the app.
2. Copy your personal referral link.
3. Share it with friends via message, email, or social media.
4. When they sign up and become a Supporter, it will be tracked automatically.

Track your referrals

You can view your referrals and rewards at:

https://crates.app/tell-a-friend/

• See who signed up through your link
• See which referrals became Supporters
• Track your rewards status

Important notes

• The discount applies when your friend becomes a Supporter through your link.
• Each user has a unique referral link.
• Your friend must use your link before signing up so the referral is properly recorded.

Thank you for helping Crates grow <3

TL;DR

• A Playlist is a list of tunes meant for playback in that specific order.
• A Crate is an organizational unit that helps you structure your music.

Playlists are about sequence and interoperability.
Crates are about structure and hierarchy.

What is a Playlist?

A playlist is a defined, ordered list of tracks.

In Crates, a playlist can be:

• A playlist you created in Crates
• A local playlist originating from an m3u, pls etc file from your computer.
• An imported playlist from an external service (Spotify / YouTube / SoundCloud etc)
• A public, curated, or collaborative playlist you discovered and imported from the Crates website.

Playlists are about:

• Ordered playback (a specific sequence)
• A theme, mood, journey — a coherent selection
• Interoperability with services
• Sharing with other users

They are portable, exchangeable. You can import them, export them, share them, collaborate on them, or sync them across platforms.

If you’re thinking:
‘This is what I want to press play on’
or
‘This is something I want to share’

— that’s a playlist.

What is a Crate?

A crate is a structural container.

It’s more abstract and more flexible than a playlist.

A crate can:

• contain playlists
• contain tunes (but not two instances of the same tune)
• contain other crates (sub-crates)
• mirror a folder from your file system
• automatically reflect the combined contents of its sub-crates
• represent a long-term theme or collection (e.g. ‘2014 downloads’, or ‘imported from iPod nano’)

Crates are primarily about organizing your music world in a way that scales over time.

You can create hierarchies like:

• Crate
  • Sub-crate
    • Playlist
    • Playlist
  • Another sub-crate

This makes crates powerful for complex libraries, DJ preparation, research, long-term archiving, or multi-platform organization.

How they work together

Most users use both:

• crates to create structure
• playlists for a specific listening set

For example:

• Crate: ‘Athens Gigs’
  • Sub-crate: ‘Warm Ups’
    • Playlist: ‘Early Energy 01’
    • Playlist: ‘Ambient and organic’
  • Sub-crate: ‘Peak’
    • Playlist: ‘Warehouse Pressure’

Crates hold context.
Playlists hold sequence.

What about ‘smart’ crates?

Smart crates are crates that update automatically based on rules you define (genre, rating, year, source, etc.).

Instead of manually adding tracks, you define criteria and the crate populates itself dynamically.

Learn more here:
https://crates.app/knowledge-base/smart-crates-how-to/

What about the ‘default’ crates?

When you install Crates, you’ll see some default crates. These are structural helpers built into the system.

They are not just regular playlists — they serve specific organizational purposes.

Learn more here:
https://crates.app/knowledge-base/what-are-the-default-crates-and-what-are-they-for/

To sum up:

• Use crates for structure and context.
• Use playlists for ordered listening and sharing.
• Use smart crates when you want automation.

How do I move part or all of my library to a new drive or NAS?

This guide describes the safest way to move any folder with audio files, that has already been imported into Crates  to a new location.
For example a user asked: “I want to move an entire folder with subfolders from my mac to my NAS. It’s about ~300GB. What’s the best way to do this and keep using the files  in Crates?”

Before you start

• Mount the destination drive or NAS and note the target folder (for example: /Volumes/MyNAS/Music/).
• Keep the same subfolder and filename structure at the new location.
• Ensure there is enough free space on the destination drive.

Move the files

1. Quit Crates App & Server (you could also make sure to stop ‘watching’ the folder or parent folders to be moved, but easier  to quit)
2. Quit any other apps that might be using or locking the files.
3. Move (cut and paste) the base folder you want to relocate — this may be your entire library or just a subfolder — to the new drive.

Relocate inside Crates

1. Open Crates  again and go to menu Library → Relocate Files.
2. Set Old Path to the original base folder you moved.
3. Set New Path to the new folder on the destination drive.
4. Click Relocate. Crates updates stored paths when the old file is missing and the new file exists.
5. Play a few tracks to confirm playback works from the new location.

Common pitfalls

• Old copy still present: paths will not update. Rename or remove the old folder.
• Folder structure changed: relocation will fail to match files. Keep identical relative paths.
• Drive not mounted or writable: mount the drive or fix permissions, then rerun relocation.

If only one or two files moved

Use the per-track Relocate Audio File dialog: right click a tune → Edit → Audiosources panel → click tab of audio file → click the … menu → Relocate. Then point directly to the new file instead of running a bulk relocation.

What you can do with it

1. Connect your Google Drive account
   
   • Either right-click the Online Libraries > Google Drive and choose Connect to Google Drive, or
   • Go to Settings > Accounts and click Connect to Google Drive.
   • During this step you can also choose to import existing music files in your Google Drive folder (as indicated in the dialog).
2. Upload files from Crates to Google Drive
   
   • In Crates, right-click on any tune corresponding to a file audiosource (or selection of tracks), go to Actions > Upload to Google Drive.
   • Crates will copy those files and upload them to the ‘Crates app data’ in your Google Drive. 
3. Access your music from another computer
   
   • On a second Crates installation, connect the same Google Drive account (step 1 above)
   • Crates will see the files you previously uploaded to that folder and can stream them directly from Google Drive, even if the local files are not on that machine.
   • This is especially useful if you use Crates on multiple computers on different networks and want to keep your files available to listen everywhere.

How this relates to future Cloud Sync

The Google Drive connection is an essential stepping stone toward a full Cloud Sync feature, where you will be able to use your own cloud storage (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox and others) to keep your library and metadata synced between devices, without any third party or us having access to your private files.

TL;DR: Install the Crates browser extension, pair it with Crates, open your Bandcamp Collection page, click the extension, and start the import. Your purchases will appear under Online Libraries > Bandcamp.

Steps

TL;DR: Crates lets you stream for discovery – but for the highest quality and real artist support, we recommend purchasing the music you love and want to keep for the long run.

Crates connects with several online services to help you explore music, but most limit high-quality playback outside their own apps:

• Spotify — Limits streaming quality and restricts third-party apps from full catalog playback.
• Apple Music — Streams at AAC 256 kbps (very good quality, though not lossless).
• YouTube Music — Streaming quality via embeds varies, up to 256 kbps.
• Bandcamp — Streams via web embeds at 128 kbps MP3.

We are actively exploring partnerships to bring high-quality, lossless streaming into Crates in the future.

Our philosophy is: stream what you’re curious about, purchase what you love.
Streaming is great for discovery, but buying music directly supports artists, gives you lasting ownership, and builds a healthier ecosystem for creators and fans alike.

👉 Try our Streaming vs Buying Calculator to see why directing your budget toward purchases is more impactful than paying rent for temporary streaming access.

Inbox
That’s your holding area for all new, unsorted music in your installation. This could be freshly downloaded files or folders with music that still needs attention – listening (to decide if you’ll keep it), tagging, renaming, etc. Just like your email inbox, it’s the place you go through before moving things where they belong. It’s essentially your “new music” folder.

Online Saves
Music you save from the web. Tunes or releases added through the Crates Browser Extension, or via the “Search Online” feature will go here by default.

Collection
The precious core of your library – where your properly sorted and organized music lives. Inside Collection you’ll find:

• Tunes – a suggested sub-crate for individual tracks.

• Releases – the suggested sub-crate for full albums or EPs. Can be folders or simply “virtual” crates (e.g. Bandcamp releases)

• Vinyl – a “smart crate” example, automatically pulling in anything tagged as “vinyl”

DJ Library
An optional crate, but handy if you DJ. Add only the tracks you actually want to DJ with (e.g. high-quality or lossless files), while keeping the rest of the keepers in your main Collection. This way your gig-ready tunes stay separate from the ones you keep for home listening. Benefits include narrowing searches when preparing a mix, making smaller backups, and exporting directly to DJ Performance software (e.g Rekordbox).

Playlists
Where all playlists you create are stored.

• Play Queue – a special playlist that holds what you’ve queued to play next.

Online Libraries
Mirrors your music from online services – YouTube, Discogs, SoundCloud, Apple Music, Spotify, etc. These crates reflect what’s in those services, but you can right-click to add items to your Collection if you want to include them.
Don’t want to see a crate? Right-click → Actions → Hide. You can always restore hidden crates later in Settings → Collection → Hidden Crates.

Apple Music / iTunes
If you import your iTunes collection, it appears here. It’s separated from Apple Music so users without streaming accounts can still keep iTunes-only libraries.

Archive
For music you don’t want in your main Collection anymore, but don’t want to delete either. Suited for old downloads to be stored on external hard drives,  NAS etc.
Tip: You can send items here directly from Inbox instead of moving them into Collection by right clicking -> “Move to archive”

Listening History
A read-only crate that shows your past listening, grouped by day, so you can revisit what you’ve played.

If you’d like to try a new build of Crates or just experiment without affecting your main installation, you can create a fresh data set while keeping your existing one safe.

Where Crates stores your data:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Crates
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Crates

Steps

1. Quit Crates completely. From the File menu, choose Quit App and Server. Make sure Crates is not running in the background.
2. Locate the data folder. On macOS, open Finder and go to ~/Library/Application Support/. On Windows, open File Explorer and go to %APPDATA%.
3. Rename your current Crates folder. Change the folder name from Crates to something else (e.g., Crates-Prod, Crates-2).
4. Start Crates again. The app will behave like a brand-new installation. You’ll be asked to activate and set it up from scratch. Here you can experiment as much as you want, all progress will be stored on the new folder.
5. Switch back to your old installation (optional). Quit Crates and the server again, delete or rename the current Crates folder (holding the existing data). Then rename your old folder back to Crates, then relaunch the app to resume your previous setup.