Step-by-step

1. Open Settings
2. Go to the Advanced tab
3. Find the Cloud Backup section
4. Enable Save a copy of your database to the cloud

Choose your cloud provider

• Select Google Drive (currently supported)
• Make sure your account is connected in Settings → Accounts

Set backup frequency

You can choose how often backups are created:

• Hourly
• Daily
• Weekly

Manual backup options

• Backup now → creates an immediate backup
• Open backups folder → view local backups
• Open cloud backups → view files in your cloud

How it works

Crates automatically saves a compressed copy of your database at the selected interval. You can see when the last backup was completed directly in the Cloud Backup section.

Restoring a backup

If you ever need to restore your data, follow this guide:

How to manually restore a backup

Why this matters

Your database contains your entire music collection metadata, organization, and activity. With cloud backups enabled, you’re protected against data loss from system crashes, lost devices, or accidents. Your database will be able to be restored at another computer and you keep your archive forever.

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.

Crates Server can broadcast its connection details in the local network, making it discoverable for other devices such as the iOS app, Crates Desktop UI running on another computer etc 

By default, Crates comes with Server Discoverability enabled. To make sure, please check it under

    Preferences → Mobile tab

If the setting was disabled, please note that to apply the new ON setting, you need to restart Crates (Advanced Tab → Restart Crates)

If the Server is still not under your iOS app Crates Servers list, then please double check that : 

1. you have the latest app versions running on both sides
2. The iOS app and the server are connected on the same Wi-Fi network
   If any of the two is connected with an extender, please note, that service discovery is sometimes blocked this way, so please connect them in the exact same network.

If none of the above worked, it would be interesting to see why..!

There are two things you can do to continue

1) Troubleshoot 

2) Connect manually 

1) Troubleshoot
Please help us troubleshoot by doing the following: 

a) download the free “discovery” app for your mac  and run it.
if server is broadcasting its address correctly, you should see it under the _crates-remote._tcp like below:

b) if you do see it on your mac, then we should try to see on the device running the client.

e.g. if running iOS on your iphone, please download the same discovery free app from the App store .

Please include screenshots like the above in your report to us – it will help a lot!

2) Connect Manually

To find your mac’s IP address, open Terminal and run:

ifconfig | grep “inet ” | grep -v 127.0.0.1

you can find other methods in this wikiHow

In Windows, open command prompt (Run-> cmd) and run: 

ipconfig

It should be the value next to your Ip v4 Address e.g. 192.168.1.5

you can find other methods  in WikiHow (section: Find your Private IP Address)


Great! now back on your phone, tap “set up manually” and type the IP address:

Let us know if it worked!

1. Drag and drop: Go to your browser on a bandcamp page, left-click and drag the link (url address) of the tune or release you want to import.
   Then while holding it go back to Crates (Cmd or Alt + Tab), and drop it on the crate you want to import it in. 

    

2. Copy+Paste: Similarly, go to your browser on a bandcamp page, copy the url address (Cmd+C or Ctrl+C) and go back to Crates, click on the crate you want to import it, and then Paste (Cmd+V or Ctrl+V).
3. Using the Browser Extension:
   First make sure you have the Chrome extension installed, or get it here
   (Safari extension is bundled when you install in Mac)While on the page of the tune or release, eitherclick the extension:

   or:  right click the link and -> add link to crates