This article explains how to securely clean up your TRAKTOR installation after having installed one or more updates on your system. When you install and launch a TRAKTOR PRO / LE 2 update, TRAKTOR keeps the previous Root Directory (collection and settings) and the previous version of your TRAKTOR application is copied into a backup folder. Therefore, each TRAKTOR update creates additional data on your hard drive. If you wish to save disk space, you may delete some of the previous installation files.
TRAKTOR's Side-By-Side Installation
It is important to be aware of the dependencies between your TRAKTOR user data (Root Directory) and your TRAKTOR application before deleting any data. You can run any TRAKTOR version found in the Backup folder of your TRAKTOR application folder. This folder can be found here:
- OS X: Macintosh HD > Applications > Native Instruments > Traktor 2 > Backup
- Windows: C: > Program Files > Native Instruments > Traktor 2 > Backup
Every TRAKTOR backup version contained in your application folder is linked to a Root Directory bearing the same version number in your Documents folder. This folder can be found here:
- OS X: Macintosh HD > Users > *Username* > Documents > Native Instruments > Traktor *Version Number*
- Windows: C: > Users > *Username* > My Documents > Native Instruments > Traktor *Version Number*
This means when you launch a given TRAKTOR version, the contents of the corresponding Root Directory (collection and settings) will be automatically loaded (see example below).
Note: If the TRAKTOR version’s Root Directory has been moved or deleted, a new Root Directory with the corresponding version number will be created. You will then be prompted to either copy the contents from the previous Root Directory or start with an empty collection.
This so-called side-by-side installation can be helpful in the following situations:
- You would like to try out a new TRAKTOR update but keep the option to revert to your trusted version.
- You want to check an older collection and / or settings without having to import it into your current TRAKTOR installation.
The side-by-side installation allows you to easily switch or downgrade to different TRAKTOR versions simply by launching them from the application Backup folder. Additionally, you can import the collection and settings of older TRAKTOR versions into a newer TRAKTOR version. Please refer to the links in the Related Articles section at the bottom of this page for more information on how to import the TRAKTOR collection and settings. If you consider cleaning up your TRAKTOR installation data, bear in mind that the link between the TRAKTOR application and its Root Directory will break if only one of these components is deleted. For this reason, consider only deleting TRAKTOR versions and / or Root Directories that are no longer in use. The next section explains how to safely delete your TRAKTOR data.
Cleaning Up your TRAKTOR Installation
Before deleting any TRAKTOR data from your hard drive we recommend saving a copy of all your data onto a backup storage device. In order to remove unwanted TRAKTOR data from your system, you may manually delete the following items from your hard drive:
- OS X: Macintosh HD > Users > *Username* > Documents > Native Instruments > Traktor *older version number*
- Windows: C: > Users > *Username* > My Documents > Native Instruments > Traktor *older version number*
Note: We recommend to keep at least the previous Root Directory on your hard drive.
- Mac OS: Macintosh HD > Applications > Native Instruments > Traktor 2 > Backup > "Traktor *backup version number*.app"
- Windows: C: > Program Files > Native Instruments > Traktor 2 > Backup > "Traktor *backup version number*.app"
Note: We recommend to keep at least the previous version in the backup folder.