Why do your Serato cue points keep disappearing?

How Serato saves cues, and why that matters

When you set a cue point, loop or beatgrid, Serato writes that data into the file’s own tags, and also mirrors it in its database. The file is the source of truth. That single fact explains almost every disappearing-cue report: if Serato cannot write back to the file, your cues live only in memory until you quit, and then they are gone.

So the whole troubleshooting job is really one question: what is stopping Serato from writing to this file?

Cause 1: the file is read-only (the gold lock)

If a track shows a gold padlock, it is read-only, and Serato cannot save anything to it. Clear the read-only flag on the file and the folder it sits in, and on a Mac run Disk Utility → First Aid to repair permissions on the drive. This is the single most common fix, and it usually solves the problem outright. The same read-only cause also blocks analysis, covered in Serato won’t analyze files.

Cause 2: the external drive

If cues only vanish for tracks on an external drive, the drive is the suspect. A drive that is read-only, full, or formatted NTFS (from a PC) cannot be written to by macOS, so the cue write fails without an obvious error. Confirm the drive is writable and Mac-formatted, or move a couple of tracks to your internal drive to test. If it works internally, the drive is the cause. Setup details are in how to set up a Serato library on an external hard drive.

Cause 3: the file format or a stale database

Occasionally one specific file loses cues while everything around it is fine. That usually means the file’s format does not store metadata cleanly, so re-encoding it to a standard MP3 or AIFF fixes it. And if cues are behaving strangely across many files at once, the database may be out of step: quit Serato and use Rescan ID3 Tags in the Files panel to re-read your files. If the database itself is damaged, see fixing a corrupt Serato database. If Serato also re-reads or re-analyzes your library on every launch, see why Serato reads tags every time it opens.

Protect your work once it saves

Cue points are hours of prep, so once they are saving reliably, back them up. Your cues live in both the files and the _Serato_ folder, so copying that folder (see how to back up your Serato library) protects them. Crate Cleaner also flags corrupt and unreadable files across your library as part of its health score, so you can catch damaged tracks before they fail at a gig. It runs locally on macOS with a free plan and no card required.

If what you actually want is cues on every track without placing them by hand, Auto Cue proposes hot cues on the beat grid and on phrase boundaries, lets you review every one before anything is written, and writes the ones you keep into your MP3 files so Serato picks them up. The rule from this guide still applies: it can only write to files Serato itself could write to, so clear read-only files and fix the drive first. Auto Cue is a Studio feature, and the full walkthrough is in how to set hot cues automatically in Serato.

Try Crate Cleaner free → · See pricing →

FAQ

Where does Serato save cue points? In two places: written into each file’s tags, and mirrored in Serato’s database. That is why a read-only file breaks it, because Serato cannot write the cue data back into the file.

Why do cues disappear only on my external drive? Cue data for files on an external drive has to be written to that drive, and if it is read-only, full, or formatted NTFS, the write fails silently. Make the drive writable, or move the tracks internal to confirm.

Will rescanning ID3 tags delete my cue points? No. Rescan ID3 Tags re-reads metadata from your files, it does not wipe cues. It is still wise to back up your Serato folder before any database maintenance.

Can read-only files really be the whole cause? Yes, and it is the most common one. If a track shows a gold lock, Serato cannot save cues, loops or beatgrids to it. Clearing the read-only flag usually fixes the disappearing-cues problem outright.