Where your files live

Everything you make in LayerCue is kept as ordinary files in one folder on this computer: your presentations, your cue sheets, the Music list, and LayerCue’s own copies of your videos, pictures and music. To back up your work, copy that folder.

The LayerCue folder

	Where it is
Mac	~/Documents/LayerCue — a LayerCue folder in your Documents
Windows	C:\Users\<you>\LayerCue — a LayerCue folder in your user folder

On Windows it is not in Documents, on purpose. Windows often keeps Documents in OneDrive, which uploads big videos, can leave only a placeholder of an older file on the PC until it is opened, and can lock a file while it syncs. A video that starts downloading the moment you play it — or will not open at all without the internet — is the last thing you want on the day.

Ways to open it:

• Settings › Files & YouTube › Media folder › Open opens it in the Finder / File Explorer — as long as you have not chosen a different media folder.
• Right-click a slide → Show in Finder / Show in Explorer opens the folder holding that slide’s file, with the file selected. Slides with no file of their own, such as a text slide with nothing behind it or a YouTube slide that streams, do not have this item.
• On Windows you can also type %USERPROFILE%\LayerCue into File Explorer’s address bar.

What is inside

	What it holds
Library	One folder for each library, named after it. Inside, one .pplist file for each presentation, named after the presentation
CueSheets	One .ppcue file for each cue sheet. It lists which presentations come in what order — the presentations themselves stay in Library
Videos · Images · Music	LayerCue’s own copies of your media — see below
music.json	The Music list: its folders, tracks and each track’s settings
index.json	The order of libraries and presentations in the sidebar, plus a summary that lets LayerCue open quickly
Backups	The previous version of each presentation and of the Music list — see Backups
thumbs	Card pictures LayerCue took from the preview for particular slides, for example with Set as thumbnail

Some of these appear only once there is something to put in them.

Rename a library in LayerCue and its folder in Library is renamed with it. Rename a presentation and its .pplist file follows.

LayerCue saves on its own, moments after each change. There is nothing to save by hand.

If you see Playlists instead of Library

Earlier versions called the Library folder Playlists. LayerCue renames it by itself when it starts. If it can’t — on Windows, for instance, when another program has a file in it open — it keeps using Playlists and tries again the next time. LayerCue only ever uses one of the two: Library when it is there.

Media files

LayerCue works from its own copy of each file. When you add a video, a picture or music, it copies the file into the media folder and plays the copy. The original you added it from is not touched, so you can move or delete it without breaking the slide.

Folder	What goes in
Videos	Videos you add, and downloaded YouTube videos (named yt- and the video’s ID)
Images	Pictures you add, pictures pasted from the clipboard (paste-….png), pictures from PowerPoint and PDF imports, and pictures an AI app brings in
Music	Tracks in the Music list, and music slides

• A copy keeps the original’s name. When that name is already taken, LayerCue either asks you or adds a number — see Slides.
• Out of the box the media folder is the LayerCue folder. You can choose another one in Settings › Files & YouTube › Media folder. Then Videos, Images, Music, the Music list and its backup are kept there, and everything else stays in the LayerCue folder.
• A file that sits outside the media folder — one still being copied, or one left behind in an old media folder — plays from where it is. If that is an external disk or a USB stick that comes loose, it stops on stage. Import external files on the same page copies them in. See Settings.

Don’t tidy the media folders by hand

Deleting a presentation leaves its video and picture files where they are. Delete one of those files in the Finder / File Explorer, though, and every slide that used it shows File missing. To remove a slide together with its file, right-click it and choose Delete › Slide and file (to Trash) — see Slides.

Changing things from the Finder / File Explorer

While LayerCue is open it keeps an eye on the library folders inside Library.

What you do	What LayerCue does
Copy a .pplist into a library’s folder	It shows up in that library straight away
Copy a presentation’s file that is already in LayerCue	No second presentation appears — the copy holds the same presentation, so it is not added twice
Delete a .pplist	The presentation disappears from LayerCue too
Rename a .pplist	The presentation keeps its name, and LayerCue gives the file the presentation’s name again
Make a new folder inside Library	It becomes a library the next time LayerCue opens
Copy a .ppcue into CueSheets	It shows up the next time LayerCue opens. It lists presentations, so they have to be in Library too

Rename, move and delete presentations in LayerCue itself. There, a deletion goes to the Trash / Recycle Bin and ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z brings it back. See Libraries and cue sheets.

Don’t edit a file’s contents from outside

If another program changes a presentation file that is already in LayerCue, LayerCue does not pick up the change — you might be editing that very presentation. The next time you change it in LayerCue, LayerCue’s version is written over the file and what you changed outside is gone.

A .pplist that LayerCue can’t read as its own — a damaged one, or one written by a different program — is left alone. It is not shown, not changed and not deleted.

Backups

Each time LayerCue saves a presentation, it first puts the version it is about to replace in Backups, in a folder with the same library name. It does the same for the Music list.

It is one step back, not a history. Because LayerCue saves moments after each change, the backup is the version from just before your latest change. It is a safety net for a file that gets damaged. To go back through your work, use ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z.

If a presentation file is ever damaged — the presentation no longer shows up — put the backup back:

1. Quit LayerCue.
2. Copy the file from Backups into the same library’s folder in Library, replacing the damaged one.
3. Open LayerCue.

Backing up

Quit LayerCue, then copy the whole LayerCue folder to an external disk or somewhere else safe. If you chose a different media folder, copy that one as well.

The day before an event is a good time: open Settings › Files & YouTube first, and if Import external files is lit, press it so that every slide’s file is in the folder you are copying.

Moving to another computer

These steps are for moving between two Macs or between two PCs.

1. On the old computer, open Settings › Files & YouTube. If Import external files is lit, press it, and wait until no card says Copying. When the page says Every file is inside the media folder., you are ready.
2. Quit LayerCue and copy the LayerCue folder — and your other media folder, if you chose one — to an external disk.
3. On the new computer, install LayerCue. If you have opened it already, quit it.
4. Put the folder in the same place: ~/Documents/LayerCue on a Mac, C:\Users\<you>\LayerCue on Windows. If a LayerCue folder is already there, replace it — or move it somewhere else first, if it holds anything you want to keep.
5. Open LayerCue. Your libraries, presentations, cue sheets and Music list are all there. (If you had chosen a different media folder, the Music list comes back after step 6.)
6. If you had chosen a different media folder, choose the copy of it in Settings › Files & YouTube › Media folder › Choose…, then quit LayerCue and open it again.

Videos, pictures and music are found even if the path has changed — say, your user name is different on the new computer. LayerCue looks for each one by its folder (Videos, Images, Music) and its name inside the media folder.

• Downloaded YouTube videos are the exception. If the path has changed, those slides play from YouTube again, which needs the internet. Check them before the event.
• A card that still says File missing had its file outside the media folder. Press Locate file on the card, or right-click it → Locate file, and point it at the file on this computer. See Slides.

Your settings are not in the LayerCue folder, so they do not come along with it. With Keep settings in my account on, most of them follow you when you sign in on the new computer — but not what belongs to each computer, such as the media folder location, the virtual screens and the output monitors. Set the monitors up again in Settings › Stage › Output monitors.

What is kept somewhere else

The card pictures LayerCue makes by itself and a few other things LayerCue can make again, along with its log file, are kept in the system’s own app-data area, not in the LayerCue folder. You don’t need to copy or back them up.

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How libraries and cue sheets work is in Libraries and cue sheets; everything in Settings › Files & YouTube is in Settings.