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● Knowledge Base · Options

External Settings

Store your settings, licenses, presets, databases, and backups on an external drive — so the same configuration follows you across computers and locations. Lite Edition or higher

External Settings option

Before turning on Use External Settings, you need to Clone first. Once engaged, all settings paths combine into a single path on the external drive (shown below).

External settings combined into a single path

Key features

  • Store settings on removable drives or external storage.
  • Auto-detect external settings when the drive is connected.
  • Safe handling when the drive is disconnected.
  • Easy migration with the Clone tool.

How to use

  1. Open Options → General and find the Use External Settings toggle.
  2. Connect your external drive.
  3. Select a destination drive. System drives and cloud storage are not supported.
  4. Click Clone and wait for the process to complete.
  5. Choose whether to switch to the external settings immediately.

Important notes

  • Switching between local and external settings requires a basehead restart.
  • Settings are stored in a folder named basehead.settings on the external drive.
  • The default Transfers folder is excluded when cloning — it’s independent.
  • If the external drive is disconnected at launch, basehead falls back to local settings automatically.
  • A flag file EXT.settings is written to the local (AppData/Application Data)/.settings folder — that’s what triggers basehead to look for external settings after you Clone.

Safety

  • Cloning to a system drive is blocked — pointless anyway.
  • Cloud storage drives (Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.) are not recommended.
  • External settings integrity is verified before use.

Best practices

  • Use a dedicated external drive rather than a network location.
  • Keep the external drive connected while using basehead.
  • Use Clone periodically as a backup.

This feature can be used even if basehead is not installed — launch from an external drive for a semi-portable setup. (For DAW integrations or basehead Connect, you’ll still need to run the Full Installer.)