Where your files are - Shadow Rack Docs

Where Shadow Rack keeps your sessions and settings, what's safe to delete, and how to move everything to another Mac.

Shadow Rack keeps your work in two places: your sessions and presets in Documents, everything else in its own folder in your user Library.

To open a folder in the Finder: Go > Go to Folder... (⌘⇧G) and paste the path. The Session menu on the top bar has Show sessions folder, and the chain preset menus end with Show the presets folder.

Your sessions and presets#

~/Documents/Shadow Rack/

What	File
Sessions	`*.shadowrack` – double-click one in the Finder to open it in Shadow Rack
Chain presets	`Chain Presets/*.shadowchain`

A session holds every channel, its plugins with all their settings, routing, New York sends, sidechains and the tempo. With Rack IEM it also holds the in-ear mixes (when there's at least one musician or source). Not in a session: the interface, My plugins, knob maps, the tablet setup – those belong to this Mac.

Shadow Rack's own folder#

~/Library/Application Support/Shadow Rack/

What	File or folder
Settings: the interface, view and layer, My plugins and which files have been checked, favourites, recent sessions, plugins switched off after a crash, MIDI controller mappings, tablet and WING settings	`Shadow Rack.settings`
The rack as it is right now, written 1.5 s after every change and every 30 s; opened again at the next start	`Autosave.shadowrack`
Your ready-made New York	`Parallel Presets/New York compression.shadowparallel`
Knob maps – what you programmed with LEARN on the knob strip, one per plugin	`Wing knobs.xml`
Pictures of plugin windows, for the chain and the mixer	`Thumbnails/`
The licence of this Mac and the module switches	`Licence/`
Crash notes, the newest 30	`Crashes/`
Logs for troubleshooting	`Logs/`
The in-ear engine's scene and log	`IEM/`

There are also a few small marker files (Running.txt, LastCrash.txt, Loading.txt, Restarts.txt and others). Thanks to them, Shadow Rack knows at the next start that the last run ended in a crash and which plugin caused it. Leave them alone.

The in-ear engine's folder since 0.4#

~/Library/Application Support/Shadow Rack/IEM/ belongs to the in-ear engine, which runs on its own and keeps playing after Shadow Rack quits.

Scene.json – every musician, source, place, level, output and phone link, saved a second after each change. That's why the in-ears come back exactly as they were after a crash or a reboot.
Engine.log (and Engine.old.log) – when the engine started, stopped or was brought back.

Don't edit or delete these while the engine runs. Your in-ear mixes are safe in your sessions too.

Crash reports and logs#

When Shadow Rack goes down, the next start writes a note to Crashes/ named like Crash 2026-10-05 21-14-03.txt: when it happened, which plugin was running or being opened, and which one Shadow Rack found to be the cause. A force quit, a power cut or macOS ending the app is noted too, as no report.

Logs/ holds plugin-size.log (plugin windows changing size) and wing-control.log (the WING's Custom Controls).

When you write to us about a crash, send the newest note from Crashes/ with the report from Setup > About > Copy (About).

What you can delete#

Quit Shadow Rack first.

Safe to delete	What happens
`Thumbnails/`	Plugin pictures are taken again as plugins are used.
`Logs/`	New logs start.
`Crashes/`	Old notes are gone – keep the newest if you're in touch with us about it.
Old sessions and chain presets	Nothing else uses them.

Think twice	Why
`Shadow Rack.settings`	Back to a fresh start: My plugins empty, the interface to pick again, MIDI controller mappings and favourites gone – and plugins switched off after a crash are switched on again.
`Autosave.shadowrack`	The rack as it was at quit is gone; the next start opens your last saved session.
`Licence/`	Deleting it does not free this Mac's place. Use Setup > Licence > Deactivate this Mac (Licence).
`IEM/`	Belongs to the running in-ear engine.

Backing up#

Time Machine covers both folders. By hand, copy:

~/Documents/Shadow Rack/ – sessions and chain presets;
from ~/Library/Application Support/Shadow Rack/: Parallel Presets/, Wing knobs.xml and Shadow Rack.settings.

Moving to another Mac#

On the old Mac: Setup > Licence > Deactivate this Mac. (No longer have it? Deactivate it from My account at shadowrack.eu.)
On the new Mac, install Shadow Rack and the same plugins, with their own licences.
Copy ~/Documents/Shadow Rack/ across, and from the data folder Parallel Presets/ and Wing knobs.xml.
Start Shadow Rack, activate this Mac (activation), pick the interface and your plugins.
Open a session. A plugin that isn't there shows MISSING and keeps all its settings – install it, then right-click it > Try loading again.

You can copy Shadow Rack.settings as well, with Shadow Rack quit on the new Mac. It brings My plugins, favourites and MIDI controller mappings – and also the old Mac's interface choice, which you then simply pick again in Setup > Audio. Never copy Licence/: a licence is bound to the Mac it was activated on.