---
title: CrossRef
description: "CrossRef takes the fixes you've already made and imported in the database repair, and carries them across to your other worksheets — so you don't end up finding and fixing the same broken path four separate times. ## When to…"
url: "https://vdjtools.com/docs/crossref/"
updated: "2026-10-28"
category: Feature Guide / Repair / Stages
---

# CrossRef

CrossRef takes the fixes you've already made and imported in the database repair, and carries them across to your other worksheets — so you don't end up finding and fixing the same broken path four separate times.

## When to use it

Once you've fixed, validated and **imported** the database, run CrossRef before you start on the next repair — folders, playlists or history. It'll pick up anything that matches and pre-fill it for you.

## What it does

CrossRef looks at the rows on the Database worksheet that the import marked `Imported`, and checks whether the same file path shows up as broken in the repair you're running. Where it finds a match, it fills in the New File Path and sets the row to `CrossRef` — no guessing involved, because it's reusing a fix you've already confirmed works. Run Validate next: it checks each file is still there, and those rows become `Validated`.

## Why it's scoped to one repair at a time

CrossRef runs as a stage of the repair you're working on, rather than as its own standalone command. That's a deliberate choice: running it loosely across every worksheet at once made results unpredictable and could disturb repairs you'd already worked through. Keeping it scoped to "apply what I've imported here, to this specific target" keeps the outcome consistent and easy to reason about.

## Key arguments

- `/repair:<target>` — the repair you're running CrossRef against (`folders`, `playlists` or `history`)
- `/stage:crossref`

The database is never a CrossRef target — it's always the source of the fixes being carried across, not the destination.

## Example command

```
vdjtools /repair:folders /stage:crossref
```

## Typical workflow

Fix, validate and import the database first. Then, for each remaining repair: export, run CrossRef, Autofix or manually update whatever's left, review, validate, import.

## Safety notes

CrossRef only ever fills in the worksheet — nothing reaches VirtualDJ until you import. The rows it fills are marked `CrossRef`: the database import proved the new path once, and Validate confirms the file is still there before anything is imported.

## Common scenario

You've just fixed and imported the database after a drive change. Running CrossRef against folders, playlists and history means most of what's left in those worksheets fills itself in — you're really only left with the genuinely new or unusual cases to handle by hand.

## Related pages

- [Database Repair](https://vdjtools.com/docs/database-repair/)
- [Autofix](https://vdjtools.com/docs/autofix/)
- [Validate](https://vdjtools.com/docs/validate/)