REAPER Audio Workflows

How to back up and archive a REAPER project so it still opens in a year

By StudioRescue Editorial

Published November 3, 2026

Three different things can stop an old project from working, and each one needs its own protection.

• The audio is not where the project expects. A .rpp file points at audio files. It does not contain them. Imported loops and samples can live anywhere on your computer.
• The plugins have changed. They get updated, dropped, or left behind on an old computer. Mike Levine described this in Mix: a 2011 session he reopened reported missing audio and plug-ins he no longer had, and rebuilding it was not worth the hours.
• The drive dies. Every copy on one drive goes with it, including REAPER’s own backups if they sit in the project folder.

REAPER’s backup settings only touch part of this, so start by being clear about what they do.

Why .rpp-bak files are not an archive

Backup files protect your edits. They do not protect your audio. A .rpp-bak or timestamped copy is another version of the project file, so it still needs the audio files to be somewhere it can find them. That makes it the right tool for a crash, which is covered in how to recover a lost or crashed REAPER project, and the wrong tool for keeping a song for years.

Check the settings anyway. The User Guide says these options are all off on a first install, so do not assume you have them. Look in Options › Preferences › Project › Backups. REAPER can also write auto-saves to an additional directory as well as the project folder. Pointing that at a second drive is a cheap way to keep your latest edits off the disk they were made on.

Step 1: Make one self-contained copy

Do this on a finished song, or at any point you would hate to lose.

If a project is set up well from the start, this step is easier, because recordings already land in one place. See how to set up a new REAPER project before you record.

Step 2: Print the sound, because plugins will not last

This is the step most backups skip, and it is what protects you when a plugin is gone. Audio files play in anything. Do these on the archive copy, not your working project, and in this order, because a frozen track has its FX baked in and could no longer give you a clean export.

Export clean tracks and processed stems first

These two exports do different jobs, and together they cover most future needs.

• Clean tracks. File › Consolidate/Export Tracks makes one audio file per track, without FX or panning, each starting at zero. Set the Output directory to a folder inside your archive. Leave the option to update your project with the new files off, and leave Embed tempo off too, since the guide warns it can make other software stretch the audio.
• Processed stems plus the mix. In File › Render, select your tracks and set the source to Master mix + stems, using the whole project as the bounds. Name the files with the $project and $track wildcards so each file says what it is. Stems include each track’s FX and fader, but Sound on Sound notes they do not capture bus processing, so they will not rebuild the mix perfectly.

Use WAV at your session’s own sample rate. Exporting at a higher rate adds nothing. Then drop the files into a blank project and listen through. MusicTech recommends this check because misaligned or missing files otherwise go unnoticed.

Then freeze tracks that depend on plugins

Right-click a track and open Render/freeze tracks. A frozen track is replaced by a rendered audio item with its online FX applied, and the FX come off the track. The sound is now safe, and Unfreeze can bring the chain back if the plugin still exists. Software instruments matter most here, since MIDI without its synth makes no sound at all. Freezing is covered as a fix for moving between computers in what to do about missing plugins after moving a REAPER project.

Step 3: Leave yourself a notes file

Put a plain text file in the archive folder. In a year you will not remember any of this.

• Song title, final mix file name, and the date.
• Tempo, key, sample rate and bit depth.
• Your REAPER version.
• Every plugin used. The FX page of View › Project Media/FX Bay lists them, and it is the quickest way to get this right.

It is also worth keeping installers for any paid or unusual plugins, and exporting your REAPER setup with Preferences › General › Export configuration, which can include FX chains and project and track templates. Chains built from stock plugins age better, because stock plugins come with REAPER. See the stock plugin vocal chain.

Step 4: Prove the archive works

An archive you have not opened is a guess. The test is quick.

1. Close the project in REAPER.
2. Temporarily rename your original project folder, so the copy cannot lean on it.
3. Open the .rpp from the archive folder and play it through.
4. If an item shows as offline, the copy is not complete. Open the Source Media page of the Project Bay to see what is listed, and fix it with the media offline steps.
5. Rename the original folder back.

The strictest version of this test is opening the archive on a second computer, because that also shows you any plugin the song cannot live without.

Step 5: Keep more than one copy

One archive on one drive is still one failure away from gone. The usual rule is 3-2-1, which the Texas State Library and Archives Commission describes as three complete copies, two on different storage formats, and one off-site, such as in the cloud. For a home musician, that can be the computer, an external drive, and a cloud folder. Scale it to what the song is worth to you. REAPER does not need to be involved, since the User Guide notes the easiest way to back up projects is your normal file manager.

As a personal habit rather than a formal standard, open one old archive about once a year. It is the only way to learn that a drive has failed before you need it.

Cleaning up a bloated project folder

The Save project as copy only brings what the project uses, so your archive does not carry rejected takes you already removed. To tidy the working folder too, File › Clean current project directory lists files in the folder that do not belong to the current project and offers to delete them or send them to the Recycle Bin.

What this will not do

• It will not keep a plugin alive. A frozen track keeps the sound, but you may not be able to change the settings later if the plugin is gone.
• It will not save a song that has already lost its audio. If the files are gone from every drive, nothing here brings them back.
• Stems will not rebuild a perfect mix, because bus processing is not in them. That is why the master mix is archived too.
• It cannot promise any plugin or operating system will behave the same in years to come. It only makes sure you still have the audio if they do not.