Hi!
Where in the folder hierarchy are lyrics stored?
Asking because I am syncing VST Live projects between two Windows 11 computers by using OneDrive. Everything in my projects transfers great between the machines except lyrics. This makes me suspect that lyrics sometimes can be stored somewhere outside of the standard …/Documents/VSTLive/ folder.
“Store assets in project folder” is turned on.
VST Live version 2.2.60.437.
Regards
/Torbjörn
And now!!!
To test how lyrics are transferred, I created several new projects in folders parallel to the folder where I keep my main project. And all lyrics in the main project is replaced. Ie: ALL MY ENTERED LYRICS ARE GONE.
Main project
“D:\OneDrive\Documents\VSTLive\projects\Live set Music Meetup 2025-11-06\Live set Music Meetup 2025-11-06.vlprj”
Test project whose lyrics have replaced the lyrics in all songs in the main project
“D:\OneDrive\Documents\VSTLive\projects\Arkiv\test lyrics 2\Test lyrics 2.vlprj”
I have tried restoring a .bak-project. Same thing there. Seems obvious that there are bonkers file references.
Please immediately let me know how this information is stored so I have a chance of retrieving it!
Lyrics are in the marker folder of the project folder.
Thanks @ArthurNeeman ! That helped me figure it out.
There where 3 folders involved:
I can now avoid it in the future. But
All is in your hands, devs just made the system you are not used to. Something isn’t included in user guide, but I’m sure it will be updated soon.
The importance of project folder starts from very beginning. When you create new project, you specify its folder, then save project in that folder.
If you save project somewhere else or later use Save As and choose another foder, the definition of Project Folder won’t change. You cannot change project folder because all assets are in the initial place.
Use Save Archive to make full and clean duplicate to any other folder you want. It means that only then all assets including lyrics (the marker folder) will be copied together with project file to specified new folder and only then that folder becomes Project Folder for the saved project.
Use Save As only to save subversion of the same project into the same project folder. Of course you can save it wherever you want, but keep in mind that it won’t change Project Folder.
If you still use User Documents folder, I recommend to organize your project more seriously, for example, make the project folder - \Live\2025\November. Perform one, two or more gigs and when you decide to change something cardinally, make a clean duplicate (Save Archive) to similar place \Live\2026\March and you will have safe steps to go back to look how it was or restore some pieces, assets etc. If you change only mixer levels, parameters in plugins, simply archive with ZIP only the project file and name it icluding current datetime. I also do it always before every update. Just for safe.
In short - lyrics are not assets that go to Local Assets Folder (specified in Preferences), but they go to marker folder of Project Folder, which won’t change if you save project anywhere outside of initial Project Folder.
Extended.
If you work on one song without loading main project (I see it from your text) and you have it in \Live\2025\test where you fork on all single songs, then save each in MediaBay using Song->Save Song (with MediaBay switched to Local). This will save song with all assets into songs folder of local assets folder and it will appear in MediaBay if you switch it to Local. Then drag it from MediaBay to main project. It will copy all assets to project folder including lyrics.
See, there are many ways to loose something. But the VST Live is flexible enough to keep everything organized.
Ask more! 
Wow. Thanks for taking the time for an amazing explanation, @ArthurNeeman !
Some comments to the Devs.
But, but, but. @ArthurNeeman 's explanation is not complete/correct.
I created a totally new project in a completely different location. Then did Save archive and edited lyrics in the archive project. This edit updated the marker folder in a completely different location, thus overwriting lyrics in all projects that (inadvertently) point to this different location.
Something like this
In other words:
Save archive does not create an independent copy of the project. Even when using Save archive, projects can overwrite data in other projects.
Sorry for the language but the amount of hours I’ve spent on this makes me write that this is f*%&d up. There is no way I can trust VST Live to save my data consistently.
My workflow of syncing between both computers (laptop (win10) and desktop (win11)).
I shared \Live\ folder on laptop and every time I need to do something on desktop, I simply copy whole project (8GB) to desktop. To sync only changed files, I use FreeFileSync. I use it also for syncing all NI and Steinberg libraries, for Cubase projects, documents and writings. It’s very powefull. Since then I use OneDrive & GoogleDrive very rare.
About manual. Many of us are here for years and are helping each other and asking too much from devs to implement this and that so it’s understandable that the manual is in bad position of priorities, but as I guessed above it may change.
As I wrote, we are here for years. No way we are stupid and trust blindly. Yes, there are some inconveniences and differences comparing to other software we used to. But if you don’t understand something, then you may research on your side and decide are you ready to use this tool.
P.S. I will try to reproduce your issue. Let’s see if the markers are free walking zombies between different projects that don’t have common project folder!
Thanks again. Yes, I also get the feeling that the devs are overwhelmed with feature requests. The scope of this application is huge! Therefore the might feel the need to work so fast that stuff like documentation lags. I’ve done quite a lot of time as a product owner in scrum teams and I recognize the situation.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t change the fact that I’ve spent sooooo much time editing, testing and then losing data. And time to gig decreases. It’s hard for me to be confident and calm in that situation.
Are you sure? Okay, let’s dive in.
The Save Archive don’t work like Save As. With Save As you save current project as new file and that file now is currently opened. With Save Archive you save whole project as an archive and once done you still have the same previously opened project active. It means that if you use Save Archive and then edit lyrics or delete them, you do that on the source project while thinking you do that on the archive you just saved. Perhaps this lack of understanding of how it works has led to the loss of some assets.
Great, the video shows that you really understood my issue!
Now I need to figure out what I did differently (it wasn’t that I kept the original project open, au contraire - I made sure to close VST Live completely between each test/edit). Now I unfortunately need to go on with other things, so more test will have to wait.
Please organize your folders for projects far away from Microsoft understanding of Word documents and Excel sheets. If you need serious result from VST Live, raise your sandbox to higher level. Better to put projects with all assets to another disk (HDD, SSD), not another partition, but another disk.
Nope. Won’t do 
. A file and a folder is a file and a folder regardless of which drive it’s on. A separate drive is not a “higher level”. The problem in this thread is all about the hidden references coded into the app. Storage medium is not the issue.
Mostly, there is no need to have more than one project, except for testing. Workflow is much easier, when you keep all your songs in one project and work with setlists instead. I have this project on an external SSD and use this with 2 different computers directly on the SSD. With that, I never run into any issues, concerning finding assets or other files.
@Torbjorn_Hedberg I’m glad you have all sorted.