Where your songs are

Every song in Stab is a file, saved as you go: there’s no Save to remember and no “save changes?” when you close. This page says where those files live on each platform and how to manage them from the home.

Your songs

Available on every platform.

Where they are

On the Mac, songs are in a library folder, Documents › Stab at first. You can move it: see The library folder. The home says where, under the Stab name at its top.

On Windows, songs are in a library folder, Documents\Stab at first. You can move it: see The library folder.

On the web, your songs are your Stab Cloud songs: sign in on the home to see them and edit them, and they save to Stab Cloud as you go. A demo or a file you open without an account is there to try; Keep It puts it in Stab Cloud, and otherwise it goes when you leave it.

Songs you keep in Stab Cloud are on the home’s Stab Cloud shelf, and on every device you sign in on. See Songs in the cloud.

Download All copies every song you keep in Stab Cloud to this device as songs of your own into one .zip file. See Download All.

Each song saves itself a moment after you stop editing, and when you close it or leave the app. See Autosave.

Opening songs

Select a song’s card on the home to open it. More › on a shelf shows every song on it.

A Guitar Pro, MIDI, MusicXML or PDF file chosen with Open… (⌘O)Open… (Ctrl+O)Import… or dropped on the home becomes a new song in your library; the file you opened isn’t changed. Several files chosen or dropped together open each in a window of its own; pictures chosen together make one song.

A Guitar Pro, MIDI, MusicXML, iReal Pro or PDF file chosen with Open… (⌘O)Open… (Ctrl+O)Import… or dropped on the home becomes a new song in your library; the file you opened isn’t changed. Several files chosen or dropped together each become a song in your library, and the window shows the last; pictures chosen together make one song.

Import a File, under Bring a Song In on the home, brings in a Stab song or a Guitar Pro, MIDI, MusicXML or PDF file as a new song. What you import is copied in; the original isn’t changed.

Several files dropped or chosen together open one at a time: the next one opens when you leave the song before it.

A song file from outside your songs opens read only, as a demo does: it isn’t one of your songs yet, so it plays, prints and exports, and nothing is written. That’s a file opened from the Finder or dropped on a song’s window, and a Stab song outside your library opened with Open… (⌘O)Open… (Ctrl+O)Import…a file opened from File Explorer or dropped on a song, and a Stab song outside your library opened with Open… (⌘O)Open… (Ctrl+O)Import…. A strip at the top of the song says so, and its Keep in My Songs (or Save (⌘S)Save (Ctrl+S)Save (not on Web)) adds the song to your songs, to edit and practise. With three songs of your own already (and no licence or Stab Cloud), Keep isn’t offered: see Free songs.

Without a licence or Stab Cloud, a new song, an import, a duplicate and a kept song each count as one of your three free songs; with three, Stab shows what unlocking adds instead of adding one (see Free songs).

A song renamed or moved in the Finder while it’s open is followed: it keeps saving to its new place.

Command	Keys	Where
Open…	`⌘O`	the File menu; the home › Import…
Open Recent		the File menu

Not on Mac: Open in New Window.

Command	Keys	Where
Open…	`Ctrl+O`	the File menu; the home › Import…

Not on Windows: Open Recent, Open in New Window.

Command	Keys	Where
Import…		the home

Not on Web: Open Recent, Open in New Window.

Renaming, duplicating and deleting songs

Available on every platform.

A song’s card on the home has a menu: right-click it, or press and hold on a touch screen.

Rename… changes the song’s name, which is also its file’s name.
Duplicate makes a copy beside it. The copy keeps the original’s date, as a copy made in the Finder or Explorer does, so Continue stays on the song you worked on. The copy is another song of your own: without a licence or Stab Cloud it counts as one of your three free songs, so at three Duplicate shows what unlocking Stab adds instead (see Free songs). Duplicate isn’t on the web yet.
Show in Finder shows the song’s file in its folder. Show in File Explorer shows the song’s file in its folder. On the Mac and Windows, the menu also shows the song’s file in its folder.
Move to Trash moves the file to the Trash, where you can still get it back. Move to Trash removes it at once, and a note in the corner offers Undo for a few seconds; when Stab quits, the file goes to the Recycle Bin, where you can still get it back. Move to Trash on a cloud song moves it to Stab Cloud’s Recently Deleted at once, and a note offers Undo for a few seconds.

From an open song, the File menu has Rename…, Duplicate and Show in FinderShow in File ExplorerShow in Finder (not on Web) too.

A song in Stab Cloud has its own menu, with Share…, Version History… and others; deleting one moves it to Stab Cloud’s Trash. See Songs in the cloud.

Command	Keys	Where
Rename…		the File menu; the home › song
Duplicate	`⇧⌘S`	the File menu
Move to Trash		the home › song
Show in Finder	`⇧⌘R`	the File menu; the home › song

Command	Keys	Where
Rename…		the File menu; the home › song
Duplicate	`Ctrl+Shift+S`	the File menu; the home › song
Move to Trash		the home › song
Show in File Explorer	`Ctrl+Shift+R`	the File menu; the home › song

Command	Keys	Where
Rename…		the home › song ⋯
Move to Trash		the home › song ⋯

Not on Web: Duplicate, Show in Finder.

Recently Deleted

Not available yet. Not on Mac, Windows and Web.

This isn’t on Mac.

This isn’t on Windows.

This isn’t on Web.

On the Mac, a deleted song goes to the Trash at once: open the Trash in the Dock and choose Put Back to get it back. Back in your library, it counts as one of your songs again (see Free songs).

On Windows, a deleted song goes to the Recycle Bin: open it on the desktop and choose Restore to get it back. Back in your library, it counts as one of your songs again (see Free songs).

On the web your songs are in Stab Cloud: a deleted one goes to Stab Cloud’s Trash, on the Stab Cloud page.

Not on Mac: Recently Deleted.

Not on Windows: Recently Deleted.

Not on Web: Recently Deleted.

The library folder

Available on Mac and Windows. Not on Web.

This isn’t on Web.

On the Mac and Windows, the library is an ordinary folder: you can back it up, keep it in a synced folder, or point Stab at another one.

Open Settings and choose Library.
Under Songs are saved in, select Choose… and pick a folder.

Use Documents › Stab goes back to the first folder, and Show in Finder opens the one in use.

Choose Library Folder…Library Folder… (not on Web) in Settings—.
Pick a folder in Choose the Library Folder.

When Stab can’t open the folder

The first time Stab opens, macOS asks whether it may use your Documents folder. If that was declined, the home shows a card instead of your songs, “Stab can’t open its songs folder”, with two buttons:

Open Privacy Settings opens Privacy & Security › Files & Folders, where you turn on Documents for Stab.
Choose Another Folder… keeps your songs somewhere else.

If the folder is on a drive that isn’t connected, the card says “Stab can’t find its songs folder” and offers Try Again instead. Stab tries again each time you come back to it. Until the folder can be used, Stab doesn’t create new songs or import files, and says why, so nothing you write is left unsaved.

Changing the folder doesn’t move the songs already in the old one: the home shows the songs in the new folder. Move the files yourself if you want them all in one place. Songs open elsewhere keep saving where they are.

The iPad, iPhone and Android keep songs inside the app, and the web keeps them in Stab Cloud, so there’s no folder to choose.