Switching computers should be exciting, not stressful. But if you've spent hours fine-tuning edits in CapCut, the big question is obvious: will all that work survive the move? The good news is that you can absolutely transfer CapCut projects to a new PC and pick up exactly where you left off, as long as you bring the right files along.

The catch most people miss is that a CapCut project isn't one neat file. It's a draft folder full of edit data plus the original video clips, photos, and audio you dropped onto the timeline. Move the draft but forget the media, and you'll open a project full of gray "missing" boxes. This guide walks you through the whole thing: where CapCut keeps your drafts, how to back them up, what cloud sync does and doesn't cover, and how to copy everything cleanly to your new machine.

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Quick answer
  • CapCut drafts on Windows live in a local folder under your user profile, usually inside the CapCut app data directory, not in the cloud by default.
  • To transfer CapCut projects to a new PC, copy the draft folders and the original media files together, then install CapCut on the new machine.
  • If you skip the source clips, photos, and music, your timeline will load with missing or offline media even though the edit itself moved fine.

How CapCut stores your projects (and why it matters)

Before you copy anything, it helps to understand what you're actually moving. On the desktop app, every project you create is saved as a draft. Each draft is its own folder containing the timeline data, edit settings, effects, and references that point to your source media.

Here's the important part: those references are pointers, not copies. When you import a video into CapCut, the app doesn't bundle a fresh copy of that file into the project. It remembers where the original lives on your drive. That keeps drafts small and snappy, but it also means a project is only complete when both the draft folder and the original media files are present.

The mental model: a CapCut draft is the recipe. Your video clips, images, and music are the ingredients. You need both, or the recipe makes nothing.

If you're coming from the phone app and expect everything to live neatly in one cloud account, the desktop experience works a little differently. We cover those differences in Is CapCut on Windows the Same as the Mobile App? It's worth a quick read if you split your editing between devices.

Where to find CapCut project files on Windows

The first real step in any move is locating the draft folder. The CapCut project files location on Windows sits inside your user profile, in the app's data directory. The exact path can shift slightly between versions, but you'll typically find drafts under a folder like this:

  • C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\CapCut\User Data\Projects

Inside that Projects area you'll see subfolders with long string or number names. Each one is a single draft. They don't always show a friendly project title in the folder name, so the easiest way to match a folder to a project is by sorting by date modified and lining it up with when you last worked on that edit.

Quick way to get there: press Win + R, type %localappdata%\CapCut, and hit Enter. That drops you straight into CapCut's local data so you don't have to hunt through hidden folders.

AppData is hidden by default. If you don't see it in File Explorer, click the View menu, open Show, and turn on Hidden items. Once you can see the Projects folder, you're ready to back it up.

Step 1: Back up your CapCut projects

Never move the only copy of anything. Before you touch the new PC, make a backup of your CapCut projects so you have a safety net if a transfer goes sideways.

  1. Close CapCut completely so no files are locked or mid-save.
  2. Open the CapCut data folder using the %localappdata%\CapCut shortcut above.
  3. Find the Projects (drafts) folder and copy the entire thing.
  4. Paste that copy onto an external drive, a USB stick, or a cloud storage folder like OneDrive or Google Drive.

If you have the room, copy the whole CapCut User Data folder rather than just Projects. It's a little larger, but it keeps related settings together and reduces the chance of leaving something behind.

Don't forget the media. Your drafts point to wherever your clips and audio actually live, which is often a separate Videos, Downloads, or Footage folder. Back those up in the same pass. A perfect draft with no source files is just an empty timeline.

Step 2: Install CapCut on the new computer

With your backup safely in hand, set up the editor on the new machine. Always grab it from the official source, capcut.com, so you get a clean, current, genuinely free build. Skip any third-party "mirror" or torrent site, since those are where malware and broken installers hide.

Download the installer, run it, and follow the prompts. The desktop app is free to install and use for editing. If you want a careful walkthrough first, our step-by-step Windows 11 download guide covers the whole setup, and the complete free download guide answers the common "is this really free" questions.

Launch it once before importing. Open CapCut and let it finish first-run setup, then close it. That creates the User Data and Projects folders on the new PC, giving your backed-up drafts a proper place to land.

Step 3: Copy your drafts and media into place

Now you bring the work over. Connect your backup drive or open the cloud folder where you saved everything, then move the files onto the new computer.

  1. First, copy your media files (the original clips, photos, and music) to the new PC. Try to use the same general folder layout you had before, for example a Videos or Footage folder, since that makes relinking far smoother.
  2. Open the new CapCut data folder with %localappdata%\CapCut.
  3. Paste your backed-up draft folders into the Projects folder on the new machine.
  4. Launch CapCut. Your projects should now appear on the home screen alongside any new ones.

Open a project and scrub through the timeline. If everything plays, you're done. If you see missing-media warnings, it almost always means CapCut can't find a source file at the old path. Right-click the offline clip and point it to the file in its new location, and the link is restored.

Keep the folder structure identical when you can. If your clips lived in D:\Videos\Project1 on the old PC and you recreate D:\Videos\Project1 on the new one, many projects relink automatically with zero manual fixing.

Does cloud sync move projects for you?

People often hope signing into the same account on the new PC will pull every draft down automatically, the way photos sync on a phone. It's not quite that simple on desktop.

CapCut does offer cloud features tied to your account, and you can manually upload drafts or assets to the cloud and pull them onto another device. That's genuinely useful for grabbing one project on the go. But the desktop app doesn't treat the cloud as an automatic, hands-off backup of every local draft, and free cloud storage is limited. Large 4K projects with gigabytes of footage usually won't fit or sync cleanly.

So treat cloud sync as a handy bonus, not your migration plan. For a full, reliable move of CapCut to a new computer, copying the draft folders and media yourself is the dependable method. Sign in on the new PC for your account and any cloud items, then bring the heavy local files over manually.

Rule of thumb: the cloud is great for one or two projects. A whole library of edits belongs on a drive you copy by hand.

Troubleshooting a move that didn't go smoothly

Most transfers just work, but a few hiccups are common. Here's how to handle them.

  • Projects don't show up at all. Make sure you launched CapCut once first, then pasted drafts into the correct Projects folder. Fully close and reopen the app so it rescans the folder.
  • Clips show as missing or offline. The draft moved but the media didn't, or it landed in a different path. Copy the source files over and relink any offline clip by right-clicking and choosing its new location.
  • A project opens but looks wrong. Confirm both PCs are running an up-to-date CapCut from capcut.com. A very old version reading a newer draft can behave oddly.
  • Fonts or effects look different. Some downloaded fonts and assets are stored separately. Reinstall or re-download those on the new machine if a title looks off.

If a draft refuses to open, don't delete it. Go back to your backup, recopy that single project folder, and try again. Because you made a backup in Step 1, a failed copy is an annoyance, not a disaster.