Preferences
What each setting in Preferences does, and whether it belongs to your computer or the project.
Open Preferences with Ctrl+,, Preferences at the bottom of the sidebar, or File › Preferences… (on a Mac: Kinetra › Preferences…). Preferences open in their own window. Changes apply at once; there’s no Save button.
Some settings belong to this computer and apply to every project. Others are saved with the project and travel with it. Project settings need an open project; without one, they say Open a project to change its settings.
General
Section titled “General”| Setting | Saved | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Mode | Computer | Simple hides Flows, template code, MIDI, OSC and API sources. Advanced shows everything. New installs start in Simple. Hidden features keep working. |
| Default screen resolution | Project | The size new screens start with: 1920 × 1080 (default), 1280 × 720, 3840 × 2160, 1080 × 1920 vertical or Custom (16–8192 px). |
Appearance
Section titled “Appearance”| Setting | Saved | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Theme | Computer | System (default), Light or Dark. |
| Zoom | Computer | The size of Kinetra’s interface, 50–200 %. Actual size goes back to 100 %. |
| Style & brand | Project | The project’s Style, brand colors (Accent, Secondary, Text, Plate), Heading font, Body font and Logo. See Templates and styles. |
Outputs
Section titled “Outputs”Display outputs: show a screen fullscreen on a connected display. Saved for this computer. See Outputs.
- Displays: a map of your displays, with Identify displays.
- Outputs: Add output (up to 8), then for each: Display, Screen, Mode (Fill or Key), Key for, Background (Black, Green or Color), Sound and audio device, Always on top, and Test pattern.
Network & API
Section titled “Network & API”Server (project)
Section titled “Server (project)”| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Port | The port of the screen URLs, 1024–65535. Default 7770. |
| Allow access from other devices on the network | Lets other computers open the screen URLs and send OSC (from Allowed computers). Off by default. |
| Status | Whether the output server is running, and its address. |
| On your network | The address other computers use, when network access is on. |
In Advanced mode, the OSC settings follow: OSC control, OSC port (default 9000), OSC status, Allowed computers, Send on-air status to and Addresses. See MIDI and OSC.
MIDI & OSC (Advanced mode)
Section titled “MIDI & OSC (Advanced mode)”- Devices (this computer): your MIDI controllers, their LED feedback and color profile, and Test lights.
- Mappings (project): what each pad, key or fader does, with Learn.
See MIDI and OSC. On a Mac, this section only says MIDI: not available on macOS yet, with a What works on macOS link: see Kinetra on macOS.
License
Section titled “License”Your plan, license status, account and computers. See Accounts and plans.
- License: Plan, Status, Valid until, Offline, Last check with Check now, and License key with Add key (signed out: Sign in and add key).
- Account: who you’re signed in as, Manage account, Sign in or Sign out.
- Computers: this computer and your others, with Deactivate.
Shortcuts
Section titled “Shortcuts”Every command with its keys. Search, add keys with Add key, remove them, or Reset. See Keyboard shortcuts.
Advanced
Section titled “Advanced”Project location (project)
Section titled “Project location (project)”- Folder: where the project is, with Show in Explorer (Finder on a Mac).
- Move project…: copies the whole project, media included, to a new empty folder and opens it from there. You can tick Delete the original folder after a successful copy; the original is only deleted after the copy is checked.
Backups
Section titled “Backups”Kinetra keeps snapshots of each project in a hidden .backups folder inside it. Snapshots cover everything except media files.
| Setting | Saved | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic backups | Computer | On |
| Interval | Computer | Every 15 minutes (1–240), only when something changed |
| Keep | Computer | The last 10 snapshots (1–100) |
Kinetra also takes a snapshot when you open a project, and before an import, a move, a restore or a reset. Click Create snapshot now for an extra one.
Each snapshot has Restore and Delete. Restoring takes a snapshot of the current state first, so you can go back.
Settings file
Section titled “Settings file”- Export settings… saves your preferences and, with a project open, its settings, Control layout and MIDI mappings to a file (
kinetra-settings.json). API keys and secrets are never included. - Import settings… shows what would change. Tick Preferences, Project settings, Control & layout and/or MIDI mappings, then click Apply. A backup is taken first.
Use it to set up a second computer the same way. Templates, screens and sources are not in the settings file: they’re in the project folder.
| Button | Resets |
|---|---|
| Reset appearance | Theme back to System, zoom to 100 %. |
| Reset control layout | This project’s Control view and layer hotkeys. |
| Reset all preferences | All preferences on this computer (except Simple/Advanced mode), and this project’s layout. |
| Reset everything | All preferences, recent projects, and the open project’s settings. Closes the project. Project files stay on disk. |
Every reset asks first, and takes a backup where it touches a project.
- Version, Channel (Stable or Canary) and Commit: include these in a bug report.
- Updates: Check for updates. See Install.
- Links to the website, the documentation (docs.kinetra.live) and the Discord community.
- Config folder and Log folder, with Open log folder.
- Third-party licenses.