Back up EQ8 projects and move them to a new computer

What to back up

Back up the whole My EQ8 folder. Electric Quilt says it holds your projects and your add-ons, so one copy of it keeps nearly everything. Two things it doesn’t cover:

• Projects you saved somewhere else, like the Desktop or a USB stick. Copy those separately, or move them into My EQ8 › Projects first.
• The EQ8 program itself. You don’t need to back it up. You install it again from your Electric Quilt account.

Not sure where My EQ8 is? It’s in Documents on Windows and in your Home folder on a Mac: where are my EQ8 files? has the steps.

How to back up

1. Close EQ8, so nothing is half-saved.
2. Find your My EQ8 folder.
3. Copy the whole folder to a USB drive, an external drive or a cloud service.
4. Keep that copy away from your computer: if the computer is lost, the copy isn’t.
5. Do it again after a good stretch of designing.

Moving to a new computer

Electric Quilt’s way is a USB drive and the My EQ8 folder. Install EQ8 on the new computer first, then:

On Windows

1. On the old computer, open File Explorer, go to Documents and copy the My EQ8 folder onto the USB drive.
2. On the new computer, open the My EQ8 folder on the USB drive and copy everything inside it.
3. Go to Documents › My EQ8 on the new computer and paste.

On a Mac

1. On the old Mac, in the Finder, choose Go › Home and copy the My EQ8 folder onto the USB drive.
2. On the new Mac, open the My EQ8 folder on the USB drive and copy everything inside it.
3. In the Finder, choose Go › Home, open My EQ8 and paste.

When the copy finishes, your projects and the libraries you made should appear in EQ8 on the new computer. Electric Quilt says this works whether or not EQ8 is still installed on the old one. Two add-ons don’t move this way: re-download BlockBase+ and Judy Martin Log Cabins on the new computer.

Your EQ8 license on two computers

Electric Quilt’s system requirements say an EQ8 license can be installed any number of times, with two computers active at once, and that activations can be moved. If your new computer is the third, you’ll need to move an activation from one you no longer use: Electric Quilt’s support site explains how.

Moving from a Windows PC to a Mac, or the other way, is different: a license covers one kind of computer. To run EQ8 on the other kind, Electric Quilt sells the EQ8 Migration Kit ($24.95 as of October 2026), which uses the same License ID and password. Your projects themselves open on either kind of computer.

Keeping a copy somewhere EQ8 isn’t

A backup on a drive keeps your files safe. It doesn’t let you look at them on an iPad, a Chromebook or a computer without EQ8. Quarter Inch can: choose your My EQ8 folder with Choose a folder… and every .pj8 and .pj7 project in it opens in your browser, with a report of what came across from each.

• Your originals aren’t changed. We read them, and never write to them.
• Saved to a free account, they’re in your library on every device you sign in on. With Keep a copy of my original files on, you can Download the original any time, and Export everything puts the originals in the download with your quilts.
• Files over 25 MB aren’t brought across yet (“Too large for now”). Nearly every real EQ file we’ve tested is smaller.

Import your whole My EQ8 folder shows each step. It doesn’t replace a backup: keep copying My EQ8 to a drive too.