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Transfer a MAXQDA Project to Other Team Members

  • In this form of collaborative teamwork, the entire study is transferred as a MAXQDA project from one computer to another, ensuring that all team members are always working from the same database. Two people can never simultaneously code different documents of the study or create memos on different computers. However, all evaluation work in which no new codings are made, no new memos are written and no variable values are changed, are of course possible without any problems simultaneously.
  • The transfer of MAXQDA projects is very easy: MAXQDA saves all aspects of the project in a MX20 file. If you name a project “Interview Study” it will be saved on your computer as “Interview Study.mx20.”
The project file contains all …The project file does not contain …
  • Documents
  • Codes
  • Memos
  • Variables
  • Coded segments
  • Summaries
  • Internal links
  • Text links
  • External links
  • Diagrams made in MAXMaps
  • Similarity and Distance matrices
  • The MAXDictio dictionary
  • External documents (e.g. PDF files, images, audio and video files)
  • Externally saved geographical references (KML files)
  • Saved search formulas (SEA­ files­ = search­­ files)
  • Saved selections for logical activations and other  mixed methods functions (LOA files = LOgical Activation files)
  • Saved Code Systems in MTR format

The project file can be transferred to other team members in the form of a single file. It can also be sent by email. It can also be saved in the shared folder of a cloud system, such as Dropbox or Onedrive.

If the MX20 project file is opened on any other computer where MAXQDA 2020 is installed, the entire project appears with all its components.

If you want to set up the project, so that various members of the team can work on it at the same time, it is recommended that you start by importing all documents into a MAXQDA project on one computer, and then sending a copy of that file to everyone in the team. This saves you the work of importing the files on each individual’s computer and guarantees that everyone will have the exact same data set.

Sharing projects that include external files

If you have assigned audio or video files to documents in your project, or if image or PDF documents were not imported into the project, they are stored in the MAXQDA folder for external files (you can customize this folder in MAXQDA's preferences via the gear symbol at the top right edge of the window).

How to exchange all files of a project between teammates including the externally stored files is described in detail in the section External Files on the subheading "How to transfer external files from one computer to another?".

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