Moving your church from ProPresenter to NaveLight
NaveLight finds your ProPresenter library and brings it across in one step — songs, slide decks and media, with nothing to export by hand. From ProPresenter 4, 5 and 6 your arrangements survive the move: a song arrives labelled Verse 1 and Chorus rather than as a stack of unnamed slides, which is more than we can recover from an EasyWorship library. What doesn't come across is your slide design, because the two products build a screen in fundamentally different ways. What you get in return is scripture detection that runs during the sermon, software that works with the network unplugged, and a licence that covers every computer in the building instead of one seat.
What comes across
- Songs, with their arrangements
- From ProPresenter 4, 5 and 6: lyrics, the CCLI title, author and number, and the real section labels — so a song arrives as Verse 1 and Chorus rather than a stack of unnamed slides.
- Slide decks and announcements
- Documents that aren't songs come across as cues in their own scene, so the announcement deck you already built is there rather than needing rebuilding.
- Your media
- Backgrounds and video are brought in or referenced where they already sit, the same as the EasyWorship path. Nothing in your ProPresenter library is written to.
- Pasted lyrics, including SongSelect
- For anything that won't come across cleanly, pasting works. NaveLight detects verse and chorus structure, and a SongSelect paste keeps the CCLI details attached.
What doesn't
- CCLI details from ProPresenter 7 files
- The .pro format is Protocol Buffers and RenewedVision publishes no specification for it, so NaveLight reads those files by inspecting them rather than guessing at a spec. The lyrics come across; the CCLI title, author and number don't, and section labels sometimes don't either. Exporting those songs as .pro6 first gets you everything — worth it for a library you care about, skippable for one you don't.
- Slide designs and templates
- ProPresenter slides carry their own layout and styling. NaveLight builds screens as a layer stack instead, so you rebuild the look once as a theme and everything inherits it.
- Broadcast and streaming output
- ProPresenter's NDI and streaming output ships today. NaveLight's is part-built and not in the current release. If your production depends on it, this migration isn't ready for you yet.
We would rather you know this before you start than find out during a service.
Step by step
How to do it
- STEP 01
Install NaveLight alongside ProPresenter
Nothing is shared, nothing is overwritten. ProPresenter carries on working exactly as it does now, and it should keep running your services until you're ready.
- STEP 02
Let it find your library
NaveLight looks for an existing ProPresenter library and offers to bring it across. Anything already imported is skipped, so it's safe to run again if you're unsure it finished.
- STEP 03
Only if you're on ProPresenter 7: export the songs that matter
The .pro format gives up its lyrics but not its CCLI details or section labels. If a few dozen songs need those, export them as .pro6 from ProPresenter and import again — the rest can come across as they are.
- STEP 04
Rebuild your look as a theme
Set the fonts, the background treatment, how scripture references appear, and how the stage screen is laid out. Save it once and every song and passage picks it up.
- STEP 05
Test it at a midweek rehearsal, twice
Not on a Sunday, and not once. Run a full service on the real screens with the person who normally operates. ProPresenter has years of edge cases worked out of it and we don't yet — the rehearsal is where you find ours.
If you run a large multi-campus production with broadcast integrations, be honest with yourself about whether now is the moment. NaveLight is better on scripture, offline reliability and licensing; ProPresenter is more mature and its streaming output ships today. There's no shame in waiting for a release or two.
Straight answers
Switching from ProPresenter
Can NaveLight open ProPresenter files?
Yes, from both ProPresenter eras. Documents from ProPresenter 4, 5 and 6 come across in full — lyrics, CCLI title, author and number, and the real section labels, so a song arrives with its arrangement intact. ProPresenter 7 .pro files come across as text only, because RenewedVision publishes no format specification and NaveLight reads them by inspection rather than by guessing at a spec. Nothing in your ProPresenter library is written to.
Do I have to export my ProPresenter library first?
No. NaveLight looks for an existing ProPresenter library during setup and offers to bring it across, the same way it does for EasyWorship. Exporting to .pro6 by hand is only worth it if your library is ProPresenter 7 and you want the CCLI details and section labels that the .pro format cannot give up.
Will my ProPresenter slide designs come across?
No. Lyrics, titles and structure import; visual design does not. ProPresenter slides carry their own layout and styling, and NaveLight builds screens as a layer stack instead. You rebuild the look once as a theme, then everything inherits it.
Is NaveLight a full replacement for ProPresenter?
For most churches running lyrics, scripture, media and multi-screen output, yes — and it adds live scripture detection and Linux support. But ProPresenter ships broadcast and streaming output today and NaveLight's NDI and RTMP support is part-built and not in the current release. If your production depends on those, wait for us.
Still have a question?
Ask us anything, including the awkward ones. A real person answers, and if NaveLight isn't right for your church we'll say so.
Ready to put every word on cue?
Get on the list for early access. Or bring your media team along and we'll walk you through it properly.
No card, no account, no follow-up sequence. One email, when it's ready.