Clips suddenly referencing wrong audio

[Tim R.]

ADMIN EDIT:
This is fixed in v2020.3.
avid.force.com/pkb/articles/readme/Pro-Tools-2020-3-Release-Notes
avid.force.com/pkb/articles/Error_Message/Clips-linked-to-incorrect-audio

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I'm editing in a sumation of this thread's discussion at the beginning for those who might not stick through it to the end. It appears to be a particularly heinous bug that a number of users have now experienced:
1. Create session in 19.12 (from template or not)
2. Import session data from another session that had last been saved in a PREVIOUS version of PTs
3. Work happily for as long as the session stays open
4. Close session/reopen session
5. Get warning "Some clips had invalid bounds and were adjusted or deleted"
6. Now many clips in the imported tracks refer to the incorrect audio files, or have just been deleted.

There is NO way to recover the tracks that have corrupted. You can't "save copy in" (this crashed PTs every time in my case). You CAN import remaining tracks (that weren't imported in step 2) into a fresh session to salvage THAT work.

To AVOID the issue (I think), is to open all sessions in current version and "save as" before you try and import session data between them.

Bellow is my original first post:

I was working on a session. Closed and opened a different session. When I returned to the first session I got a warning dialogue "Some clips had invalid bounds and were adjusted or deleted". Now a number of clips in the session (that were imported from a different session originally BTW) are playing the wrong audio, or have been deleted. All indications in the clip list and clip info say it is the right audio, but they are pointing to the wrong files. Dug into the session backups and all appear to be corrupted as well. Anyone else experience this?

[Tim R.]

Happened again in new version of the same session. Doing more testing now.
UPDATE 1: "Save Copy In.." command crashes Pro tools every time. Trying to import tracks to new session now.
UPDATE 2: Imported into new session and appears to have resolved the issue for now.
I've attached a pic of the clips list to show what it is displaying.

[Tim R.]

Bump. Anyone know of a way to re-point a clip to the correct file?

[Ale]

You could try:
Put the wrong referenced files into a separate folder.
Protools does not find them anymore on session load.
Do relink manually. Let pt search by id or name in the folder where the right files are (and only in this folder). When pt found the file then relink it. You can also try to put the correct files into a new folder before relinking.

The problem is that protools if you saved over the session has maybe also the wrong file Id saved so relinking would only work when you search by name.

Ale

[SFXgeek]

Just had this happen too and it is very troubling, just updated recently to 2019.12 and now having tons of import audio issues.
This one was a session in our edit room which i had just opened multiple times in the edit room, then imported the session data into our mix room and on import gave the message about " invalid bounds etc.." same message as this user is reporting and it replaced a bunch of audio within the session. Did not save, went back into the edit room and now the edit room session is giving the same message and we now have lost a lot of work that is due to be mixed tomorrow!!

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by SFXgeek

Just had this happen too and it is very troubling, just updated recently to 2019.12 and now having tons of import audio issues.
This one was a session in our edit room which i had just opened multiple times in the edit room, then imported the session data into our mix room and on import gave the message about " invalid bounds etc.." same message as this user is reporting and it replaced a bunch of audio within the session. Did not save, went back into the edit room and now the edit room session is giving the same message and we now have lost a lot of work that is due to be mixed tomorrow!!

Ugh. Was hoping this was an isolated issue. I had thought perhaps it might be related to naming a track with a "/" in the name, which I thought was a no no (and the app prohibitted), but it allowed me to do it this time. I'm bouncing stems (DX/MX etc) to be safe, and now may bounce back to my previous version (12.4 I think it is) since someone else is experiencing same problem.

[gwhatley]

I am curious: when you (anyone in this thread) receive a session to import, do you

(a) import it directly into your session without opening it first; or

(b) separately open it first in your version, and save it as a ".2", and THEN import that newly-saved version into your master session?

(c) go a step further and take the received session you are to import and "Save Copy In...", creating an entirely new session and new audio files prior to importing.

I typically do "(b)" and have not had this issue - but the one time I did NOT - and imported a 2019.10 session into a 2019.12 - two files were referencing the wrong source files.

I'm wondering if one particular method makes a difference.

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

[SFXgeek]

We have always done “a” with zero problems. 1000s of sessions.

[gwhatley]

And that is definitely how it SHOULD work!

It could be this simple extra step may be helpful for the near term - and I'm curious if it makes a difference for anyone else.

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

[MikeReganNoise]

I am in the same boat as SFX Geek. I've used (a) in almost every situation for years without any issues. The issue I've experienced is slightly different but some of the symptoms are the same.

That said, I have taken steps to avoid this situation, namely a clean session template, separate from the one I've had trouble with. Containment seems like a good solution, but I would love more help from Avid. I've started a new ticket with them and will also refer them to this thread. These clip bin bugs are catastrophic and potentially damaging to client relationships and businesses in a way that I've not encountered before with Pro Tools bugs. There is no fast solution to recovering the work, it's literally gone and it happens without warning.

In terms of protecting sessions that have already been worked on, I have been "saving as" and time stamping each .ptx file with a date/time at regular intervals. Then, I .zip the .ptx files as an extra measure. No idea if this would help, but I'm hoping it saves me when I find that he session file back ups become corrupted at the same time and with no warning.