-39 error when copying session

[Breck]

I'm hoping someone has had this problem and solved it! I have an independent film we're posting. It came to us in bits and pieces, and my PT session has grown to an unmanageable size.

We've done enough consolidation of tracks to get the session down to a more normal size, and my plan was to copy the session over to a clean drive in order to continue.

When I start "Save Session Copy in..." and tell PT to copy audio files and fades, the process starts fine. When I come back to this machine to check progress, PT has thrown a -39 error. I've done a search, and checked the Answerbase, and the consensus seems to be that I have multiple copies of the same file on my source drive.

I'm not sure how to fix this. There are a LOT of files associated with this session, and I really don't wan't to trash a necessary file!

Any help will be greatly apreciated.

[Richard Fairbanks]

Try it from the other direction. Create a new session on your target drive and import tracks and data. It is critical to COPY the source media, not REFERENCE the source media (except for the video files). If Pro Tools encounters duplicate filenames in different directories, which may be what has happened to you, it will resolve the duplicate names by appending a .1, .2, .3, or dot-whatever, so the new session contains all unique filenames. Two or more files may contain the same audio but they will no longer have the same name.

The downside to this is that you will not always have whole filenames in your bin list. The upside is that the new session will contain ONLY audio that is actually used, no lingering junk, just as if you had cleaned your region list and Saved Copy To.

Error -39 is not a filename problem, though, so I'm not sure you've identified the actual problem. Error-39 usually means there is a corrupted file somewhere, or the timeline is corrupted. Importing tracks one or two at a time can help identify where the problem is, at least isolate it to a specific track. Eventually you'll find the problem.

[Breck]

OF course! I swear, i'm going to end up with a permanent imprint of my own palm on my forehead.
I'll try it this way. Thanks, Richard!

[bottleneck88]

breck when that solution doesn't work take all of your audio files, put them into 1 audio files folder, do not replace duplicates...after your done moving files take the left over duplicates, and put them in a folder named something like Zaudio.

Now import your session data to a new session copying media,
and when it prompts you to relink missing files choose MANUALLY


select just your audio files foler and hit relink
choose by NAME not unique identifier...this is very important

relink as much as you can to your audio files folder when this is finished,
relink to your ZAUDIO folder again, by name only

now if this doesn't work may i suggest trying in Nuendo...it asks which duplicat you would like to use


i love this feature

[Richard Fairbanks]

breck when that solution doesn't work

Well! Hrrrumph!

[Breck]

Sorry to be late with a reply. I was out with the worst flu I've ever had in my life!!
Actually, Richard's suggestion worked perfectly. Thanks!!