Projects backup / restore

[atanganel]

Hi there! I'm using Pro Tools First and I'd like to backup my projects in case the system crashes or to be able to reopen them on a PTF installed on a different machine. Is that possible?
Thanks for your help.
Alex

[junkgear]

By default, PTF stores your projects in the cloud. So, in your case, they will already be backed up and available on other machines running PTF.

[harry smit]

Hi atanganel,

Some text...

Would the below workaround be an idea? I did some basic tests only... Worth giving it a try.

Move the complete Pro Tools work folder (that is including subfolders and files) on a different drive and use mklink to make a shortcut as if the files were still in your Documents\Pro Tools folder.
And. Make a copy of the same Pro Tools folder in a second (backup) folder with keeping the Pro Tools folder structure unchanged.


FIRST.

I moved the Pro Tools folder (around 1 GByte in my case) from Documents\ to a folder on a preferred data drive (E:\bin\).
I assured that the Documents folder did not contain any Pro Tools folders or files anymore.
The new work folder is then now E:\bin\Pro Tools
For backup you might want to copy this Pro Tools folder in say ..\backup_protoolsfirst\ or so. Do not change the Pro Tools folder structure!


SECOND.

I opened CMD in Administrator Mode and entered the below mklink symbolic link command (the quotes are needed because of the spaces in the folder names):
mklink /d "C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Pro Tools" "E:\bin\Pro Tools"

CMD should then come back with:
symbolic link created for C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Pro Tools <<===>> E:\bin\Pro Tools


In the Documents\ folder I found the by mklink generated Pro Tools folder work again but then only as a shortcut.
I started Pro Tools First 2019.6 and it worked OK.


BTW. I do not sync too much to the AVID cloud at the moment since due to COVID-19 the servers over there are a bit crowdy... (untick the green Backup to Cloud bullet).

Good luck

Harry

Windows 10 Pro x64, build 1909 | Pro Tools First: 2019.6 | ASIO4ALL v2.14

[hitsville]

I have this problem where despite still having the project cache with all the project files, PTF doesn't 'see' my project anymore so there is no way to open it.

so I don't think there's any way to restore a project if it isn't in the cloud. I hope I'm wrong.

Ive been emailing support for help many times and still havent heard back.

[harry smit]

Hi,

All the files are still on your local drive? Are the project files, for some reason, read-only?

If you are familiar with the good old MSDOS then try this attrib command.
Justin K. of SOS Studios mentioned somewhere in this DUC to do this:
1. Go to the Command Prompt (cmd and then choose administrator mode).
2. Enter the directory where your session is.
3. Type attrib /s -r and hit enter. This removes the read-only from all files in the current directory and all sub-folders.

URL for an explanation of attrib : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ommands/attrib

Otherwise search on the internet for: "how to change attributes in windows 10". The attrib as of above is very powerful though.

Hope this helps.

Harry

[hitsville]

Originally Posted by harry smit

Hi,

All the files are still on your local drive? Are the project files, for some reason, read-only?

If you are familiar with the good old MSDOS then try this attrib command.
Justin K. of SOS Studios mentioned somewhere in this DUC to do this:
1. Go to the Command Prompt (cmd and then choose administrator mode).
2. Enter the directory where your session is.
3. Type attrib /s -r and hit enter. This removes the read-only from all files in the current directory and all sub-folders.

URL for an explanation of attrib : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ommands/attrib

Otherwise search on the internet for: "how to change attributes in windows 10". The attrib as of above is very powerful though.

Hope this helps.

Harry

Thanks for your help Harry.

Yes, all the files are still on my hard drive. I'm on mac, so I couldn't try the MSDOS command, but I switched every file to read & write in macos and it doesn't seem to help unfortunately.

Have you ever been able to restore backup projects by putting them back in the cache folder ? I was starting to think that it was impossible.

[harry smit]

Hi hitsville,

The only things I can think of is whether the file/folder structure has been changed, that you logged in under a different Avid account or that the project folder name was changed.
You did not delete one or two files by accident?

Check the first folder image (the one with the 1 2 3 arrows) of the below link:
https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/hom...t-to-pro-tools

Folder structure:
Level 1: Project Cache;
Level 2: AVID account folder(s);
Level 3: Your project folder(s).

In Project Cache (Lvl-1) folder you see a subfolder (Lvl-2) with a weird name. This is the folder (Lvl-2) belonging to your Avid account (if you have a second account you will see two).

In this folder (Lvl-2) you will find one or more weird named subfolders (Lvl-3) each containing the project subfolders and files.

You should be able to move or copy this folder (Lvl-3) everywhere you want. But. For working with PTF again this folder (Lvl-3) has to be put back in folder (Lvl-2).
If you did not change this structure and did not change folder names it should work.

Answer to your question: I did not test it. But accordng to the experiences I have with mklink (also in this thread) it should not be a problem...

[hitsville]

Thanks Harry, for some reason it doesn't work for me. I didn't delete any files, my offline projects stopped showing in the list all of a sudden. Still waiting for support to get back to me after a month