.ptx file corruption-missing audio and video files- no way to relink-

[MikeReganNoise]

Hey D-Hydrate,

For some reason, your posts are showing up way late in the thread, I see you posted this on the 30th of January, but I was only able to see it yesterday. You should definitely inform Avid and create a support ticket, that or the mixer who hired you and created the template. This was also the case for me, it was not a corrupt AAF, but a Pro Tools session in my case. Either way, I really want Avid to address this issue in a future update as we all know how screwed we can be once it hits. It's a total dealbreaker and a major loss of confidence in Avid for me.

Originally Posted by D-Hydrate

It was not an AAF. It was a Pro Tools session made specifically for me, the DX Editor.

The corruption was not noticed until I delivered my Save Copy In to the rerecording mixer and when he opened it he got the Invalid Fades message and the session opened with big chunks of audio missing and what was there was all jumbled and out of sync.

I came back to my workstation and opened the session and got the exact same results.

There was not indication while working on the session. After doing some research, I stumbled onto this post and a couple others, which led me to the Session Backups indicator and sure enough I found where the corruption happened.

[MikeReganNoise]

UPDATE: Avid suspects something related to RX 7 Advanced could be causing this problem, I have my doubts considering how often I use it without any issues at all. Curious why they think this, will update if they give me some insight.

From the Avid support ticket....

"Good day! Our developers working on this has requested the following information:

- What is the usual workflow with RX7 Connect?

- What AudioSuite parameters are generally used for RX7 Connect (e.g. what values for these pop-up menus are selected: Selection Reference, Processing Output Mode, Processing Input Mode)?

- What actions do they usually apply for clips inside iZotope RX 7 Audio Editor?

- How many clips are typically sent to the RX 7 Audio Editor at one time?

Thanks and have a great day!"

[basehead617]

bizarre but good to know they’re looking at it

[jesele]

I just had a session crashing every time I tried to use RX 7 connect. Single clip.
Other sessions fine.

Jesper

[AspiringAudiophile]

Wow. This just happened to me with a session open.

Computer: 2014 15" Retina Macbook Pro
macOS: 10.13.6 High Sierra
Pro Tools Ultimate 2019.10 HDX

It's difficult to remember the exact order it happened, but I had just bounced a 7 minute short film surround sound audio file. I re-imported it to break it out into separate mono files exported with "shift command K." I then re-ordered them to be the SMPTE LRCLfeLsRs instead of the default LCR channel order, renamed the interleaved 5.1 file, and then "shift command K" exported that. A dialogue popped up with a warning that it would overwrite a file currently in the session. Stupidly I agreed. I was then curious if my export had worked and I dragged the new 5.1 file into the timeline and BAM! 99% of my audio clips just disappeared. I thought it might have been a graphic bug so I closed the session, didn't save, and upon reopen received the "missing fade files" prompt and that session along with all it's backups are smaller .ptx files and corrupted.

Luckily I only lost a minor tweak to some opening music and had just finished exporting the printmasters, but what a scare! I completely admit manipulating the files like that was boneheaded, but I've never seen something like this. Yikes!

Based on what I'm reading from others, Avid's curiosity about RX Connect/RX 7 Advanced, and what just happened to me it seems like something triggered by audio clips being renamed while in use, possibly the audio clips directly or maybe through the .ptx being changed. I would absolutely be interested in the Tracer file if that's still floating about. Thank you!

I hope everyone is well and staying healthy out there!

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by AspiringAudiophile

It's difficult to remember the exact order it happened, but I had just bounced a 7 minute short film surround sound audio file. I re-imported it to break it out into separate mono files exported with "shift command K." I then re-ordered them to be the SMPTE LRCLfeLsRs instead of the default LCR channel order, renamed the interleaved 5.1 file, and then "shift command K" exported that. A dialogue popped up with a warning that it would overwrite a file currently in the session. Stupidly I agreed. I was then curious if my export had worked and I dragged the new 5.1 file into the timeline and BAM! 99% of my audio clips just disappeared. I thought it might have been a graphic bug so I closed the session, didn't save, and upon reopen received the "missing fade files" prompt and that session along with all it's backups are smaller .ptx files and corrupted.

This is such a nightmare of a bug. One thing confuses me though. Pro Tools always exports 5.1 interleaved WAV files in SMPTE order. Why did you need to export and re-order? Did you export an AIFF?

[AspiringAudiophile]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

This is such a nightmare of a bug. One thing confuses me though. Pro Tools always exports 5.1 interleaved WAV files in SMPTE order. Why did you need to export and re-order? Did you export an AIFF?

Hmm...I thought that it did, but then I was making a DCP so we could reference a feature we did post sound on at a theater and my short tests seemed like it was LCR, and I had to re-order within DCP-O-Matic. It would be nice if the channel layout in the timeline and meters would reflect this instead of LCR. Thanks for the reminder! Cheers.

[MikeReganNoise]

Sorry to hear that this happened to you. DM me and I'll send you the tracer-though I will add it didn't help me the most recent time this happened to me. FWIW, you should open a ticket with Avid and make sure they know it's still an issue. They have a log # for it now (PT-237298). And of course, this log number is not in the bug fixes list for the new 2020.3.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/r...-Release-Notes

I'm hoping that maybe they fixed it by fixing a related issue.

"Import

Fixed several issues that may cause 'Invalid Bounds' messages, 'some clips have been adjusted and removed', and crashes with Save Copy In after importing session data. (PT-258188/PT-256155/PT-257459/PT-259110)"

[milosziv]

I would just like to add that this is still happening - and I'm on 2020.5 running on High Sierra 10.13.6


I also wanted to add that I've seen this sort of stuff happening before when importing AAF's or OMF's - and all the regions would contain the same audio. Upon deleting and trying again, they would be fine. Still, something has been strange for a little while now.



Avid - please look into this. I could've lost not just hours but days of work had Mike not noticed the session backup files getting smaller upon corruption.



Thanks Mike for documenting this.

[Simon Magus]

Hi guys,
I'm experiencing this NIGHTMARE BUG many times these days. The sessions opens and I get a warning about thousands of missing fade files. The session become 50% empty and with strange clips, longer than due.
No way to solve the problem using backups: also last 30 backup sessions are corrupted! I'll set 250 session backups to help me in the future.
Someone cited iZotope RX7. Yes! I have it! Perhaps RX7 is the culprit (with Avid... collaboration).
Please help us to solve!
It's terrible.
It's the worst bug in the PT history.

I don't use templates: I copy a "sort of template" changing the name.
My session is complex, with many stems, auxes, plugins.

I use PT ultimate 2020.5 on High Sierra or on Mojave: same bug.

There's a solution?