Missing Audio Files

[EGS]

Originally Posted by its2loud

... In the clips list, click on "show full disk path" or something like that in the drop down menu list at the top. This will show you where PT thinks the files should be ...

+1. I always use "show full path". Anytime I open up the clip list, I want to know exactly where the file is located. Also, it's a great way to make sure everything is stored where you think it's supposed to be.

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by Cayce

Thanks, Albee (curious about the "1952" ... could we possibly have that in common?)

Furthermore—while we're on the subject of Pro Tools misappropriating the English language—you know that thing we do where we record the artist for a short segment of time, creating a clip? That's called a Take, not a Playlist.

It's called the playlist because when it is enabled it gives you access to multiple takes in the same time line to be able to choose which part of each takes are best and then "splice" (comp) it together into the main track.

Originally Posted by Cayce

These are only a couple of the many things convincing me that no one authoring the Pro Tools software has ever spent time in an actual studio.

A lot of people working at avid are actual musicians and have spent time in studios. I would personally try to refrain from making such assumptions when you don't know the people. As my dearie wife says, making assumptions makes an ass of you and me.

[Ben Jenssen]

Originally Posted by Cayce

As for the bit about copying my own template folder: I have a folder that has all the various tracks & sub/aux tracks that I find to be common across any project I start. No clips, just tracks and track assignments setup. When I start a new project, I copy that folder, named Record Template, give the folder and PTX file a new name, and get busy.

As suggested earlier, here lies your problem. This procedure results in a PTX file that writes all its audio to the audio files folder in the folder inside the templates folder.


You must open the template, "save session copy…", close template, and open newly created.

[Cayce]

I’ve discovered the source of the problem. Coming up with a solution is going top be tricky, though, because it involves finding a workaround for a behavior so bizarre, a person would have to intentionally, purposefully author a software to include something this astoundingly stupid.

The image I attached shows yet another project with missing session clips. Like almost all the others, the missing clips have mirrored, counterpart clips that weren’t deleted. By “mirrored,” I mean these guitar tracks are recorded as both mic and DI tracks—two tracks—simultaneously. Only one of the two-track pairs is missing, though. That’s because Pro Tools has been randomly saving some clips to the Audio Files folder in the actual project folder, and others to another, foreign Audio Files folder, nested inside a Pro Tools Projects folder it created on my root directory.

I came across that isolated, root level Pro Tools Projects folder last week, knew it shouldn’t by any reason be there, and assumed it was a remnant of some recent restructuring I had done on my file system. I did a system search on a few of the files, found them to be duplicates, and felt comfortable deleting the folder, since there was no PTX file associated with it. That folder, however, was holding all those clips that have been coming up missing in projects, projects also showing an Audio Files folder within project folder, with other audio files in them. Just this morning I found another, newly generated, root-level Pro Tools Projects, with more random audio files in the Audio Files folder, and made the connection to this problem.

I know there’s a feature in PT called “Round Robin”, where, “Pro Tools will automatically distribute any newly created tracks around all of the drives connected to your system...”. Whoever the complete idiot was who thought that was a good idea—separating audio files from the project folder and scattering them far & wide throughout the system—I have never heard a more concise definition of Recipe for Disaster. That disaster has happened to my files. But get this: Round Robin is not and has never been activated either globally or project specifically in my system. So how does this happen?

The bottom line question is: how does a person safeguard his projects from a software that seems designed to to seek out and destroy the very projects it’s being used to create?

[kelsey]

This sounds to me like another problem brought over from the way you are creating your sessions by copying an existing session and renaming it. This is the whole reason the save as template exists, and so far it sounds like creating a sessions template, then opening pro tools, creating a new session from template will get you everything you want (track names, auxes, routing, etc) but will also update disk allocation settings and other details specific to each project that you are not updating when you copy and open up an existing project. The session template feature is really worth your time to explore more.

Open your blank session you are using as a template and check the Disk Allocation settings, then also open a project missing clips and check the Disk Allocation setting there too.

Pro Tools will create a "Default" Audio Files folder in your home folder if it cannot write to the Audio Files folder set in the Disk Allocation setting. There can be several reasons for this happening, including a drive being seen as read only when a session opens. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion so fast that Pro Tools isn't operating correctly, there is probably something else causing the behavior. While you may not have a use for Round Robin, it's not an idiotic feature, but with SSD's and faster drives there is less need for it these days.

[Rich Breen]

Originally Posted by Cayce

...a behavior so bizarre, a person would have to intentionally, purposefully author a software to include something this astoundingly stupid.
....The bottom line question is: how does a person safeguard his projects from a software that seems designed to to seek out and destroy the very projects it’s being used to create?

I think in my post on the first page I recommended you take a look at your Disk Allocation. If you must use the workflow you're suggesting (which is definitely not recommended), then you *absolutely* will have to religiously check Disk Allocation every time you start a new session.

While there are things I'd love to change about ProTools, in the 20+ years I've been using this software I've never (knock wood) lost an audio file or project. Certainly there are tens of thousands of us using this software every day in mission critical applications who do not have these issues. I'd suggest you get a handle on disk allocation.

[arche3]

User error. Like I suspected. Well maybe not pure user error. But the session setup has some potential for stuff like this.

Have you tried a new record drive to rule out disk hardware error?

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[RyanC]

If you want a solution, learn to use the import session data function AFTER you create a new session for each of your projects. Shft+cmd+I.

This way you can import all the tracks, names etc without also importing the settings of where the audio files are stored or the audio from the other session.

If you were to read the manual, you would that all of this is fully covered.

[Top Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Cayce

I’ve discovered the source of the problem. Coming up with a solution is going top be tricky, though, because it involves finding a workaround for a behavior so bizarre, a person would have to intentionally, purposefully author a software to include something this astoundingly stupid.



The image I attached shows yet another project with missing session clips. Like almost all the others, the missing clips have mirrored, counterpart clips that weren’t deleted. By “mirrored,” I mean these guitar tracks are recorded as both mic and DI tracks—two tracks—simultaneously. Only one of the two-track pairs is missing, though. That’s because Pro Tools has been randomly saving some clips to the Audio Files folder in the actual project folder, and others to another, foreign Audio Files folder, nested inside a Pro Tools Projects folder it created on my root directory.



I came across that isolated, root level Pro Tools Projects folder last week, knew it shouldn’t by any reason be there, and assumed it was a remnant of some recent restructuring I had done on my file system. I did a system search on a few of the files, found them to be duplicates, and felt comfortable deleting the folder, since there was no PTX file associated with it. That folder, however, was holding all those clips that have been coming up missing in projects, projects also showing an Audio Files folder within project folder, with other audio files in them. Just this morning I found another, newly generated, root-level Pro Tools Projects, with more random audio files in the Audio Files folder, and made the connection to this problem.



I know there’s a feature in PT called “Round Robin”, where, “Pro Tools will automatically distribute any newly created tracks around all of the drives connected to your system...”. Whoever the complete idiot was who thought that was a good idea—separating audio files from the project folder and scattering them far & wide throughout the system—I have never heard a more concise definition of Recipe for Disaster. That disaster has happened to my files. But get this: Round Robin is not and has never been activated either globally or project specifically in my system. So how does this happen?



The bottom line question is: how does a person safeguard his projects from a software that seems designed to to seek out and destroy the very projects it’s being used to create?

Don’t assume that you can perform functions with pro tools sessions in Explorer or the Finder and it not have an affect on how pro tools relates to those sessions.

Create a session on drive A. Record many tracks and save. Copy session folder to drive B. Open session on drive B and record many more tracks. Those tracks will be put in the audio files folder on drive A if the original session paths are still valid. If you delete the session from drive A before opening it on drive B, Pro Tools will update the file locations when opening the session on drive B.

That’s how Pro Tools works and that’s why some of your files were being put in a place other than the session folder of the session you had open. Copying and renaming a session still leaves the original paths intact. If you want to manage media locations, it’s best to be done in Pro Tools, not outside of it.

[KingTor]

Originally Posted by amagras

Money's here ^

Is round robin still a thing? Ew.

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