Pro Tools Project Locked Up with spinning ball ?

[Seafoam_Green]

Hi there , tonight I was working on a project in PT 11.3 , and it has 44 tracks in total .

I went to add 3 more audio tracks and pro tools just locked up with the spinning coloured ball , and no amount of waiting will make it go away

I had no choice but to do a force quit .

Every time I attempt to open the project ( or even earlier reovered versions) I get the spinning ball

- I have trashed prefs ,
- I have Repaired disk permissions ,
- I have restarted a million times ,
- I have ripped my hair out many times over

..., and so far it all seems a lost cause

- Other projects will open up and work OK in PT

..., and I do have a back up on another drive of " this problematic project ", but its from 3 days ago , and its during the last 3 days that I have done stacks of creative guitar work .

...., so the back up does not contain this recent guitar work , So thats my worst case scenario, but Id love to recover the project if I can .

- Any suggestions

Cheers

Mac Pro ; 6 Core 3.5 Ghz Xeon E5 ,
64 Gb Ram,
Yosemite 10.10.1.

[Michael Zull]

Have you tried importing the tracks into a new session? Most times that I've had a corrupted session file importing the tracks into a new session has solved the problem.

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by Michael Zull

Have you tried importing the tracks into a new session? Most times that I've had a corrupted session file importing the tracks into a new session has solved the problem.

Yes this is the best option.

to elaborate, create a new session the same frequency and bit rate and use import session data (Under file menu) and import several tracks at a time (Maybe 5) so if one track is corrupted you will know roughly which track is the issue. if the new session becomes corrupted due to importing the corrupted track you can try importing an earlier version of the track from the session file back-ups. assume you have auto backup enabled??



Chris

[Seafoam_Green]

Thank you kindly guys ..., I will give this a go , cheers

[bradch00]

Have you tried opening the session with all plug-ins inactive? <Shift-key> and open.

[albee1952]

I am curious what plugins are in this session that are NOT in others(if any). Or, how many VI(plugin instruments) are running(if several, I would bus and record some as audio and make the originals inactive and hidden). Have you changed your buffer to 1024(to ease the load on the system)?

[Rosco1969]

Try opening Protools and then opening a backup autosaved session. Try the latest one, if that doesn't work, move back one. Etc etc...

[Seafoam_Green]

I left my computer ON when I went to bed last night (ie; with pro tools left open and frozen with the coloured wheel still spinning)

....., and when I woke up and checked my MAC - I had noticed the coloured spinning wheel had GONE

Also gone were the 3 Audio tracks I simultaneously created (ie; when pro tools locked up / spinning ball) ...., so during all those hours of Pro Tools "resting" , somehow it has righted itself ......, very weird



In hindsight ; maybe this contributed to the problem ?

....., My very last track shown listed (in my PT Edit window) is an Instrument Track which has been made Inactive.

- When I tried to add the 3 new Audio tracks ......., (ie; when the spinning wheel saga began) , I actual "right clicked" on that inactive instrument track > to open the dropbox which gives me access to "add track" .
Perhaps the "spinning wheel confusion" was triggered from the fact that I accessed the add track request from a track which was inactive ...., thus causing a corrupt request within pro tools

..., either way , I wont be doing that again (just incase) as there are many ways for me to add additional tracks

Originally Posted by bradch00

Have you tried opening the session with all plug-ins inactive? <Shift-key> and open.

This is a great tip , I didnt know about this and will keep it handy , its really useful

Originally Posted by albee1952

I am curious what plugins are in this session that are NOT in others(if any). Or, how many VI(plugin instruments) are running(if several, I would bus and record some as audio and make the originals inactive and hidden). Have you changed your buffer to 1024(to ease the load on the system)?

I dont have too many plugins open yet ( a few temporary generic reverb sends) ..., as I am still tracking.

I did have lots of V.Is / midi / instrument tracks open initially , but I had already made audio guide track versions of all of these , and then made those VI/instrument tracks inactive ..., so I could lower the CPU usage to improve latency issues as I wanted to continue with tracking.

Once tracking is complete, I intend re- activate those VI/ midi tracks - so I can "fine tune" some of the midi notes" to suit , ie; before doing a final Audio recording for final mixdown.

One thing I am running lots of , is Audio tracks ...., many guitars at the moment ,
- as ATM there are about 20 + tracks ; with an Amp Sim in each tracks insert slot

ie; either Bias Desktop , or Scuffham Xgear , and some of these also have Amplitube 3 in the opening slot ( for running FX like a fuzz/wah combo, and A3's amp/speaker has been bypassed so I can use the Amp sims in scuffham or bias instead.

I know thats a lot of amp sims running at once , but during mixdown , I will combine many of these tracks plus record to Audio , so for now its likely , it will stay with lots of individual tracks and Amp Sims because I am still experimenting with different textures.



My CPU use > So far ...., In this track with about 48 tracks and everything described above , ATM (for tracking) my buffer is set at 128 - as I want the low latency when Im recording ...., and with this 128 buffer setting - my CPU usage is running at about 15 - 18 % on my Mac Pro (6 core trashcan 3.5 ghz)

Originally Posted by Rosco1969

Try opening Protools and then opening a backup autosaved session. Try the latest one, if that doesn't work, move back one. Etc etc...

When I was having the problem , I tried this (even versions from the day before , and I still got the spinning wheel ? . Im guessing from my findings at top of this actuall post (not the op) that session might have Data for the session itself + .ptx (saved sessions) + the recorded Audio & midi ..., and all 3 of these combine to make "the opened project" (just assuming)

..., to which Im guessing there were some corrupted crossed wires within this protools project as a whole , which Im guessing is why earlier saved sessions would not open ...., but other projects would.



But anyhow ..., alls good now. All this has shaken me up to back up every night . I was waiting to get my Black magic dock next time I went i overseas , as spare hard drive space is low, but I will just have to make do and back up "every day"

Thanks guys for all your super valuable and educating input , All great troubleshooting replies guys - cheers