Pt keeps losing audio files

[Kaid]

I am a complete novice and understand this is most likely completely my fault BUT I still need major assistance nonetheless. So I have been making music for almost a year now and everything has been going great up until I saw I had a system software update on my Mac and I received an email write awhile ago from Avid saying not to update my MacBook to Catalina because PT cannot operate from this software and it has been like 6 months or so since then and I made the assumption (ended up making ass ass out of myself go figure) that PT would be ready for this powerful new Cantina software....apparently I was wrong immediately after my laptop rebooted after install PT would not open would not work or cooperate in any facet so I immediately knew I ****ed up and I started googling and I saw other people had made the same mistake and I read I had to go back to Mojave which was quite stressful and I though I was going to have to wipe my whole drive and lose all of my music I have worked so long and hard on but then I loaded everything onto a hard drive and was praying everything would actually end up being okay.Reinstall Mojave and all the music made it, YES (or so I thought) now when I open any music PT file or song on this new Mojave install every. single. god. damn. file. is missing all of its Audi files. every one. I basically lost every single unreleased song which was like 15. I don't really care about the other 60 songs I lost b because they're already out and released but the unreleased ones are ****ed and so I decided to just take it on the chin and just re-record all of these songs and just take the hit like a man. and that's what I did I got to work and rerecorded several songs and decided I would mix them all after I recorded them but after a few songs I for some reason decided to go back into some of the re-recorded songs and the audio files ARE GONE AGAIN. that is so many hours of work done and re-done just gone. I can take a loss I get it I'm a dumbass who shouldn't have updated his software so then I just decide maybe the files are just corrupt and I need to just move the beat and everything to completely new files. start fresh and from scratch and just completely restart these songs new everything just a fresh start and then I record this song for a THIRD time and decided I will mix it right here right now so I don't even have to worry about reopening it and discovering missing audio files but I decided to stop for lunch after I finished getting the perfect vocals laid and when I come back to my laptop it has gone black and PT makes me close my session and when I reopen it all the audio files are GONE AGAIN. I have since created new sessions just to test this and yes every single session I create if I close it and come back to reopen it every single thing is gone. Wiped. just grayed out boxes saying the files have been lost but and when I try to go in and relink them the files are legitimately gone. the one only files that remain for me to even possibly relink are just other random takes from the session. Not the ones I need. What does this mean? What do I do? I mean its just started to seem absurd to me. every single thing I do is just erased after I close it. I feel like its the year 2000 and I'm paying a video game that I can't even save because I don't have a memory card so I just have to enjoy the game for what is it while I'm playin it but I obviously want to save my god damn game/music!!!! Also I have read several things about "Save Copy In" and how it will eliminate this issue from arising buuuuuut I saved this new files in this way and saved them to my desktop like I saw in the tutorials and have tried my best to do everything as correctly as I can to ensure this issue stops happening but it just will not. When I try to relink the files from my save copy in folder the audio files are gone from this location as well when I try to relink. BUTB they are they're on my desktop but even if I try to drag and drop the exact file into my session it will not allow it. I am, very lost very stressed very unintelligent and praying to god that someone can assist me and get me back to doing what usually relieves the stress!! Also, I see a lot of internet knights who like to make these sort of threads into arguments and get on their high horses. I admittedly know nothing about anything and I am greener than peas, I don't know a single human being who knows a single thing about audio engineering or anything of this sort so please help a brother out I'm just trying to create dope music and get into this beautiful world of sonics but am currently ramming my head into a brick wall with a jetpack attached to my back. I use a 2017 MacBook Pro 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 , running Mojave, PT 2020.5.0, I use a Focusrite scarlet solo.

[JFreak]

Hi, welcome to the community.

To begin with, please read the Help Us Help You page linked to the forum header.

[Kaid]

done

[Kaid]

Originally Posted by Kaid

done

[albee1952]

We can feel your frustration, but let's try to zero in on what's happening. Here are things to consider:
1-How do you start each song session? Do you open a template session and start working, then save as, naming it for the song? I know a few folks that do this and its tragically the wrong way to start any new song session. The best way to do it is to create a new session FROM a template(the template being something you create for your needs and choose Save As Template). The next best method is to create a new empty session and then use Import Session Data and bring in all the desired tracks from your template session(in all cases, the template session never gets opened EXCEPT to make changes to it)

2-Where are you storing your sessions? You run a MacBook Pro, so does it have only a single drive? If yes, and its a Solid State drive, that's okay, but dangerous(because all your eggs are in one basket). Also, do you choose where sessions get saved to, or are you letting Pro Tools shove everything into its default location(see screen capture). Its best to handle file management manually(the way you choose, not the way PT wants).

3-No matter how many drives in the computer, you NEED to back everything up, and I mean everything, and every week(most pros backup every day). You also should check each session folder(and Disk Allocation) to make sure all the audio files for any session are actually in that session's Audio Files folder. My mention of folks that start by opening a template session is because doing it that way will put the audio files into the template session Audio Files folder, no matter what you name it later on(which can be devastating). If your sessions only exist on your laptop, you are most definitely NOT backed up. Remember this; there are 2 kinds of computer users; those that HAVE had a drive fail, and those that WILL have a drive fail(and that doesn't account for the errors we make ourselves)

4-the solution to gathering all audio files together is to open a sessions and choose File>Save Copy In> and check the box to include all audio files. That will copy all audio(even if they are spread over multiple drives) into a new session file. As redundant as that may seem, its better to have multiple copies of your audio than to lose the only copy

5-If you ever import audio or session data into another session, in reality, audio files may not actually get imported(the session may reference them from their source and not your session folder). This sometimes will happen even if you have Preferences set to "Automatically Copy Files on Import"(Preferences>Processing tab). The safe thing to do is to manually copy the files into your session folder and import from there(so you are positive about where the files are). If you imported files from an external drive and the next day, you get a message about missing audio files, reconnect any drives that are now missing.

Lots to think about and I hope you get thru this successfully

[Kaid]

1. I start the sessions as you said, create new session from a self made template.

2. I store the tracks on an external drive and on the computer. I choose the sessions to be saved to the external drive then I "Save copy in" to desktop and also save a version just on my computer drive in documents

3. Yes I back them up every time I save I save them to external drive.

4. Done.

5. Did this. Files will not show up in Pro Tools. Missing audio files ONCE AGAIN. Will not relink.

I rerecorded a song for the 4th time today and once again it is gone when I go back to reopen it. Saved to computer, external drive, Save Copy In to desktop. Not one of them has the missing audio files when I go to relink missing files. Everything gone and grayed out and only files PT can find are not the ones I need.

This is genuinely the most absurd thing. A year of everything going fine and now legitimately every single session I work on now loses everything. Every single file. Gone. If I allow a session to close on my laptop there is a 100% chance every single second of my work is gone.

I plug in external drivers with the files. Still gone. Show up in files but will not show up in PT and will Not relink.

Also, ill just throw in this new issue I'm having. Before the session I recorded so many times closed today it stopped allowing me to record just kept giving me this message, "Unable to create record files for one or more tracks. Check your disk allocation and drive permissions."
Everything was going great I thought my life was back on track then recording just ceased. I have been troubleshooting for hours and trying to open new sessions and import date. Nothing. Tried opening the file was my computer drive. Nothing and then ended up losing the audio files. Tried everything. cannot record.

I know I sound like an idiot but I just don't understand what is going on. I didn't save eternally for 10 months and now that I do it doesn't even matter. things get lost more now. It legitimately just seems like my Pro Tools is just broken lol as ridiculous as that sounds. I have had 1000x more problems in the past 2 weeks than the first 12 months of my PT adventures.

[Rich Breen]

Clearly some troubleshooting's in order:

Create a NEW session (not from template)
Add one track, check your disk allocation and be sure it's going into the session folder (shouldn't be necessary, but best to check everything at this stage).
Record a little bit of audio on that one track.
Do a regular save (just command - s).
Now close the session. Is the audio in the Session folder - Audio Files folder, and can you re-open the session ok? If not, you've got a system problem; probably something to do with permissions. If you *can* open that session without problems, then the issues your having may be with your template or your methodology.


In future, should you do a "Save Copy In..." to copy everything, be sure that "Audio Files" is checked in the subsequent dialog box.


That should get you started.

[Kaid]

Thank you very much for your response.

I did as you said, everything is perfect when I closed and then opened up the session. The audio file was still there no problems. Audio files were even exactly where I put them when I searched my session folder files. Everything seemed somehow fixed...

Then fast forward a few hours, I am working on the session (thinking everything is fine and somehow I was just messing up by attempting to save to external hard drive or Save Copy In or that it was my template that was messing me up somehow) I go into the "Playback engine" to change my playback engine and increase HW buffer size and get this........all files are GONE. Removed Deleted. Lost from everything. No where to be found. Cannot find to relink. Just from me simply switching playback engines. I mean I hardly even "closed" the session I just changed playback engines.

P.S. good news I can at least record on the session which is a great relief from where I was at the end of my work day yesterday as stated in my previous response..

[The Weed]

Open the Clip List. Are all the files shown there, but in Italics and greyed? If so, set the Clip List to show the full path for the files. Where is Pro Tools saying the files should be?

[Kaid]

Thank you for your response.

Yes. Okay I did this. Tells me the files are saved to "SSD Data, User, Mackaidbeery, Documents, Audio files"

When I check my system files the audio files are all right there. Perfect.

When I attempt to relink through Pro Tools nothing. Audio files are gone. Deleted. no where to be found. But show up fine when I check my computer for where they should be.

And yes of course I follow the path I am given and search the correct folders. Even search every other folder provided to search and nothing. Not misplaced to my findings but gone. But then they aren't even really deleted because they are right where they should be in my files. Pro Tools just does not have them or the ability to find them apparently.

What does this mean? Why can my computer and even external hard drive not get on the same page as pro tools. And why would this issue just begin to occur after 12 months of perfect functioning? I have never lost an audio file until I began to lose EVERY audio file.