Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Protools
 

So I was working all day in a session and I needed to close it to check a different session. When I closed that other session to open the one I was working on all day. I get this error.

"Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Protools"

-All the session auto backups have it too.
-When I try to import this into a clean session, I get the same error.
-I've run both disk warrior and disk utility no error and no change.
-tried to open session on a different machine/build. Same error.

This is SCARY. I can't be losing a day's work.

Any other thoughts?

Re: Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Prot
 

checked permissions of the session file ?
try copying it, and renaming the copy to something simple like "1".
try copying it to another drive, or even the desktop. (without the audio)
try opening it in a text editor to compare the sheer amount of data and header info to a known good session.
do you see anything legible in the text such as track names ?
look at the actual size of the file compared to other similar good sessions.

it's not cloud-based is it ?

Re: Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Prot
 

I have not played with the header stuff, I’ll take a look at that.

-it is not cloud based.

Re: Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Prot
 

and I don't suppose the old "shift" + open trick works ?
(even though it doesn't sound like a plug-in based problem)

and what about changing your playback engine as soon as Pro Tools is launched to something like the computer Line Out, and only then try to open it.

I hate to say it, but it has every hallmark of a totally unrecoverable session however.
You might have to consider a rebuild from scratch (if posssible) importing all Audio Files, spotting them to their timestamps, recreating edits/fades to the best of your memory while it's still fresh in your mind.

And I'd consider an entire new Audio Drive, in case that's the culprit.

Re: Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Prot
 

Okay so I'm convinced that the session is completely destroyed. I backup every minute cuz my works expensive. Working backwards through the backups, I found a version at 1pm that works. If you look at the session in Text editor, it all makes sense. Then at 1:18 (I must have stepped away, I don't remember) all the session backups don't start and get progressively more and more corrupted until by the end it's all hash.

I'm scared to do anything at this point. This is totally completely wack. If it's writing the session backups corrupt, how can I trust ANYTHING?

Switching over to a different drive to see if that helps.

Re: Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Prot
 

oh crap. sorry to hear it man.
that's kinda what I was just adding to my previous post.
be extra careful with any other sessions on that drive.
I would clone it to a brand new drive, and simply mark and archive that one - DNU.
create a brand new session, random stuff, save & close multiple times. reboot. test again. make sure it's not Pro Tools itself.
I bet it's the drive though.
It's not an SMR-based drive is it ? Cos those things suck once a segment gets re-written and corrupted.


oh, here's a thought. you don't happen to have a network server backup running all day do you?
if so you might get lucky and retrieve a temporary session from the afternoon backup log.

Re: Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Prot
 

I'm pretty shure this doesn't help, but I'll mention it anyway; Are you double-clicking on the PT file to open it, or using 'Open…' in the File menu?
I have files, I think they're PT6, which gives that same kind of error when I double-click on them, but opens fine thru the 'Open…' dialogue.

Re: Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Prot
 

I am pretty sure this is about corrupt session files, and the most likely reason is problem with the storage.

Since PT10 session files have been marked with .ptx extension. There should not be any trouble opening one, unless the header is corrupt.

Re: Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Prot
 

I've seen Ben's tip work in the past too.
This error is now obviously just sheer file corruption . . .
which begs the question as how on earth backups can get keep getting written from a live functional session into a stream of corrupted files. Could it be a memory error that's triggering this kind of thing ? or just the physical storage drive itself ?

I'd also still like to know exactly what kind of drive this was. That's why I brought up the subject of that SMR-based drive type, which is typically ok for writing once and putting the drive away as an archive, but endlessly re-updating the same file causes the entire block to get re-read and re-written regardless of whether it's just a tiny piece of data within that block. There are some horror stories about those drives worse than this. Some major drive companies are now hiding the fact that they are using SMR behind the scenes.

I'd love to know the file size difference from Brad's last working session to the one immediately after.
Surely there are some checksums going on in the background that a save has been successfully written, and if there's a discrepancy - alert the user so that they don't keep writing and working on a corrupted session. It might have enabled him to use "Save Session Copy In" instead (to a different location) - maybe that might have written a useable file. who knows. obviously what he had in RAM was functional, so I don't see why it couldn't be written to a good storage device once alerted about failing media. At the bare minimum he could have consolidated his working audio tracks.

I personally never use auto-backup, and simply save version #'s (v1.0, v1.1, etc) throughout the day each time I do a major change that I might want to revert to - combined with muscle-twitch memory of Command+S every minute or two. I realize that audio-post users like to simply work one on one ready-named session.

Brad also asks an important question:
"If it's writing the session backups corrupt, how can I trust ANYTHING?"

Does that itself point to a RAM-based error ?

Is the only solution to periodically close the session and see if it will re-open?
or have an assistant occasionally copy everything over the network to another system and see if it'll open ?
seems pretty lame.

Re: Document could not be opened because it was created with an older version of Prot
 

Yeah I thought of this too. My backups run daily so I don't have that. I'm running Disk Drill to see if there's possibly is a copy of the TMP to recover.

Here's a question though, since all of the backups are corrupted, the TMP should be too right? It's just my impression but I though the TMP was a running tab of your session and the saves and backups were of that file.

The physical drive is one of the super expensive WD 10TB Data Center drives it's probably a year old. Those things are usually tanks. I only buy those although I think I'm switching to SSD for my travel storage and my online storage at my studio (I bounce around between studios a lot.) I think I'll go ahead and keep my daily and medium term storage on a RAID 10 of spinning disks. Long term is Tape but looking toward an Amazon Glacier type solution.