[EV2MS]

ok thank you for the detailed approach! I have backed up my hard drive once again in preparation for a clean install with external boot drive; is there a possibility this could cause harm? I'm not seeing any search results for this assert error but when I try opening other sessions located on the same external drive I am getting the same result and the first message that pops up is one saying that files have errors or may be corrupted before asking me if I would like to relink a whole slew of files that are located in the session audio folder within the session folder on the external drive.

when you say to do a full clean install on a spare SSD, do you mean thats where the Monterey updater is located or do you mean using that as my Hard Drive and keeping my computer empty?
Thanks again, I'll try importing to a new session and report back.