Opening Session with lots of audio files takes too long

[audiolex1]

Originally Posted by HugoC

The file system is Mac OS extended (journaled).

As for the files, they are stored on the hard disk and we create the session on the same disk. We do not import video into these sessions. The audio files are not copied but just linked into the session. We don't want to copy or move these files, as this is usually several hundred GB of data, and moving/copying them would be very time consuming. We use these sessions to stamp the files with a unique ID so that the whole post production chain is sure to relink the right media to the right place, and also to auto-conform the rushes from the shoot.

Some in this thread mention that the discs used are too slow, however as I said in the original post, in earlier versions of Pro Tools we didn't have these problems with import speeds etc. So the problem is not with our disks.

We will test the solutions you give, but moving these sessions to internal SSDs or similar solutions would involve a big change in our workflow and significant costs for possible disk purchases, so we are hoping for a correction from avid.

AVID isn't going to correct anything. That is the reason they stop supporter older OS's is because as computers get bigger, faster and more stable, supporting the older ones that maybe less than a percent of the user base uses.

Part of moving into the future is making changes to workflows and adopting new technology.

If your workflow was better on a previous system and you don't want to change how you work, your best option is to go back to what worked before.

There was a change in the AVID workspace I believe in 2020, so that might be where things are binding up. AS well, the waveform calculations are much different now as well.
In 2020, I notice they were taking quite a long time to recalculate.
Now, I don't even see the recalculation times with SSD and 2021.12.

760 gigs is a lot of waveform calculations. And it still needs to read it from your slow drive.

1 TB SSD is around 110 bucks now. Very affordable. Should be no reason they can't be an option or even a slow migration option.

Otherwise, if you are unwilling to adapt to newer tech, then there isn't much in the way of options from AVID other than going back to what worked.

[BScout]

The "stamp" used has changed for Pro Tools (can't remember between what versions.) Avid went from their own proprietary id to SMPTE id. Moving a large drive of files between versions is creating a lot of work for the newer system to restamp the files.

Spotlight databases is how Pro Tools (on Mac) finds files. Once again, moving a drive creates a lot of extra work for Spotlight to re-index the drive.

Different versions of Pro Tools stored the database for the files in different locations.

Whatever you are doing (like all of it) is possibly making issues worse. Put the drive on only one version. Don't keep moving it between versions of Pro Tools. Delete all old file databases. (Use Pete Gates "PT Prefs" application and select all the options with databases or catalogues in the line item and trash.) Let the drive get completely indexed (maybe over night if there are a ton of small files.) Let Spotlight index the files on that drive.

Then check your load times. Whatever you do, don't move the drive between Pro Tools versions (only more recent versions.) This is making it worse.