What Causes Corrupt Sessions?

[lesbrunn]

Hey guys,
I've been using PT since 2000. I'm relatively knowledgeable about troubleshooting stuff in PT. In other words, I have always succeeded in troubleshooting and fixing my PT issues (which are a LOT! btw!) I know plugins can cause PT to crash depending on varying factors, but most of my issues have not been because of plugins. Over the years, I've had more than my fair share of corrupted sessions, of which the recommended solution is to import tracks one at a time into a new session. This procedure is ridiculously time-consuming if it's a big session. We all know how slow Avid is to conform to modern norms. This is my question: Apart from plugins, what are the things that corrupt sessions? What causes a perfectly good session to suddenly misbehave to the extent where the only solution is to import tracks one at a time? BTW, it's well known that other DAWs don't do this. Upon opening a session, almost every other DAW will pinpoint incompatible plugins and save you valuable time. Thanks, guys. This is knowledge that cannot be obtained anywhere else...

[peapodpost]

for a while in the PT 2018.XX range I was highly suspicious that using clip effects could corrupt a session.

[Rich Breen]

While possibly a rogue plugin, my first suspect would be hardware (RAM, disk subsystems, etc) - on a well-tuned system I'd say corrupt sessions are extremely rare; I've been a PT user since there was PT, pretty much 8 hours a day 5 days a week, and I can't remember if I've ever had a session become corrupted - maybe two or three over the years - I mean there's thousands of these rigs out there on dub stages, production suites, tracking rooms running round the clock that have very few of these kinds of problems. I'm not a VI user, but otherwise extensive use of plugs.

If this is a regular occurence then there's definitely something wrong and some real troubleshooting is required - it's not like this is an accepted and regular occurrence on Pro Tools systems.

Members who maintain and troubleshoot multiple rigs (i.e. post suites, etc) may have more specific suggestions.

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by lesbrunn

Hey guys,
I've been using PT since 2000. I'm relatively knowledgeable about troubleshooting stuff in PT. In other words, I have always succeeded in troubleshooting and fixing my PT issues (which are a LOT! btw!) I know plugins can cause PT to crash depending on varying factors, but most of my issues have not been because of plugins. Over the years, I've had more than my fair share of corrupted sessions, of which the recommended solution is to import tracks one at a time into a new session. This procedure is ridiculously time-consuming if it's a big session. We all know how slow Avid is to conform to modern norms. This is my question: Apart from plugins, what are the things that corrupt sessions? What causes a perfectly good session to suddenly misbehave to the extent where the only solution is to import tracks one at a time? BTW, it's well known that other DAWs don't do this. Upon opening a session, almost every other DAW will pinpoint incompatible plugins and save you valuable time. Thanks, guys. This is knowledge that cannot be obtained anywhere else...

I don't know the cause BUT I have use PT since 2003 and much the same the biggest issues for me are corrupted sessions. But thankfully not that many really, only a couple that needed to reimport tracks and could not be fixed by closing and exiting PT,,,, Trashing PT preferences ,,and rebooting PT ..Which I try first before importing to new session.

[nednednerb]

I have had corrupt sessions with any kind of regularity only in two situations:

1) Copying sessions from Hackintosh PT systems at audio school studio into my home system and back to the studio. This is when I was a new user around 2010.

2) Opening some sessions on my MacOS system where I was (foolishly) using Dropbox to backup sync my working folders.

I no longer deal with Hackintosh systems, or use Dropbox, and since then I rarely if ever run into a session problem that, echoing others, a reboot/power cycle etc does not fix.

[grayter1]

Originally Posted by nednednerb

I have had corrupt sessions with any kind of regularity only in two situations:

1) Copying sessions from Hackintosh PT systems at audio school studio into my home system and back to the studio. This is when I was a new user around 2010.

2) Opening some sessions on my MacOS system where I was (foolishly) using Dropbox to backup sync my working folders.

Dropbox and PT can be thorny, but I use it daily as a secondary backup in PT, Nuendo and Studio One without issue. When I've had an issue, it's always been with PT, but it's a rare occurrence. The other DAW's mentioned all work perfectly using Dropbox as a back up. As usual YMMV.

I also agree with your Hackintosh assessment. I used one for many years and things were always iffy. Once I went back to regular apple hardware, those issues went away.

tg

[Eric Lambert]

When importing from a corrupt session to a new one I don't go track-by-track, I do the whole enchilada. At the point of corruption, the issue is no longer a problematic track (i.e. plugin), it's the session file itself. Or so has been my experience and that of my company in general.

I'd also have to echo what Rich said about the lack of corruption when the system is well maintained and the workflow isn't inviting to errors. Once I became uber strict about plugin and computer maintenance, corrupted sessions essentially dropped off the planet. We have a couple guys who tend to see a few, but they're also the same guys who do the least to keep on top of maintenance.

Why do they happen? Several reasons that I can think of. I'd estimate that many happen when ProTools is saving the session file while there's an interruption of some sort that causes an improper save. It might be PT communicating with the file (this is where I'd look at plugins as the culprit), or it might be a drive or OS issue.

[dominicperry]

Useful post from Jeffro at Avid regarding running sessions from Dropbox folders.

Originally Posted by jeffro

Check out resources.avid.com/SupportFiles/PT/Pro_Tools_Reference_Guide_2022.6.pdf#G12.1265071 for info about the Cloud Storage Services options in Setup/Preferences/Collaboration.

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

When importing from a corrupt session to a new one I don't go track-by-track, I do the whole enchilada. At the point of corruption, the issue is no longer a problematic track (i.e. plugin), it's the session file itself. Or so has been my experience and that of my company in general.

That makes sense and would save valuable time.

[64GTOBOY]

I wouldn't consider myself an expert but I have been a user since PT 5, Mac and PC. The few times I have had corrupted session issues (I always had backups on other media luckily) testing I ALWAYS found it was either a single corrupt plugin or track file or a storage issue