Emergency: Help needed desperately (problem opening a Pro Tools session)

[jampater]

We have been working on our best ever track but, after days and days of hard work, it simply won't open. We open the Pro Tools application, then click on "Open Session," click on the title of the song, then the computer screen shows the computer rebuilding the track - completel as per normal. So it seems that all the data is still there. However, no session subsequently appears. This is only happening to this track, not any of the others, which appear as usual. Has anyone experienced this problem and know how to solve it? Please help if you can, I am literally tearing my hair out. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Mr T]

Personnally here's what I would try:
#1: trash PT's preference and try again. Just in case, try to open PT&the session by double clicking directly on the session icon (without opening PT first).You never know.
If still not working:
#2:copy the whole session (project+audiofiles) to another HD (or at least partition, if you don't have another HD), try to open.
If still not working:
#3: try to "hide" the audiofiles= drag them into a new created folder, when opening the session, PT will ask you where they are, point to the new location, see if it helps.
#4 (emergency procedure): create a new session and import tracks from your corrupted session into that new session. See if it works.

If still not working...more infos needed.
If any of those four tries works out; I would highly recommend performing an immediate Save session copy in (with associated audiofiles) to create a new clean session.
Hope that will help.Good luck.

[jampater]

Hi Mr T.,

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. I had already tried 3 of those 4 approaches before I posted my call for help (#1 #2 and #4). Unfortunately, #3 didn't work either. To be sure #4 works, but the problem is that it doesn't reconstitute the original session, it only allows you to import some files. It doesn't include all of them: when you cut and paste and process you create new files, but for some reason they don't even appear in the "Audio Files" folder. This all-important data seems to be specific to the session. Furthermore, all the placement information (i.e., where the bits all fit in) is missing, and must be specific to the file as well. After 3 weeks working on this track I don't think I could reconstruct it, even if I had the time and patience to start all over again. I feel very pessimistic now: so is it not possible to retrieve a session basically intact once it's been corrupted?

[where02190]

I'm sorry to say but you have learned a valuable but costly lesson in backing up.

Unfortunately in most cases, once a file is corrupted, it is lost. You might try the various utilities found with the Mac Care Unit for file recovery, but don't hold your breath.

Sorry for your loss....

[CCash]

You may have a corrupted session, but it sounds like you may have missed something when you imported the tracks. Try this:

Create a new session. From the File Menu, use Import Tracks. Double click on the session that has the tracks you want. Make sure both sessions have the same start time (you can set this in Windows> Show Session Setup). Choose Maintain Absolute Timecode in the Import dialog box.

Select (highlight) the track you want to import. If more than one, then shift-click on multiple tracks. Also check "Copy Files", not "Refer to original source files" (if you choose the latter, it'll always just look for the files from their original Audio Files folder).

Import the tracks. By importing the tracks you will have all the original placement and edits. However, I'm pretty sure that you will lose any automation and plug-ins from the original tracks.

[Marso]

This will not help you with your problem but in the future you may want to "save as" your sessions once in a while like session, session.1, session.2, etc. You could always go back to a previous "not too far from where I was" version of your work. There is also a automatic save pref in PT.

[jampater]

Thanks for the advice, guys. CCash, that sounds a really promising strategy. As long as the placements and the edits are still there, I am not too worried. Will give it a try ASAP. Anyway, Happy Xmas fellow music makers!