Pro Tools WTF?

DJ_Enki

So I was working on a Pro Tools session earlier, and when I closed it up, I saved it and backed up the entire session folder. I open it up later to work on it some more, and half my audio files are missing. Not just stuff I had recorded today, but stuff that is weeks old. They aren't in the backup folder, either. They just disappeared. I tried to find/relink thing, and they're nowhere to be found.Do I have any hope of finding these audio files, or am I seriously going to have to record this stuff all over again?F[/b]uck computers.

spelunk

Have you tried looking for invisible files? A lot of programs hide backup files or anything that's currently in use as such...don't know about ProTools though.

http://kb.iu.edu/data/ajyj.html

OS X 10.5.x

1. With the Finder active, from the File menu, select Find... .

2. In the Searching window that opens, select how broad you want the search to be. For example, you can choose to search your entire Mac or just your home folder. In the pull-down menu labeled Kind, choose Other... , and in the sheet that appears, find and double-click File Invisible. In the pull-down menu to the right of the first one, select whether you are searching for Visible Items, Invisible Items, or both. The search will then begin.

3. To narrow your search, you can add additional search criteria, such as a filename, file size, or creation date. Each time you click the + (plus sign) on the right side of the search window, you will add another row to the search criteria.

OS X 10.4.x

1. With the Finder active, from the File menu, select Find... .

2. In the New Search window that opens, select how broad you want the search to be. For example, you can choose to search your entire computer or just your home folder. In the pull-down menu labeled Kind, choose Other... , and in the sheet that appears, find and double-click Visibility. In the Visible or Invisible pull-down menu to the right, select whether you are searching for Visible Items or Invisible Items. It will then begin searching.

3. To narrow your search, you may add additional search criteria, such as a filename, file size, or creation date. Click the + (plus sign) on the right side of the search window. Each time you click it, you will add another row to the search criteria.

OS X 10.3.x

1. With the Finder active, from the File menu, select Find... .

2. In the Find window that opens, in the section under the heading "Search for items whose:", click the Name pull-down menu and select Visibility. The options in the next pull-down menu to the right will change accordingly; select either invisible items or visible and invisible items as you prefer.

To add additional search criteria, such as a filename, file size, or creation date, click the + (plus sign) on the right side. Each time you click it, you will add another row to the search criteria.

shawnald_reagan

yep, had the same problem when we updated the OS. A little sleuthing on the interweb's brought the same information above and as a result, found the files we were looking for. Good Luck!

Descry

sadly, i too have experienced this huge issue.

i have yet to have find a fix and have delayed rerecording my release. annoying.

4YearGraduate

Don't know if this will help, but double check your disk allocations in the session- could be putting the
Regions wherever.

Good luck

Unherd

I'm on windows, but the session file should still display the names of the missing audio files on each of the greyed out waveforms. If any of them aren't too generic, you could just try searching your entire hard drive for them, and maybe find the motherload.

I recently had an issue where I had to do a system restore, and for some reason it renamed the folder with all the audio files. When i searched for the one file in the session not called "audio001" or whatever, I found them all, dragged them to where they're supposed to be and just reopened the session.

Good luck...

behemoth

i have had this problem and i am running OSx. I close the session, restart and boot up PT and then it works. I am guessing it is a glitch on my part

Jonny_Paycheck

Don't know if this will help, but double check your disk allocations in the session- could be putting the
Regions wherever.

Good luck

This is the right answer - I don't work in protools but a similar thing happened to me, turned out the program was saving audio files in a whole 'nother area of the drive. Now I keep my eye out, if you're moving files back and forth from an external this can be an issue.

JS

4YearGraduate

Word to chex.

I had some scoring files that were absolutely massive and involved importing session data/tracks from other sessions. I, for lack of knowing, did not click on the "copy audio data" tab, so basically it just tagged the original files and referred back to them in the session. Eventually, when i erased those files (thinking i had imported/copied them into new files) they disappeared for good and attempts to relink sent the session in a tailspin.

bottom line, always check your disk allocations after importing audio, tracks, shit, anything really.

also, check your trash cans. good luck

DJ_Enki

I'm on windows, but the session file should still display the names of the missing audio files on each of the greyed out waveforms. If any of them aren't too generic, you could just try searching your entire hard drive for them, and maybe find the motherload.

Yeah, I still see the greyed-out names and the blank audio regions in the edit window (with all the edits still visible--so much work completely gone), but searching my internal and external drives for any of the names comes up blank, even after I tried that invisible items thing.

Checked my disk allocation, too--it did switch drives at some point from external to internal, which is really weird, but there's nothing in the new allocation. The files are completely gone. Not on any drive, not in the trash can, nowhere. Pro Tools just decided it didn't want them anymore. Goddammit. It's gonna be such a pain in the ass to try to piece this back together again.

Thanks for all the advice, guys, but it appears as though technology has screwed me yet again. F[/b]uck motherfu[/b]ckin' computers. (Yes mad, doggie.)

Jonny_Paycheck

sent the session in a tailspin.

No shit - I lost an entire (records) mix this way, and had to re-track several songs I was working on from scratch behind this. Eyyiiissss it awwwwwl just waaasted tiiiime