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Participant
November 25, 2020
Question

How do I recover Audition files after a crash

  • November 25, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 20920 views

Hello. I'm a novice user of Audition on a Macbook Pro. I was working in Multitrack and it just crashed. I've saved many, many times but the current version when I reopened the app is only showing the edits from a week and a half ago. The other tracks are there, on the index on the left, but all of the clips I had edited and placed in tracks have disappeared. Can you walk me through recovering any of the versions that I've saved? Anything at all would be helpful.

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3 replies

Participant
August 24, 2023

I came across the same issue here: After an unexpected CRASH/RESTART, the saved multitrack files reverted to a version from a few hours ago. I'm certain that I had manually saved them just 1 minute before the crash!

 

After reading through those extensive solutions from some audio masters, I realized they were completely ineffective!

Audition, this stup*d app is not as pro as you might expect. Unlike FCPX, it doesn't retain all render files for users; it only preserves the latest version! If you follow certain settings advice from experts to modify your file version and click save, then unfortunately, you'll permanently lose the version you want.

 

Fortunately, I managed to recover it using my own method. Here's how.

 

1. Absolutely do NOT make any changes to the shown version in Audition after a crash or restart (in my case, a version from a few hours ago).

 

All recent saved audition files are in File->open recent.

Audition doesn't save recent files with the same name in folder temp/adobe/audition. 

Your latest version .sesx file is only saved in your defined folder, so

 

2. Close audition app without any changes, and reopen the .sesx from the folder you save.

 

Normally until this step, the latest version (1 minute before the crash in my case) will appear.

If not, then repeat step 2. or restart then repeat step 2.

 

AVOID using auto-save settings! If you enable this feature, Audition may overwrite the older version with the latest one before you recover it, requiring you to start from scratch. Then it'll be a tragedy...

 

Just remember, audition is not a smart app. Do not use any high-tech to retrive the lost files. Just close and re-open will solve. 🤣

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 24, 2023

The only thing that's not smart about Audition is that you aren't necessarily going to be offered the last session backup - and that trips up a lot of people. If you go to the place that your session files are stored, you will very likely find a more recent one than the one you were offered. No I don't know why this happens, but it does. But, if it says it's auto-saved, then it has. And auto-saves don't overwrite themselves - you can determine the number of them that you wish to save - any number up to the high thousands.

 

And everybody else - don't avoid using auto-saves for session files  - that's very bad advice. What you should do is use auto-saves, but also do manual saves. The auto-saves are a safety net, and you throw that away at your own peril.

Global Creators
Known Participant
July 18, 2023

Hello. My computer crashed and then I experienced this same issue. My auto save was set to backup to Creative Cloud. But when I checked, there were no backups. So the file in question lost all music and special fx settings. I was able to link the media, but not able to retrieve all work.

 

After checking Creative Cloud files for backups, there were none. So I edited the auto save settings in Audition to save every 3 minutes, 100 files, to a backup file I created on my pc. That was 30 minutes ago and no backups.

 

I cannot find a backup anywhere of the lost file. What to do?

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 18, 2023

So you created a specific location on your machine, restarted Audition, started a new session and no session files were stored every three minutes? (I bolded the bit you may have left out...)

Global Creators
Known Participant
July 18, 2023

I did not restart after setting the new backup file destination. So, I since put backup file destination to creative cloud. Then, I restarted Audition. Then, found the latest backup on Creative Cloud. Got the same file warning - see attached screenshot. 😕😕

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 25, 2020

What you get back from a backup rather depends upon how you've set it up. One thing you have to bear in mind is that it's only the session file that is backed up, not any of the audio. The best scenario is the one where you have a backup Multitrack session file location within the session folder, and you let it back up automatically - mine's set to 3 minutes and there's a large 'max number of files' figure as well. You can set all that under the Auto Save settings in Edit>Preferences.

 

If it's set like that, then you should be able to open the backup folder within your session, and you'll find all the backup files. Double-click on the most recent one, and that will get your session back to as close to where you were as you can get.

 

Of course that's the ideal scenario. If you have actually suffered a real crash, then the situation might be somewhat different, depending upon what caused it...

Participant
March 18, 2022

Hi there -

I'm having a similar recovery issue, hoping I'm missing something. My auto save settings are on the default (Multitrack every 3mins, up to 10 files, backing up to location within the session folder). The last backup file timestamp is close to the time I had to reboot, besides that I manually save often as well.

 

I had to force quit Audition and then shut down the whole computer. When I rebooted it, I don't recall the exact options offered by Audition but I believe I chose to open the auto-recovery file, something like that. As with other people, this session does not reflect my editing at all. Is there another way to open something else that will restore the edits? And, is there any chance this has to do with a file path issue? I get this error when opening the backup session file. The location is the backup file in the session folder. (it's the "1060 clips" that "have no asset" that concerns me. They're all present in the session, but of course, no longer Multitrack edited. Halp please? Thanks!

 

Participant
March 19, 2022

Okay! Reporting back on my own issue. It was a file linking issue! As per the error above & previous experience with InDesign, realized source file location wasn't open/doesn't open at the Audition restart. So I opened the folder location where they were, THEN opened my session file, and everything magically appeared in place and edited as it had been. Huzzah!

 

So, follow your file paths! Minor complaint is that I only knew about this from prior experience, not because there's a clue about it in the searching/help etc. Perhaps if you're experienced with these kinds of programs you'd take that knowledge for granted, but we less-practiced people could use a better pointer for something this essential to working with this.

 

Hope this helps any others crying in the corner after a reboot.