What have I done? (Podcast difficulties)

[unauthorizedrob]

I fear I have infected our computer with complex nanoparticles from my complicated brain.

I have been happily editing a podcast, using the most current version of Audition (Build 12.1.3.10) on an iMac running High Sierra 10.13.6 with 16 GB of RAM and plenty of hard drive space.  As I built sequences in separate .sesx files, I saved every 3 minutes to the Adobe/Audition/12.0 folder on my hard drive.  Carefully created session folders saved all media to those.  I also backed up the .sesx files as well as media to an external disk.

At 3:17 am the night before our launch, the program crashed.  Just went black.  I restarted, and what came up was heartbreaking.  Session files had confused media files, putting one inside of another, mislabelling, and presenting multi-track projects with empty tracks.  Backups did not help;  I went through every version and got the same results.

I am wondering if the fact that I have my documents folder on my iCloud caused this.  I have never understood Cloud anyway;  are the files here, on the hard drive, or on the Cloud, or what?  It seems like Audition was reaching for the media files and not finding them.  Today -- when this all happened again after a brief interlude of luck -- the multi-track would load, appearing to be correct, bringing in all the required media files, but with empty tracks, clips greyed-out. (screenshot attached).

This is how all the session files appear FROM THE HARD DRIVE.  The ones I saved to the desktop folder I created seem to be at least partially there.  Still checking.

Link Media would ask, I would find the right file, and nothing happened.  It kept on asking for the same files.

Was it a mistake to open new multitrack sessions within the first, larger one?  I did that to create subsidiary multi-track files, chunks of the larger assembly.  I created new .sesx files inside of the main project because I wanted to preserve the separate tracks for mixing, and mixdowns don't do that.

This seems to happen right at the end of a session.  I went to save this morning around 3, and the beachball came up.  Sure enough, my most recent file was nowhere.

There is one other issue that has confounded me:  When I open new sessions and start to import files, then save and reopen later, these projects seem to bring in tons of superfluous media, and makes copy after copy cop after copy copy copy, clogging up the storage.  I once got a warning that I had exceeded the amount of files Audition could handle, which is especially aggravating since I did not want them all in there in the first place.

Finally, as you can see in this screenshot, the media browser shows all my project folders, but no .sesx files and no imported files recorded, etc.  It is an empty facade.

Can one of you wizards help me sort this mess out?

Thanks.

Rob

[Mod note - title extended to make forum searches easier for others]

[SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Accepted solution]

All I can say is - what a mess!

I suspect that you've created the session file from hell, and the only person around here who can make sense of those is SuiteSpot, who will hopefully see this. But...

The cloud. Save no work in progress to this, ever. It is a recipe for disaster. You have no idea where your files are, and no idea about how you are being linked to them - if you are at all at any given time. Basically you've thrown yourself at the mercy of the entire internet. Good luck with that...

Systems like Dropbox are okay for leaving distribution copies in, so others can have access to them, but that's about all. All these systems go on about 'co-operative working' and all that guff but the reality of the situation is as above - you have no idea at all where your stuff is (except that it's probably in a desert somewhere, by all accounts) and it's seriously easy to lose reliable access to it.

So the rules are - keep everything original on your machine, and don't expect a session file to be able to pull back a file that's located remotely - there have been any number of problems with this, even with network drives. So:

unauthorizedrob  wrote

I am wondering if the fact that I have my documents folder on my iCloud caused this.

... is almost certainly the root of your problems. Now I realise that you've probably begun to realise this, but it's worth re-iterating.

And, session files within session files - not clever anyway, and completely unnecessary in a podcast, or indeed any form of broadcasting. If you have a separate section of material you want to include (what broadcasters will often refer to as a 'package') then mix this down, and use the mixed file in your podcast session, and don't drag the session back in at all. You end up with a much cleaner result, and far fewer technical problems. Just because it looks like something is possible, doesn't make it the right thing to do, by any means.

[unauthorizedrob]

Thanks so much. If I had the funds, I would hire someone competent. As it

is, I am stuck with an old geezer who just complicates things.

On Mon, Aug 19, 2019 at 3:34 AM SteveG(AudioMasters) <

[bradfordr919988 · Accepted solution]

Hey, Steve! I seem to have a related problem: Nothing is lost, but now it seems on this project that every time I save, it asks if I want to overwrite the existing session file...and then it turns most all the files in the Files panel to [original_filename] copy copy copy.wav (It adds a "copy" each time I save.)

Yes, I have the session file (and all the audio files, once they're saved to the session folder) on Dropbox. But I see no reason why this should be happening...nor do I see a better quick way to work at my desk, then within minutes be able to grab my laptop and go work somewhere else.

To be clear, I haven't even opened this session up on the laptop...this is all happening on the Mac Mini, and the Path to all the files is a legit local path. This doesn't seem to happen in Premiere, either.

Surely there's a better answer than "don't use the cloud?"

Thanks!

Bradford

[SuiteSpot]

Yep what a mess

Send me your (main) sesx file and any of the other sesx files that were saved within that session and I'll have a look and see if there is anything that can be done

Email them to info@aatranslator.com.au

[unauthorizedrob]

Thanks so much.

Sent -- they are over 25mb, so sending as a google file. 

Damn iCloud.

r

[SCHIZOID]

my dear, i'm not a Audition expert; But I faced a part of similar problem. Whatever folder I use to make, it will keep on doubling daily. Folder inside the folder, and folder in that folder again. As if you break an egg and instead of yoke, there is another egg inside the egg.

Any how it was due to a virus, which I could not kill for days. It kicked out the antivirus itself. Finally an old guy advised;  “kill him while sleeping”. So, I did it, by entering into SAFE mode. (keep spying on to viruse intrusion)

 Could be a brain product of a Hard-drive manufacturer,  cause it showed me, as if all of my drives were full, and was made to think to hook up more hard discs.