Auto-save not working consistently

[JOHN MONDO]

I was looking for an auto save today and I've realised that since the 25th August, PP has not been saving auto-saves consistently. Yikes! And when I say consistently I mean not a lot - very intermittent. here's a screen shot of my autosaves (dates only) over that period. I edit nearly every day in PP. PS I have checked my settings and the location hasn't changed and there is plenty of space on the drive. 

I'll reset prefs and see if that fixes it but I wonder why Premiere doesn't report an issue like this to the user? I also wonder if it's a database issue and if i delete some old autosaves if that will fix it. My hardware - M1 macbook Pro with 32GB RAM.

[Peru Bob]

Auto save has very often been unpredictable in past versions.  Sometimes it won't start auto saving until a manual save is done.

Don't rely on auto save. Save and save a copy often.  Only rely on auto save as a last resort.

Also, make sure your auto saves and backups are on a different drive than your media and projects.

[JOHN MONDO]

I don't disagree Bob but unfortunately auto-save is something I've come to rely on and in the past it has been very reliable (at least fo me). And in 2023 it is something that should work, consistently, well and without ever failing. And there should be a software check built into the program to check it's working. That's not to say your advice is bad, it's just when working under deadlines, continually remembering to hit SHIFT-S (why was it changed from Command-S anyway?)  is not something I can do. Which is why I rely on auto-save. I'm human, not a computer. I'll forget. And the one time I do will be the one time I need it... (Murphy and all)

[R Neil Haugen]

Hey, we all understand! That said, many of us have been royally burned by forgetting to do that manual save and a routine save-as iterative save, move on to that new project process. Or in my case, the first time, not realizing that I should have been doing as much as I did.

And I came into video post after 20 years of using computers in our business, and thoroughly steeped in saves save your backside. I didn't realize how fast, and how bad, you got burned in an NLE. Silly me!

About the third time ... well, Ann Bens, Jim Simon, and Craig (forgot his forum name!) were rather merciless on me for being ... well, less than sane, perhaps? But yes, I learned ... I've not been burned like that in years now. Thankfully.

[JOHN MONDO]

Hey - I always value all your opinions but in this I think it is not a complicated matter for Adobe to address. ie - save the file then check it has been saved and advise the user if it hasn't. And on the flip side I've been using After Effects for a couple of decades and NEVER had that fail to save an auto-save. I've had it crash in between auto-saves, when I've forgotten to save my preferences to make it back up every 5 minutes and lost 30 minutes but that's the extent of it. So we shouldn't be satisifed with a critical feature that doesn't work properly. It also doesn't address as you put it the iterative save - if we make a mistake and want to go back in time 30 minutes. You can't use Save As in productions because you create a copy and then you continually get warnings about duplicate projects - maybe you do something different Neil? as I know you work in productions as well?

I'm not ignoring the advice - I will start doing it but don't think as loyal users we should "settle" for something sub par when Adobe have clearly showed they canmake it work in other software.

[R Neil Haugen]

Don't disagree with any of that.

However, I learned years ago to request better of the app, but no matter how well the app seems to behave, as a simple matter of saving my sanity  ... never, ever rely on the app. No matter what app, or made by whoever.

Just ... practical.

[JOHN MONDO]

I will take your advice. But live in hope 🙂 Unfortunately i tend to be a bit ADD - doesn't stop me being a good editor but makes it difficult for me to be machine like.

[R Neil Haugen]

Totally understood. I just don't trust any applications. Ever.

So I don't even actually think about it anymore. Do something, it works... save. Fingers just go ga-zap without needing brain function or attention.

[Ann Bens]

FAQ: When to use "Save A Copy," or "Save As," and and when to simply use "Save"

If your project becomes corrupt without you knowing, so can all your auto saves.

Then you will have no auto save to fall back on.

Always make a Save a copy to a different drive after every edit session.

[JOHN MONDO]

Why would all my auto-saves become corrupt? I've actually had this exact problem and reverted to an auto-save before the corruption. Any way - I think Adobe needs to come up with a better "incremental" method for productions. Currently if you use either Save As or Save A Copy you get a duplicate project ID warning. 

[R Neil Haugen]

Yea, there's several things still not exactly right in Productions, though I use it all the time as it's vastly better than stand-alone projects. Not nearly perfect though ... 

[Peru Bob]

Why would all my auto-saves become corrupt?

By @JOHN MONDO

If your project becomes corrupt and the auto saves are saving and writing over each other (depending upon how many auto saves you chose to keep), they can all become corrupted.

[JOHN MONDO]

Well it's really a moot point at the moment because I can't get autosave to work at all... the only time I've ever had a project become corrupt is when it crashed. I've had corrupt media before which has kept the project from booting but you can usually track that down and that would affect every version of a project, autosave and manual save.

[Peru Bob]

Try changing the location of the auto saves.  

How much free space is on the drive(s)?

[JOHN MONDO]

I have tried that. I've reset prefs, changed the location and there's over 500GB free on the drive. I'll try changing it to a completely different drive. But note - it is also not saving autosaves online either. Will investigate further.

[Peru Bob]

I wonder if your firewall or antivirus might be blocking it?

[JOHN MONDO]

Well firewall can't affect local disks. However you got me thinking about Mac security settings. Premiere Pro did not have full disk access set, so I set that. I've added CC and associated programs to the firewall's settings and i was able to sync my libraries but it did it once and now I'm getting a sync error but only on the libraries - and the Mac firewall is set to allow incoming connections for any signed program and I assume all Adobe's programs are correctly signed. So I've tried all this and auto-save does still not appear to be working. 

[JOHN MONDO]

PS _ the way CC seems to store files is very confusing.  If I go to the CC app it says files are syncing. Green light.

 

However there are no files there at all (because I haven't added any but I would expect to see auto-save).

 

If I click on the open sync directory there is a Premiere Pro and an Audition folder (stored in the users/name/Creative Cloud Files folder).

 

However neither of these folders show up in the CC app. But if I right click on one of these folders and choose view on website they are online.

If anyone can explain why logically I can't see these folders in the Creative Cloud app feel free to explain here...