Struggling with constant "files missing"

[kately]

having huge problem...files say "missing' when i open a project in trakction....i re-import them, change their descriptions to describe proper import paths, save and then close tracktion...when i re-open it... tracktion has lost the files again ...the odd thing is that files in the same folders are not lost in other tracktion projects....could it have anything to do with storing everything on an external hardrive? maybe, but now i've put everything on my computer itself and reimported and closed tracktion---only to have the problerm again....ideas?

[djsubject]

do you have all your tracks inone project? or seperate projects for eack track? (each project should have its own folder!!

Subz

[philip]

It's also a good idea to tab between the Projects page and the (open) Edit page once in a while. Doing a simple "Save" will save your EDIT information (where your clips are, EQ settings, levels, automation etc.) but won't necessarily be able to save which FILES are associated with those clips - this information is forced-to-disk every time you go between the main Projects page and an open Edit page.

Shortcut - hit the [Esc] key twice (I believe!) and that should quickly tab over to the Project page and back. Do this from time to time and see if this makes things better.

Finally, quick thing I've noticed on the Mac version of T2 recently (it may apply to PC too) and that is if you're importing files from removable devices such as CD-Roms or FireWire drives etc. then those files are not automatically copied to your local hard-drive and consequently go 'missing' when you kick that CD out as they're not online anymore. This is particularly true of the Tracktion sampler, if you import WAVs to use as samples. Workaround is to make sure you copy CD-Rom files to the hard-drive first before importing them.

Hope this helps,

Philip

[classic dave]

having huge problem...files say "missing' when i open a project in trakction....i re-import them, change their descriptions to describe proper import paths, save and then close tracktion...when i re-open it... tracktion has lost the files again ...the odd thing is that files in the same folders are not lost in other tracktion projects....could it have anything to do with storing everything on an external hardrive? maybe, but now i've put everything on my computer itself and reimported and closed tracktion---only to have the problerm again....ideas?

I had similar problems. If you are using a Mac as I do then make sure you perform a permissions repair using the Mac disc utility programme at least once a week or even just before you start work on a major edit.I could be wrong but I think the missing files problem is Mac related.

[Lunch Money]

Another word to the wise: Tracktion's collab tools don't work the way I thought they should. If I export an archive ("Lunch Money's Archive") and then try to re-import it after classic dave has done work on it ("Classic Dave Adds Bass archive"), into the same directory, it will screw up the file pointers and a lot of them will show "file missing" even when it's not. Then you have to manually reassign. I'm pretty sure this is the case even with different filenames for the archive, because the numerical pointers don't change.

I'm sure there's a better way of doing it, and I'm confident that it's being addressed sooner than later, but in the meantime I create a project when importing a collab that someone else has worked on.

Better still, I've learned to get them to send me just the bwav or an ogg with a quick little bit of text saying where it should start in the timeline.

Greg

[Rock]

Another word to the wise: Tracktion's collab tools don't work the way I thought they should.

It doesn't sound like you are thinking the way YOU should. I wish you would stop bringing your negativity and Tracktion bashing to this forum. If you don't like it just use something else.

[kately]

eager thank yous, really thought i was losing my mind.....still have to get everything organized but my friend uses tracktion on a pc and he really thought i was just a disorganized freak on this one. ....one thing i think messes me up more is that i'm not making straightforward songs so much as patching together lots of field recordings so my audio doesn't want to be in inidividual folders cause i want it to exist independently as well....not sure if other people have a good way of dealing with that....maybe that's what an externa harddrive is for for.

[Lunch Money]

@ Rock.

kately: sometimes unplugging and re-plugging external drives will change the drive letter. This isn't a problem as long as you're aware of it. The drive letter can be assigned to your "accepted" drive letter very quickly and easily. If you go with an external drive, go with something high up in the alphabet so that adding USB key-drives and so forth will rarely if ever interfere with your external's drive letter.

[nightonthesun]

...one thing i think messes me up more is that i'm not making straightforward songs so much as patching together lots of field recordings so my audio doesn't want to be in inidividual folders cause i want it to exist independently as well....not sure if other people have a good way of dealing with that....maybe that's what an externa harddrive is for for.

I tend to do similar things -- I have literally hundreds of folders of field recordings. But what I always make sure to do is to first make a folder for each new tracktion project, *copy every file I use* to the project's folder and *then* import it to the project. This includes sampler files. That way, even though I have to use extra disk space, everything is together.

External HD's are a great idea no matter what you use a computer for. They should be required.