Can't find muproject

[Architeuthis]

Ok, so I had a crash. I opened the backup. I worked on the backup file constantly saving.

It is gone.

Please tell me MuLab doesn't have a strange file handlign where it thinks it should overwrite or delete autosaves or rewrite on autosaves or... I dunno. The latest muproject is hours behind what I worked on. Luckilly I finished the music before I closed it, I wanted to make some additional changes, but NOPE. At least I have the finished product.

here's the music in case you needed it for some reason.
Argitoth - Strong (additive synth demo).mp3

[I'm demonstrating the aggressive/loud/rhythmic bass throughout the song. That's coming from my additive synth, just a small project I'm releasing for free eventually.]

Is there another search time I should try? Last modified date should be around 2:30. Why are these projects even modified recently? Those few are much earlier versions of my project. Well, I did open them up searching for my latest project, that could have upped the modified date.

[Architeuthis]

I'm pretty sure this was the project. I'm getting "no longer exists" error. whyyyyy must you cause me suffering mulab. At least these problems are coming up with "not critical" work so I'm learning how to avoid all possible project loss now.

Edit: Just tried Recuva for file recovery, absolutely nothing.

Edit: Looking at the file list I posted, you see the project is marked ".lnk" for link. SoEm#AutoSaved is my project I'm pretty darn sure SoEm#AutoSaved is the project I'm looking for. The lnk file points to an actual file and oh look, it's pointing to the folder where it should be located!

[MuTools]

1) Auto save is only checked whenever you stop playing a composer.
That's regarded as a safe moment to do an automatic task that could take some time for huge projects. Because you would not want an 'unexpected' pause of possibly several secs to happen just when you are about to do something important in your creative flow.

2) Auto saved files are automatically deleted upon neat quit. The auto saved files are only regarded as a backup in case of a crash. The user is responsible to regularly save his/her projects to a preferred location + name.

[Architeuthis]

The user is responsible to regularly save his/her projects to a preferred location + name.

The developer is responsible to inform the user to save the project to a preferred location by having a prompt "You are opening a backup file. Save to a location as this file will be deleted"

Just have that pop up whenever you have a #crash or #backup in the project file name

[Architeuthis]

The way REAPER does it is *the best* I've seen in all the software I've ever used. It's simple. Make a new backup file every user-defined amount of minutes to a user-defined location. That's it! The user can take care of the rest. I end up with 100s of backup files mind you, but that's what it takes to not lose work. You really don't need the overly engineered backup system you have now. Not that I expect you to change it. I'm saying what I gotta say that's all.

I have *never* lost work with REAPER and I've used it for god damn years. Edit: around ~13 years. And I lose work with MuLab in about 5 days (TWICE mind you).

Edit: Clarification on REAPER backup system. The "backup every X minutes" stops if you're not touching the program. It must detect a change to make a backup.

Edit: And another thing, don't allow the user to save and feel secure if said file will be deleted. Have a promt that says "hey, you cannot overwrite this file, make a new one"

[MuTools]

The user is responsible to regularly save his/her projects to a preferred location + name.

The developer is responsible to inform the user to save the project to a preferred location by having a prompt "You are opening a backup file. Save to a location as this file will be deleted"
Just have that pop up whenever you have a #crash or #backup in the project file name

You're right.
This will be implemented in the next update.

[MuTools]

The way REAPER does it is *the best* I've seen in all the software I've ever used. It's simple. Make a new backup file every user-defined amount of minutes to a user-defined location. That's it! The user can take care of the rest. I end up with 100s of backup files mind you, but that's what it takes to not lose work.

That's exactly what i tried to avoid: A folder with 100s of 'AutoSaved' files the user may not be really aware about, and that can use a lot of disk space, and that have to be moved / resaved into your neat data folder structure anyway.

Anyway, you surely made a true point about warning the user that when he/she opens a project from the autosaved folder, eg after a crash in a vst plugin. That will be implemented in the next update.

Edit: Maybe it would even be better if MuLab checks upon startup for any files in the AutoSaved folder and informs the user about these files. That way the user knows about a possible rescue project file after a crash, and he/she also knows that these files must be moved/saved to another folder to preserve them.

[Architeuthis]

Edit: Maybe it would even be better if MuLab checks upon startup for any files in the AutoSaved folder and informs the user about these files. That way the user knows about a possible rescue project file after a crash, and he/she also knows that these files must be moved/saved to another folder to preserve them.

Yes, I know at least one program, Affinity Designer, that does this.

[MuTools]

Ok, this is how it is implemented in the next update:

1) Upon startup MuLab informs user about existing files in the AutoSaved folder.
This handy and relevant eg. after a crash, user may be happy to know about a possible rescue.

2) When opening projects from the AutoSaved folder, user is alerted about the temporary aspect of files in the AutoSaved folder.

3) Upon quit, MuLab proposes the user to trash the files in the AutoSaved folder.
So no silent auto delete but user still has a chance to keep them.
However this will result in a new popup alert upon next MuLab launch, cfr point 1, unless user moved these files out of the AutoSaved folder of course.

That way you'll surely not miss any AutoSaved files.
Hope this is not overkill.

[Architeuthis]

sounds good!

[MuTools]

3) Upon quit, MuLab proposes the user to trash the files in the AutoSaved folder.
So no silent auto delete but user still has a chance to keep them.
However this will result in a new popup alert upon next MuLab launch, cfr point 1, unless user moved these files out of the AutoSaved folder of course.

Upon quit, asking for a confirmation to delete the autosaved files feels like overkill in practice.
Because that would mean that almost every user who uses MuLab longer than the default AutoSave time of 15 minutes will get that question. Doesn't feel right.
I'm confident the info alerts listed in 1) and 2) are sufficient.
Those will surely avoid the situation Architeuthis encountered.

[Architeuthis]

I just had another HARD crash. Ohmicide again; as soon as I loaded it.

I can't find in any menu item indicating a location for backups or how to access to the backups. So, as a new user I would assume there are no backups. So, ok, let me go folder diving then for the backups. Ok, nice, you do backup unsaved projects.

Also, in the latest build, is this still an issue? (see image). Basically it autofills a path and after saving that file will be deleted or I dunno when Mulab deletes backups.

[Architeuthis]

Once again I have no backup for a HARD crash where I was working well past the auto-save timer. When I say "hard crash" I mean the program just closes without warning, without messages, etc.

Where is my backup? I am containing my frustration at the moment, we'll just leave it at that.

Give me my backups and I'll make crash reports. Until then, my lack of backups is taking up all my crash reporting time.

[Architeuthis]

I still don't regret buying MuLab...........even though my headphones broke......while using mulab..... reeeee

Never buying these headphones again, they keep breaking in other ways anyway.

[Architeuthis]

btw I start most of my mulab threads with "please tell me" because I find it humorous. As upset as I sound in the threads, I get over it pretty quickly.

Mulab is still better than FL studio.