No Settings option to choose a different directory for all my projects and edits?

[Ally007]

I would like all my TW projects and edits to be saved onto a folder of my choosing, on a different HDD than the default one that TW chose. I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be an option to do this in Settings. Am I missing something? I'm using TW12 on 64-bit Windows.

When we start a new project, TW does gives us the option to choose a folder for that project. However when I set it to use a fplder of my choosing, I found that I could not save my edit there, for some reason. It threw up a message saying "cannot save edit".

[operandx]

Edits are linked to a project so if you have set a valid location for a project the edits of that project will be saved in that folder. I don't know why that's not working for you. Always worked for me. What location are you trying to save to?

[jabe]

When you create a new project on the settings page or add an edit on the edit page, it shows a chosen location (folder). If you change that location (and then create a project or add a folder), it will remember the new location next time you want to do either.

There is an option not to reload a project on opening of Waveform. If you're using external drives you might want to set that to not happen,

[Peter Widdicombe]

I can imagine, too, that if you use an external drive of any kind, Waveform doesn't take kindly to being turned on or connected while or after Waveform is loaded - same as MIDI and possibly audio devices. They better be ready before you start up, or you'll have to exit and restart Waveform.

[Ally007]

Edits are linked to a project so if you have set a valid location for a project the edits of that project will be saved in that folder. I don't know why that's not working for you. Always worked for me. What location are you trying to save to?

Just a regular folder on my F: drive (just a regular HDD). I'm not using external drives.

[Ally007]

When you create a new project on the settings page or add an edit on the edit page, it shows a chosen location (folder). If you change that location (and then create a project or add a folder), it will remember the new location next time you want to do either.

There is an option not to reload a project on opening of Waveform. If you're using external drives you might want to set that to not happen,

I tried this and yes, it seems to work. Thank you. I thought I did exactly this, the last time, when it refused to save my edit. Perhaps that time, I did something wrong, inadvertently.

I would like to move all my old projects across from my D: drive (which TW12 chose as the default location for my projects) to a new directory, on another HDD. If I do that, will I still be able to open those projects? I want to move those old projects, because they are scattered among hundreds of other folders on my D: drive; I want to keep things much more organised, keeping all my work under one directory on another HDD that has much more free space.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Just MOVING them will probably not work; as Waveform keeps absolute disk references in the key project files (i.e. D:\music\tracktion\2022\proj1.trkedit), so when moved will still refer back to the old location (It'd be nice to have the option of RELATIVE offsets, like ..\audio\ and ..\exported, etc, but it doesn't, or at least didn't).

I think either backup or archive can "reform" relationships, so you can archive each project and then restore it to the new location with new references intact. However, MAKE BACKUPS of all directory trees where your projects are first !!.

(Better yet - do you have a second system that you can restore to, to verify first... or you might be

[Ally007]

Just MOVING them will probably not work; as Waveform keeps absolute disk references in the key project files (i.e. D:\music\tracktion\2022\proj1.trkedit), so when moved will still refer back to the old location (It'd be nice to have the option of RELATIVE offsets, like ..\audio\ and ..\exported, etc, but it doesn't, or at least didn't).

I think either backup or archive can "reform" relationships, so you can archive each project and then restore it to the new location with new references intact. However, MAKE BACKUPS of all directory trees where your projects are first !!.

(Better yet - do you have a second system that you can restore to, to verify first... or you might be

Thanks for the insights. No, no second system here. However, I'm thinking that a safe (???) way to move my projects to my preferred directory, would be to open each project, in turn, in TW, and send a new save of each, to my desired directory. Would that be a failsafe method?

[Peter Widdicombe]

Possibly not SAFELY. What you may end up with is files in, say disk E: pointing to your audio recordings in their original location in D: - so it appears to work until you clean up all the old files that you THINK are no longer used. Your typical "save" functionality will only save copies of things that have changed.

I could be wrong here, but I believe this has been flagged previously, at least in prior versions. Test on an older project you don't care about so much (or create a new one with several takes...) in your "normal" location, then save to the new location and test (see that all necessary files are in the new location), then delete the OLD copy and verify the new one still works. Then repeat with an archive.