I must say my workflow is faster with Cubase 8 Pro…except for this which has caused some setbacks.
I have confirmed that when a project is closed without saving, the bak files created by autosave after the last deliberate save, disappear. (They’re not in the Windows Recycle Bin.) I tested this and watched the bak files disappear from the project folder. This seems to be new behaviour, as I would have noticed it before. Perhaps Steinberg or someone can explain the how and why of autosave, so we can either adjust the way we rely on it, or ask for a change.
Here is what causes the issue:
You save “Project X” at 9 AM. Autosave is set to save every 5 minutes.
You work for an hour without saving, and then you notice something going weird/crashy in Cubase, so you decide to close Cubase without saving, and re-open using a recent backup. But first, you check the project folder to ensure that there is a backup file. You see that there is a bak file created 5 minutes ago. Great! Autosave did its job.
However, upon closing Project X without saving, all bak files that were created after the 9 AM save, simply disappear. You have lost an hour of work.
I’m having trouble understanding how backup files are useful this way. Would the experience be the same if the Project X were closed without saving due to a crash rather than by choice?
Can Steinberg or someone explain or help? Please and thank you!
link to a similar thread under the C7 section - similar issue in context of a crash (possibly posted under C7 erroneously):
That is how it’s designed to work. You explicitly tell Cubase you don’t want to save, so it it takes you literally. The project isn’t saved, the .BAK files are deleted.
When Cubase crashes the .BAK files are not deleted.
Ok, thanks for the reply. But I’m pretty sure this is changed behaviour as I do it the above way automatically when I want to go back a version.
It’s funny to think – in a situation where you want to exit and not come back to the current project which has gone kinda-crashy or you lost track of something or lost a feel/groove, and instead you want to open a recent bak file to start from where you were a few minutes ago…you have to save the current project which you know you will not ever open again*. You will be using the bak file and re-naming it to an updated name. (Cubase did the re-naming for you in C7.) So, you are saving the current useless project file just to “remind” Cubase not to delete your most recent bak files…?
*(Furthermore you need to remember to give the now useless project file a unique name so you don’t over-write a previous “ok” project file with the crashy/bad one.)
What would be wrong with just leaving the bak files alone? Windows tells me the exact time each one was created, and I have set my own limit as to how many bak files there will be. Especially important right now as we wait for an update.
Would there be some problem with just leaving all the bak files there?
Cubase 8 “got” me again. I felt I had lost some impact of a snare made up of several layers sounds feeding into several levels of saturation and compression. I decided to revert to a bak file that I confirmed visually was there, created about 10 minutes ago. Using backups creatively the way I used to. Forgot that I have to “save” a useless newly-named unwanted garbage project file to “remind” Cubase not to delete my bak files that I need. Watched my bak files disappear as I remembered the convenient new backup auto-delete behaviour. Thanks Cubase!
I also confirmed that C7 behaves the same way as C8 as far as the backwards numbering of bak files is concerned.
But the fact is that when you do as I tried to do above – revert to a bak file that was created after your last deliberate save - without saving - Cubase 8 deletes your bak files. These could be bak files created since you last saved, say, an hour ago.
Steve, please understand that I am a user since Steinberg Pro24 on an Atari ST, and every version of Cubase since. (Ok, I skipped SX2.) To a long time user, many little things in Cubase are basically unconscious. As also pointed out by some others, right now there is something funny about the backup function that is hard to put one’s finger on. But that isn’t the issue right now.
I have identified what I describe above and you have also identified the same thing, describing it as a normal function. Cubase deletes your backup files unless (a) there is a crash, or (b) you save a project file you do not want in order to be able to revert to a recently created backup. I understand that. We are agreed on that.
The question is – why? Why not just keep the bak files?
If there is no real reason for it, then great, it’s an opportunity for a simple coding change, or a preference, as someone else has suggested.