BAK Files and Folder - Organization

Cubase
1

Hi Guys,

Is there a way to, automatically, create a folder and send the BAK files to it?
Pro Tools creates a folder called Session File Backup and keep these files there. I would love to do something like this in Cubase.

How do you guys organize this type of files?


Best!

2

My workflow for project and .bak files…

Typically I create new projects using one of my saved templates.

  • Starting on the Steinberg hub I make sure the option to “Prompt for Project Location” is checked.
  • Then I click on my applicable template (located in the “More” folder) then, click the “create” button.
  • From there I choose the main folder I use to save all my Cubase projects.
  • Once that main folder is highlighted I choose the “New Folder” button and type in a name that corresponds to my new project and hit the “OK” button.
  • Once the project opens I immediately save the project with the name I want. I do this to ensure the project folder is actually created (I have lost projects when mistakenly closing them at this point without saving first).

Now I have a separate project folder for that project. The project .cpr file and all the .bak files (set at 5 max every 10 minutes) get saved to this separate project folder. Additionally, Cubase automatically creates an “Audio” and “Image” folders in that folder too. So everything associated with this project is in it’s own separate folder. This is especially important for the audio files because they will be in an audio pool separate from all other projects.

Beyond that, I do a Windows “Backup” every week (at a minimum). Also, if I get paranoid enough for a certain project, I will do a Cubase “Back Up Project” which results in another separate copy of the project (including the .bak files) in a different folder.

Bottom line for the .bak files… I just keep them in the created project folder that is specific to the project I don’t see a need to have them saved in a separate folder location.

Regards :sunglasses:

1 Like
3

samferrari :

2019 still looking for an answer. “They” simply will not invoke this change after many, many requests for years, but please keep hassling them on the “feature Request” pages.

4

And hopefully never will, Bak files need to be in the root of the project.
Changing that would be really bad, and serves absolutely no purpose other than relieving some OCD.

5

+1

6

It is not about OCD, it’s about how fast you can spot required .cpr file, if there is a lot of them in the project folder then there is much more .bak files and things become messy here.

1 Like
7

You don’t indicate what OS you are using (one of the reasons we encourage folks to put their sys specs in their signature :wink: ), but if you are on Windows you can set it to group by file type which makes it easy to spot the CPR file. In Windows Explorer this is easy to find on the View Tab. But in Cubase dialogs for file selection none of the Windows Explorer tabs are shown so it is not obvious how to setup grouping. But it is pretty simple, just right+click on an empty space in the file listing and you’ll find grouping there. I assume there is something similar for Mac.

Looks like this

group by filetype.jpg
group by filetype.jpg1095Ă—703 109 KB

8

Didn’t know that one. Very good. :slight_smile:

9

My bad, fixed it, thanks

Yes, I know how to do this, more of that I’m using “Ignore list” in Total Commander (Configuration → Options → Operation → Ignore List), but thing is Windows Explorer can’t hide files with specific extensions and I’m still using it in some cases, and yeah, I can sort them by date, group them, make them hidden with the script in background, but why all those actions when it’s easily solved by including this feature in DAW which is responsible for creating those projects. I worked in Pro Tools so kinda know how convenient it is when your project folders are clean.

10

I would absolutely love this feature and don’t see why having a folder that holds all of these files would be a bad thing or the need to say you’re OCD if you want this. The closest thing on Mac is to sort by type but not as clean as on Windows. I think possibly that it doesn’t cause as much pain for Windows users who open up projects from Cubase/Nuendo because all of those extra unneeded files do not show. On a Mac from the Finder just like Windows in the Explorer shows all the files but also opening from Cubendo shows all these bak up flies and such an eye clutter. I really only need to see my most recent session.

Can you help me understand why changing that would be really bad? The only thing I can think of is when Cubase crashes you it auto asks you that there is a more recent backup file do you want to open that instead. They could just program it to look in the backup folder instead. A preference under General that reads “Create a separate folder for backup files” would be awesome and help those with “OCD!”

If anyone is on a Mac feel free to PM me and I can send you watch folder rules I have set up with Hazel that leave only the most recent .bak file in the folder and moves all the other files to a backup folder. It’ would be nice to not have to keep projects in a watch folder and all the computers I use Nuendo on this just works.

1 Like
11

It always cracks me up when someone says something “needs to be” or “has to be” one way or another. The backup files surely don’t HAVE to be in the root.

Studio One, for instance, puts them in a folder called “History”, which makes good sense and also makes for a tidy root folder. Funny that it works for Studio One but not for Cubase.

I guess Cubase must be inferior then.