Cubase and Google Drive

Cubase
#1

Hi there everyone,
i have a question:
I am using Cubase lastest version to work on my projects. I am a film composer so more and less all of my projects are about orchestral music of hybrid electronic-orchestral music.
The thing is that i am really obsessed about security and back ups in all my projects. So i have moved all my cubase projects forlders to a google drive folder. That way i am working and everything is overwriten in real time both on the cloud and in my local machine. I´ve discovered that for some reason the cpr. i am working on becomes kind of corrupt and cubase doesnt allow me to save the project under the same name, and i have to “Save as” and create a new name for that.
Example:

I create a project and save it as: Carlos Martin project.cpr
It goes to the cloud as the cubase project folder is already on google drive folder so everything is synchronized from the very first time.
after that i can work and save and it starts creating the .bak files and overwriting everything and suddenly something happens with the synchronization of google drive and the cpr doesnt synchronize anymore and cubase says that: Can´t save the project cause it doesnt found the cpr. So i go: Save as:
Carlos Martin project 1.cpr.
And then everything starts again.

So i can say that everything is safe and both in the cloud and my machine but i want somehow to stop working on a long project and having hundreds of .cprs
I guess i am not the first one doing these kind of things so i am here for ideas and suggestions.
Thanks everyone!!

Carlos

#2

Hi,

I’m not cloud expert. But I expect the file is to red locally in fact, and then it is synced time to time, to the server (or maybe everytime, you make any change in the folder; so everytime, when the automatic save file is created). Am I right?

What kind of issues I can imagine (just ideas, with no experience). Some kind of server-client comunication issue. Or some kind of security on Google side. Would be interesting to try to save some other file (TXT) multiple-times to the Google Drive. Would be interesting to emulate this with another application but Cubase. Just to know, if it’s on Cubase side or Google Drive side.

Btw: Very interesting way, I like it. :wink:

#3

Welcome to the forum, Carlos. Please add your system info to your profile signature before replying to this post.
https://www.steinberg.net/forums/ucp.php?i=profile&mode=signature

Your projects are saved locally. If you want to back them up, this is separate. The files that Cubase is working with are on your computer, not on the remote storage server that is popularly called “the cloud”. If you are recording audio you are adding needless overhead to the tasks your hard drive or ssd perform with the google sync engine.

In any case, the files are not being written in real time.Well, sometimes they might be close to real time, but that’s just coincidental. Each time you hit save, or the Cubase autosave function operates, a file is eventually synced to your Google drive. Such functions are not meant to be in real time. The Google program running on your computer tests periodically for changed files, then syncs it. It will pause if it needs to for a variety of reasons.

If Cubase is complaining that the file is not on your computer, there is something wrong with your setup.

What is the exact filepath of your Cubase Project Folder?

(edit: Martin posted while I was writing- yes it’s interesting, but wouldn’t only an actual network share would be truly “in sync”? And that of course would not work for audio recording )

#4

Disable your cloud drive services until you’re done working on the project.

  1. You’ll get better performance from your DAW with less junk running in the background!
  2. You’ll avoid the potential issue of the cloud client trying to sync stuff that may be ‘locked’ or in use.

When you’re done with your DAW session turn your cloud drives back on and let them sync.

In my case it really does help a good deal if I disable any and all ‘services’ that my DAW doesn’t need during a session. Especially cloud services that want to snoop and try to sync everything going on in a given directory with external servers! On some systems things like network card access can have an impact on DAW latency. Having services that constantly monitor active project folders can also cost some CPU cycles and bus bandwidth that’d be better used by your DAW, Plugins, etc.

So…
Disable the cloud drives (right click them in your system tray and ‘exit’) until you’re done with the DAW session. Restart them when you’re done and let them sync with the cloud.

#5

Thanks everyone for your replies! very apreciated.
I don´t work recording audio in my home studio so not very worried about it but i think that the best solution is to stop the sync while working and activate it when i want to do the back up.
My Cubase projects are at D: Google Drive/Cubase Projects

My best and thanks for the welcome to this great comunity!
Carlos

#6

Hi Carlos,

In the past I have worked in two different studios and used Cubase with Google drive to avoid duplicating projects and it worked ok for me. I didn’t do anything special. Just created a project folder within the Google Drive folder structure on the hard drive and went from there. I still use it on occasion now.

dbh