Backing up track presets, FX presets, MIDI loops, key commands, Mediabay etcetera every 4 weeks is extremely tedious and time consuming. Is there a quicker way to do this? Perhaps some automation?
You donāt say if you are on a Mac or PC, but in general itās a good to do regular OS based backups of your entire computer. These can be automated so once setup it just occurs. I run a daily back that does a full backup followed by 12 days of differential backup before repeating the pattern.
Hi Raino. Iām on PC. I prefer to back up Cubase just as is instead of backing up the whole computer, if anything goes wrong with the computer I donāt want to loose everything in Cubase, and if I have to salvage Cubase Iām back at square one.
You might want to reconsider. Backing up the whole computer will let you restore Cubase exactly how you say you want. Itās also easier than trying to only back up some of the stuff.
About 2 years ago I had a disk that slowly started to fail & in the process was corrupting existing files unbeknownst to me. About a month in the disk completely failed. Fortunately I was able to recover everything from my backups of the entire computer - and I donāt mean just the Project files, but all the settings stored in Appdat, plugins, license data, etc. But I did have to use some older backups to find uncorrupted copies of some files. If I hadnāt had the automated backups getting created in the background Iād have lost tons of stuff.
Ignore system backups at your own peril, and donāt say you werenāt warned when it bites you in the ass.
I already have a clean back up of Windows and Cubase separate. What when uninstalled programmes leave mess behind? How many 40GB+ back ups of Windows hard drives should you keep? What if you want to transfer to a different computer? It doesnāt make sense. Why there isnāt a one click back of everything Cubase Iām not sure. Somebody did make a solution to this but I canāt find it anymore, and it was likely for Cubase 5 or something.
In the end it is just three folders you need (if we ignore special cases as VSTConnect):
- Documents\Steinberg
- Documents\VST3 Presets
- c:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Cubase XX_64 (and maybe the "Track Presets folder)
(If you just want to move your preferences, key commands etc to another computer, just use the Profile Manager in Cubase. )
You can use any file backup/sync tool to backup them (e.g. FreeFileSync or similar tools). Or just use the Windows Backup which includes your Document folder per default anyway, you might just need to add the AppData folder.
But I agree with Raino , a proper image backup ist the base upon you should build all other backup methods (like keeping a backup of your important files in a different location, e.g. cloud).
As I said, years worth of programme updates and the accumulation of Junk doesnāt seem like a healthy computer to me. Those files paths wouldnāt back everything up by the way should you do so in the future.
I have my Win10 Computer for several years now, including many program updates and install and whatnot, and it works fine. The notion that updates, installs and uninstalls somehow āclogā up your system and make it slower, buggy and whatnot is a myth by now, IMHO.
And yes, the directories I named make up pretty much everything that makes out a personalized Cubase configuration, thatās what I copy when I switch computers, and it has always worked fine for me. Of course your project folders and third party plugins are a separate issue.
Itās not really clear what more you want, tbh. Of course I could specifically script that dedicated to Cubase, but it is simply not necessary for me, as I have my backup strategy sorted out (image backup plus local file backup plus cloud backup).
Thanks for your input, but Iām not interested in creating huge back ups of an entire computer. Can we please stop repeating ourselves? Others will be looking for the same solution and itās making the forum messy. Thanks!
If you are assuming every time you do a back up, you are using up 40GB, thatās not correct at allā¦unless you force your back up to work that way which would be very unusual. Generally, once you do a back-up, then only the changes are recorded which takes relatively very little space.
FX presets, midi loops, KCs and anything in media bay will take a very short time to do the initial back up and much shorter to record the changes regardless of how often you program those changes to happen.
If you just want to back up a few folders such as everything Cubase, I think most any back-up program will do that. I have used Acronis, but since they went subscription, I have switched to Sync-Back Pro. If you just want a few folders there is a free version.
This kind of indicates you donāt understand how to create & manage a proper backup scheme. I just looked & my daily differential backups are just under 4G each. And after about a month theyāre automatically deleted - so not a huge amount amount of data at all.
There are some very experienced folks here offering you sound advice that you are reluctant to listen to for some mysterious reason. Suit yourself & do what you want. But Iām always a bit puzzled by folks who ask for advice & then immediately reject that advice. Why ask in the first place?
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Are we also talking about quickly migrating to a new computer? It would be nice to have a simple way to move a configuration to a new computer.
Currently Iād make a copy of my template session and save a āprofileā as well.
(says at the bottom what isnāt savedā¦ I imagine there is a reason for these)
My media library tagging is an ongoing process tooā¦ but I THINK the tags are written into the WAV files. (I think)
I havenāt needed to set up a new computer since but these would get me close enough. All the synths/plugin downloads is another story. (at least most companies have a DL manager to handle it for me)