How Cubase Lies to Me: Always "Open Other..." Lesson

Cubase
#1

Hello,

First let me explain that I always save a new version of a project with an incremental numbering scheme (i.e. MyProject1.cpr, MyProject2.cpr etc).

I’ve recently had a problem with Cubase 10 (Mac) where the recent project list is, shall we say, not as recent as I’d like. In other words, the last project version I saved yesterday is not shown, and instead I get an older project version. If I’m not paying attention, I will open the top project in the list thinking it to be the most recently saved version. However, for whatever reason, it turns out it is lying to me. Imagine my horror when I realised I may have been working on stuff that is not my most recent edit! :astonished:

The only reason I can think of that this would happen is if Cubase crashed on quit, so it doesn’t “remember” the actual last project version name/number. However, I have received no warnings from macOS that Cubase crashed. Nor are there any recent crash dumps about it. So, I don’t really know what’s going on here _(".)_/

Conclusion: for safety reasons I will only ever open a project via “Open other…” (or from File>Open, or double clicking the project file itself). I will never again use the recent project list in the Hub/Project Assistant for this purpose.

I just thought I’d put this out there as a warning for others so you don’t fall into the same trap I have.

#2

Also realize that if Cubase fails to close properly, your most recent work might even be an auto backup file and not a version you saved. So, yes, when Cubase fails to close properly, always confirm you most recent work.

#3

I can’t think of any other explanation than what you already theorized about Cubase crashing on quit. And that’s the real problem here. There is no conceivable reason Cubase crashing on quit should corrupt the “recent files” list. That’s simply a bug in Cubase. And, considering how often Cubase crashes on quit, it should be considered a rather severe bug that deserves prompt attention.

#4

As far as I can tell, at least some of the changes to the most recent files list are only saved on exiting cubase, which is why crashing prevents the list from being updated. I am sure this is a design feature not a bug, but I don’t know the reason for it.

#5

Yes- All changes to the recent file list are written at quit to Defaults.xml. Therefore you cannot depend on it for anything critical.

#6

This is why I set my folders (Windows) to sort via “date modified”.

#7

Yes, anybody who has ever used Cubase is painfully aware of this :slight_smile:. That’s the bug. The correct way to do it is to update the list when opening or saving a file. Like many things in Cubase, the way it currently works is just plain wrong.