Missing files none of back up files work having to start from scratch a bit worried

Hi, I have recently put a fair bit of time into cutting and editing and had been saving my project work by date. Recently I went to load my last one and it loads up but you can tell all the audio is missing. Basically blue areas section of where I had recorded but nothing playable in them. I have Cubase EL AL 9. I have tried to load the last dated project and even back up files from a day ago etc but nothing works, they do come up saying missing files. I try to locate and search , there is no luck. I even saved the project recently under a different titles in project folder as a back up pla in case something like this happened but no good. In summary the last thing I remember doing is going through my files and thinking well I have so many back up files and renamed projects by date within the same project folder that I should start preventing too much memory being taken. so I deleted some of the older files for back up and project names. That’s all I did. There is only one other thing I can think of at some point I had come across that page I believe in import options where it says “save to working directory” (option is to tick or untick) I can’t remember if it was ticked on. I think I may have ticked it off for a second and then ticked it back on.
I did not change anything else (from what I can remember).
Can you please help me see if it is possible I can restore this work I have done. Seems there is no playable audio what so ever in most of the file I used to select to open.
The exception to this is when I find an older “project file” inside of an “audio” folder within the project folder. I found this on an older save I had made when I starting using Cubase had come working. (So I found one older file that was working, but that is not anything to celebrate)… Note: It is very often I see when I try to select the bak up or project file of anything that does not work it straight asks me to “set project folder”. I have no understanding as to why it does this as it never used to do that before this tragedy happened. Even if I select the appropriate folder and from within an audio file or a bak up or project file it will come saying “resolve missing files”
Also If I go to start a “new project” and try and select one from the "recent projects out of steinberg hub it says the file name .cpr is missing would you like to delete from recent files . Another response to me selecting to open a recent project is that “set project folder”

I must say I can select a new project and save it and when I do I can see the audio wave file in the audio for anything new I do, and it has the images folder in there. I save the .cpr file of these new tests into the newly untiled folder that is prompted. I then rename the folder.

I am a bit gutted though I cannot utilise the old projects i had saved. So basically now anything without an audio folder in the project folder now will not load. I have tried file and folders from audio recordings I have save even awhile ago and some of them seem to not have these audio folder which means I cannot load them.
By the way I am running a pc with windows 10. I had done the upgrade also probably about 1.5 months for the upgrade that came out in August.
By the way I love Cubase, and think the cube way of editing is so creative so long as you invest the time you can improve on any ideas that you wish given the right amount of effort, so cool. Please help.

Can you help please, any of your assistance is much appreciate. For the time being I will have to start remembering and re -recording. Thanks

From what you listed above it looks like you deleted the files from a massive audio pool. Going forward you should always create a new folder for each new project. That way you get a separate audio pool for each project.

To find and recover your files maybe a program like “Recuva” will help. You might get lucky. If you do try this program, I recommend that, if possible, install it to a different hard drive from where your audio files were on. This is because the actual installation of this program could install over the areas of the deleted audio files. Thus rendering them nonrecoverable.

It’s a long shot but, good luck. :wink:

Regards :sunglasses:

Hi, Thanks for your reply.
I would imagine you are right.
I may even start to do that more often creating a ‘new folder for each new project’ seems i always try to put all the songs in one project but always have lots of work to do on the songs so there is a lot of mouse pad editing using the cubes, which I do love it just means I should do one song at a time separately then pull them all together at the last instance so I can so called “burn an album with the songs together for a cd etc”
Guess I am still just trying to rush things.
Thanks.
Also RE: recuva. I don’t have a separate hard drive on this computer (just one drive).
I do appreciate the option, I am pretty resourceful so if the time comes that I do have one I will use it.
Thanks for now.
All the best.

FYI… the longer you wait to use a program like recuva the less chance you have of it finding a recoverable file. This is because as you use the computer, saving files and whatever, these files start to overwrite on the hard drive spaces that might still have a recoverable file. So, if you are going to try recuva it would be best to do it asap. Even if you have to install it in the same drive.

Also… it really is good practice to start all new projects from the Steinberg Hub. From there you would typically start a project by double clicking on your template and the process will prompt you to create a new folder at the location you want to save your project to. Just make sure you have the option “Prompt for project location” checked and not the “Use default location” option checked. This way you will end up with separate project folders that each have their own audio pool. Much neater and less likely to get confusing when working the project.

Good luck :wink:

Regards :sunglasses: