# SL13 ARA in Pro Tools ... Dragging the layers to timeline

**URL:** <https://forums.steinberg.net/t/sl13-ara-in-pro-tools-dragging-the-layers-to-timeline/1043251>\
**Category:** SpectraLayers\
**Created:** [October 9, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://forums.steinberg.net/t/sl13-ara-in-pro-tools-dragging-the-layers-to-timeline/1043251 "2026-10-09T20:24:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JamesDavidRedding3](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/steinberg/user_avatar/forums.steinberg.net/jamesdavidredding3/32/394839_2.png) [@JamesDavidRedding3](https://forums.steinberg.net/u/JamesDavidRedding3)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://forums.steinberg.net/t/sl13-ara-in-pro-tools-dragging-the-layers-to-timeline/1043251/1 "2026-10-09T20:24:45Z")

</div>

Was using spectralayers 13 pro in Pro Tools today in ARA. I unmixed some sounds and dragged the layers to my timeline to adjust… the files stayed on my internal hard drive instead of rendering to the session folder/drive? Didn’t realize it until I handed my session off to someone else and the were asking for missing files, all of them were these ones.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Robin\_Lobel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d26b3c/32.png) [@Robin\_Lobel](https://forums.steinberg.net/u/Robin_Lobel)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://forums.steinberg.net/t/sl13-ara-in-pro-tools-dragging-the-layers-to-timeline/1043251/2 "2026-10-09T21:09:58Z")

</div>

Yes, the ARA plugin has no way to know where the project is stored.  
You have to activate the **Automatically Copy Files on Import** option in Pro Tools ( **Setup \> Preferences \> Processing** \> **Import** section).

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/steinberg/original/4X/2/c/1/2c1bc3098c624558784dff0dc72f4a094e1330b6.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JamesDavidRedding3](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/steinberg/user_avatar/forums.steinberg.net/jamesdavidredding3/32/394839_2.png) [@JamesDavidRedding3](https://forums.steinberg.net/u/JamesDavidRedding3)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2026, 2:09pm UTC](https://forums.steinberg.net/t/sl13-ara-in-pro-tools-dragging-the-layers-to-timeline/1043251/3 "2026-10-13T14:09:21Z")

</div>

Yeah, I just having that option turned on all the time 😄