I’ve found an odd erratic problem with saving on C9. Suppose my session is called Session 1.cpr. Often when saving (not Saving As) it in fact deletes Session 1.cpr, and instead creates a new file called Session 1-01.cpr. This doesn’t consistently happen, but I’d guess does 2 times out of 3. I usually only notice when I go to reload the next day, and I get the heartstopping “this session doesn’t exist” warning when loading from Recent Items. The only thing mildly unusual about what I’m doing is that I save directly into dropbox folder, which isn’t synced anywhere else, but just for permanent online backup. Been doing this for years problem-free.
It’s nothing more than an irritant, but an irrtant it is. Anyone any ideas?
If Windows sees the file as ‘in use’ Dropbox and others just make a copy and append to the name. This has nothing to do with Cubase. Dedicated backup programs, which dropbox and other so-called cloud apps are not, use Windows Shadow Copy service.
Dropbox, Google Drive, etc are useful for syncing directories, but not as pro backup solutions, for this reason.
Windows File History is an example of a real backup service with incremental saves, etc., and allows you to use a drive as long as Windows can see it.
That being said, I’m curious about why Dropbox is used as a live backup “solution” by some people.
Well Steve, i’ve been using it with Cubase for 5 years seamlessly, if that explains to you why some people have used it as a “solution”. For some reason it only started playing up in C9. As it is, it’s an irritant, I might have to “investigate” a “different” “solution” for “live” “backup”.
Thinking about this further, logically something must have happened in C9 that slightly changes the way Cubase handles saved files. Reading here - Fix syncing problems in Dropbox - Dropbox Help - describes the situation we want, but aren’t now getting. We want Cubase to lock the active file in the same way Word does, then Dropbox knows to leave it alone until it’s closed. It’s just a guess, but that perhaps is what has changed between C8 and C9.
Perhaps one workaround for us Dropbox users is to get into the habit of pausing syncing if we are saving on top of an existing file, which is when the problem occurs, then restarting immediately afterwards. Auto backups are fine, as are saving new versions. In my case, I’m going to try doing this on the final updated save of the day on each project, which is the only real time that this is a problem. I’m always thinking about whether or not it will rename the file at the moment, so not likely to forget.
Yeah, but for me that wouldn’t be far from handling backups manually, like in the “old days”. I’m quite certain I would forget to turn Dropbox sync on again that one time that I need to access a project from somehwere other than my studio.
Besides, to clarify: I have this issue with Cubase 8.5. After removing all Steinberg files and doing a clean reinstall of the software. So it can’t just be related to C9.
Ah oh cmbsa. I only ever had it recently - perhaps it’s an update of Dropbox that changed somewhere on some OS platform.
I’m not sure there’s going to be a solution to this one, unless Steinberg ever changes how it saves (or rather holds on to active files). Bummer. The way I work is that, as described, I only get the issue that affects me in practice on the last save of the day for each project I’m on, so it’s simply - pause - save - unpause, all in a chain. I agree if one paused then carried on working, the likelihood is you’d forget to unpause. I think I’ll be fine with the workaround (has been good for me this morning in tests), but if the way you work means its more intrusive than this, you might need to find a different backup solution.
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