What was thought to be the initial problem in this thread, to some degree, did not end up being the case (at least not in totality, maybe still has something to do with Defaults.xml system but certainly has something to do with ‘Use Device WinRT MIDI’ in Studio Settings…)
One of the worst things a person can encounter in life, is a corrupted Cubase .xml file.
Does anyone know what in the Defaults.xml would cause track solo to crash the program?
Does anyone know how I can preserve most program settings so they can be restored after deleting this file?
Does anyone know which settings in the program are going to be lost after deleting Defaults.XML?
Does anyone know why Steinberg hasn’t created a correct-shutdown-backup of these files that are prone to corruption, or some kind of intelligent .xml file rebuilder?
I’m not sure how long you’ve been using Cubase, but this has been a problem with .xml file system since it existed. Depending on the crash type, ie, a “hard” crash (total lockup of the program or computer), the .xml file in use can become corrupted… Because some of the .xmls have temporary/memory written to them as the user is using the program.
What likely occurred, was a hard crash/total lockup from a plugin, that I have since removed, but the crash caused an .xml file to go bad.
This is why when Cubase safe-starts, you have the option to “disable preferences” or “delete preferences”.
Believe me, back up your AppData Cubase folder - if it hasn’t happened to you in 20 years, you are very lucky. I was in the middle of re-doing my templates and global project settings and was about to do a backup of all settings… when this happebed…
According to the “Preferences of Cubase and Nuendo” documentation the “Defaults.xml” is linked to the “Color setup (default)” and "Preferences (current) ". So this probably means everything that is found in “Edit / Preferences”.
Maybe see if you can still view your preferences settings with the corrupted preferences profile and try creating and saving a new preferences profile and then delete the old profile ?
It’s never a bad idea to take note of your preferences in something like a spreadsheet to have in your backup also.
I’ve been trying to use ChatGPT to give me probability answers and even inspect the Defaults.xml itself… Hard to know if it’s pointing me in the right direction, but it’s given me what it sees as likely culprits causing solo/mute crash and which chunks of the xml to try deleting
I’ll get it resolved one way or another, at least I know it’s the Defaults.xml (knock on wood)
Definitely annoying, It’s the one thing about Cubendo that always has me pondering in my head as I’m recommending it to another industry professional - “should I be recommending this program to this person” as I’m having flashbacks to all the times .xml preferences got screwed up or preferences had to be disabled.
Imagine this happening in the middle of a big session, with a famous/prestigious artist on expensive studio time…
Luckily, I’m just doing some template/program maintenance and revisions during down time, so I’m the only person annoyed to hell.
Can add, if someone has this problem and searches Defaults.xml,
Saving a new Preferences preset (did a few others just in case, key commands, exported profile), did work and I was able to restore it after Defaults.xml deleted.
It seems to have resolved the issue.
Some other things that were contained in Defaults.xml was Studio Setup - Audio device setup, and Generic Remotes disappeared (which I had exported backups of) and needed to be imported.
Other settings like WinRT MIDI went back to default off which I need on.
After a few crashes, I’m now wondering if I should rebuild preferences. I’ve had a variety of hangs/crashes over the years and don’t recall ever rebuilding all the preferences from scratch!
