My Nuendo project just crashed, and while it’s totally fine, I wanted to look at what backup’s I had available just in case something had gone wrong. My last backup file was created about 1.5 hours ago… in my preferences though I have it as every 5 minutes.
Why don’t I have a backup file from 5 minutes ago? Why is it from 1.5 hours ago? Am I misunderstanding how it works?
One thing that’s not obvious is that it only saves when the transport is stopped. Do you think that might be the case here?
Hmm, I mean I am constantly starting/stopping as one would in a mix (and opening other programs etc) so I feel like there are plenty of opportunities for it to save while the transport is stopped.
It certainly wasn’t just playing non-stop for 1.5 hours!
If you feel like it, try this reproduction sequence:
Repro:
Also, useful maybe, open (a copy) of your current project do steps 1, then 3-7.
All that said, I do not depend on auto-save even though I always have it turned on. I save, save, save, and have version backups.
hey @steve , your test worked flawlessly. The backup files were created exactly when they were supposed to be.
Which just makes me more curious why it waited over an hour and a half on my other project. I was working throughout that whole time, and pressing start and stop constantly.
I’ll work on that project a lot more tomorrow and keep an eye on the .bak creation. Oh and to answer your question no it’s not a big project - 5 minute video with ~25 channels.
I was wondering about if the autosave timer wasn’t actually simple… that maybe it starts the countdown differently depending on circumstance, especially during playback and pausing.
If you set it to .5 minutes does the problem still reproduce when working in this project?
I’ve left the studio for the night but I will try it at 0.5 minutes tomorrow morning and let you know
Thank you for the help
I’m also curious to see the results here - i experience very random autosave behaviour. For instance, I have just checked a project that I recently saved as a different file name. Hours of work and no .bak files. The original project was saving them correctly.
It may have seemed to you that Nuendo crashed “just now”. But I have seen cases where Nuendo crashes and you don’t notice it. By the time Nuendo reports a problem, it’s already too late. Then Nuendo may not have been able to save any back-up files for quite some time. (Even the automatic “emergency backup” can no longer be created.)
Since this happened to me a few times in the beginning, I decided to save a project manually after important work steps. For this I create a copy of the project under the name “xyz_Backup”.
I then always save the project twice (CTRL+S): First I update the back-up file and then immediately the normal project file. Then I continue working. (I leave the automatic backups activated anyway, of course.)
My approach just recently saved my day again: Nuendo had secretly crashed and had not created a backup file (or only with 0 KB). Fortunately, there was my own back-up file. So I only lost the work of just under 15 minutes.
It does not have to be the same problem in this case. But the automatic back-ups as well as the emergency back-up are unfortunately not as reliable as I would like them to be. 
Hey MAS, What exactly do you mean it could have crashed without me noticing? I mean I was using it and it was working properly and then all the sudden boom, crash. Do you mean like some background system that is in charge of saving backups could have crashed, while the rest of the program remained working?
But yeah I always save manually constantly, and make new .npr files every 2 or so hours. Still though, would like for the backups to work properly just in case.
@steve I worked on a DIFFERENT project today, and over the course of 2 hours, it saved 3 .bak files. I worked on it from about 1:45pm - 3:45pm, and I have .baks that were created at 2:33, 2:45, and 3:00.
I forgot to try the 0.5m interval test on it. But yeah something is def going on
I have experienced the No Backups issue before and it something you definitely mainly notice after you have had a crash and realise Nuendo has no .bak file.
Someone suggested that it must be that the internal of the Software to do with backups has crashed while the application continues to work… in software terms thats a ‘silent fail’, which is worse than an actual crash.
Yes, something like that. 
I have experienced two types of crashes so far: The “fatal” crash. This is when Nuendo freezes completely and nothing works anymore. The Windows task manager then says “Not responding”. The only help: Kill the Nuendo process in the task manager.
The second type is the “normal” crash: At some point Nuendo reports that it has found some really bad thing that it can’t fix and that Nuendo can’t make sure that your project file is saved correctly anymore. So Nuendo will now create a separate project file for you. Blah, blah. (I don’t have the exact wording in my memory anymore. 
)
This kind of crash can (apparently) sometimes be preceded by a “silent crash”. You may have been able to work normally until the above message appeared, but apparently something has already crashed in the background that (also) affects saving. Perhaps a (initially) small and insignificant error that then builds up until Nuendo “officially” crashes.
What exactly is going on in the background, I don’t know. I only know that I have experienced it exactly like this more often.
Yeah that makes sense.
I don’t think that is necessarily what’s going on with mine though, as yesterday I worked 2 hours on a project with no hard crash at all, and only 3 .baks
Today I worked about 6 hours and only got a .bak every 30-45 minutes. No hard crashes.
Really no idea whats going on.
I would suggest playing with the auto-save delay, starting with the shortest, and working as usual for while.
Do you always save your projects on the same hard drive? Or does that also vary?
Yep always save project files on the same internal nvme SSD! Always in the same folder for that specific project.
I do not think this has to do with anything, aside from the function itself, and how its used, not file paths or anything else.
Did you try simply changing the setting to .5 minutes for an entire session? here’s why I think it makes sense
@steve I am working on something right now and yes I have changed to .5 and it seems to be working correctly!
Should I just leave it on this? is there any disadvantage to having backups created this quickly/often?
I don’t really think it’s working “correctly”, but what I think is that the timer starts at unexpected times. This is such an old feature there are probably safeguards in place that were needed in e.g., 2004, and this is one of the results.
Considering that we are comparing something that works with something that doesn’t work, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Thank you for your help
