Why would Steinberg remove the Clean Up function from within the File Menu?
That was a great way of removing all files NOT referenced in any Cubase project, across multiple folders in one go.
This is a big part of my file handling/administration scheme in Cubase… WILL THIS RETURN?
Wait, what?? You’re right – I don’t see it in the File menu.Has it moved somewhere else? This is a highly useful function of Cubase that has no reason to be gone.
I’m curious as well…
Being new to Cubase I thought I would look this up in the manual, something you old hands never do, naturally 
However, a search for “cleanup” in the manual references one entry, supposedly on page 254, where it is not mentioned. I don’t need it so far, but in the future I will, no doubt, so this is just to give this thread a bump.
I’ve used this function ONCE, many moons ago (SX2 days) and learned the hard way that one shouldn’t rename or move folders before. Lost a lot of files because I wasn’t really aware of how it would work. Since then I’ve never touched it 
The ‘better/safer’ way to clean up and organize stuff is to use ‘backup project’ instead, then manually delete the original folders.
I’m wondered about it.
Totally experienced the same thing… Never used it since…
Exactly. Scariest function ever. 
Exactly the same here, never touched it again.
Have used the backup instead, never lost anything since.
I never used cleanup, since it has been cast as the devil.
But I can’t figure out how to delete a saved version of a project that I no longer use. Both versions reside within the same project folder. Ya know… something like FILE>Delete project, then select the CPR file. That would extract all the related files. Is it because the “save as” project does not rename the media files and would delete them? If that’s the case, “save as” should also ask to create a new folder.
Any suggestions? I am going to archive/backup the active CPR and then delete everything in the folder.
I have used the Clean Up function for as long as it has been implemented… And I have NEVER lost a single audio file.
As long as you don’t move projects with its audio folder (and other project content) around. One folder pr project, in a sensible folder structure should NOT do any harm when using the Clean Up function… It only points to audio files (and peak files) NOT referenced in any project.
And you should NOT have any project open when using the Clean Up method (just start Cubase itself).
If you move things out of your projects belonging audio folder, you might encounter some problems.
Well well… For now I run the Clean Up function from Cubase 9.0 (I’ll guess I’ll have that one installed for a while).
But WHY can’t Steinberg ever answer questions like this? Especially if a choice to remove it is taken? Is it broken, and will return? Or is it removed for good?
STEINBERG???
I don’t know if it will come back, but I can tell you that it was not stable under certain circumstances, especially when there are 1000s of files and scores of projects.
Hmmm?
Have had no problem with a “fair amount” of audio files involved… Never used scores though.
How are we expected to be able to remove unused and unreferenced audio files from disk now? Especially when we have multiple versions of each project?
If removing audio files from one project version and disk, another project version (from within the same project folder) may loose audio files actually used in said version… Hmmm?
If we select remove from pool (not disk), we have to manually remove/delete audio files from the project audio folder… But that mess my friends, I will NOT even think about
For archiving, the Backup function is great… but sometimes we have to clean out audio files in a safe manner without a full backup (only to be forced to copy or move the backup back onto our audio disk)… Hmmm?
No one else used to use the Clean Up feature for file administration?
My point is to clean up my audio drive, sometimes midway through a big album production (without loosing any audio file referenced in any Cubase project). Yes I do daily backups, but don’t want to re-load that onto my audio drive unless needed to
Any other “best practices” out there? I am open for suggestions… and a discussion on audio file handling 
Perfectly reasonable question, however this function is a very sharp knife and should be respected as such!
My experience is that good housework is the best way: One Audio, Edit, Freeze and Video folder all in its own Project folder. At a point where I’m basically happy with the project and before I start playing around with Time stretching and Transposing, I make a backup for safety. All the folders in the backup are copied and are independently safe.
Ultimately, take a look at the Pool of the working project and see if there are any orphan files. They can be deleted as long as they’re not referenced in the project. Remove unused media from the pool into the Trash folder as it remains there for emergencies.
When the working project is ready to leave home, empty the Trash folder. Also, renaming Parts or Events in the project window renames the files in the Pool, so you can give them a logical name as opposed to Audio 275!
Seems fundamental but an occasional tidy up has saved me repeatedly.
This is still… in their documentation.
Outside of looking at the URL. there’s no way of knowing that this isn’t around anymore. Not the best…
Same question for me (“Why is the function File / Clean Up missing ?”). I’am new to Cubase (Artist) and I’d be interested in using this function.
I discovered that each project has a Trash, so now, I have to re-open all my projects to empy the Trash.
There is a key command for it
and or,
open up the pool ctrl+p, right click anywhere, and select ‘Empty Trash’
Yes thanks. I found that. But I’d like to do that for multiple projects without opening each one.
This is a great method to clear out lots of space from my Cubase projects hard drive.
too bad it’s been removed.
I currently have 40 projects in my folder taking 54G… this function can definitely clear up
some space with a click of a button… now I need to open each and run the same function 40 times… 