Windows Insert Files to Track Always Shows Hidden Files

WaveLab
#1

Why doesn’t the system file open dialog follow the Windows system preference (hide or show hidden files), like Reaper and Cubase?

The reason I ask is because I nearly always right-click - insert files to track, using the system file open dialog. I don’t use the Wavelab file browser because it can’t search subfolders, and the Windows system file-open dialog can. i can be returned a list of all the wav files in multiple subfolders within a folder and add them all at once to a track or tracks. It’s an easy method if you have many files in many different folders and you want to load them all to one montage in one step. I simply type .wav in the system file open search box and I’m presented with a list of all of the files.

But I often get Pro Tools Mac files with 1k additional hidden .wav files that I don’t want in the found list. So I can’t just ctrl-a Select All with Wavelab. (Actually I can but I then have to de-select those 1k files to make the file load work).

Is this something that could be considered for a change? Follow the system user pref to hide or show hidden files?

#2

Let me rephrase it: you want to select some files from the file browser, but there you see wav files with the hidden status, while you don’t want to see them. Right?

#3

Yes, but more specifically I think it should follow the user preference set in folder options in Windows. That’s how Cubase and Reaper treat it: if the user preference is hide hidden files, Cubase and Reaper hide. If the user preference is show hidden files, Cubase and Reaper show, in the Import or Insert dialog.

#4

Ok, I note this for a future update.

#5

I second this motion with gusto. At the pace and volume our studio needs to work at, navigating through exposed hidden files has been a frustration and hindrance.

This brings another issue to mind. I recently tried to full clone a montage as an archive backup. Usually this works beautifully, however I ran into an unexpected snag. During the clone, the process was interrupted because it could not copy some of the audio files, leaving an incomplete clone. It took me a little while to figure out the cause since the warning was not specific. It turns out that if an audio file has a double “.wav” in its name, the cloning process gets confused. For example, if a file is named something like…

I Love You Baby_Mix3b_VoxUp_1644_25Feb2018.wav .wav

…then the clone fails. Of course, having “.wav.wav” is not desired or intended and is mostly an operator error. But at the pace we work at, it is not uncommon to mistakenly name a file that way when you can not see the full field in the record window or copy and paste with poor aim. This can go unnoticed more easily than you think.

So I am wondering if there is a way to have WaveLab prevent or warn when a file is about to be named with double “.wav”? Make it like a soft illegal naming scheme or something? Otherwise, there can be no confidence in a full clone when this condition exists.

Thanks

#6

navigating through exposed hidden files has been a frustration and hindrance.

Hidden system files is common. Hidden document and media files is pretty unusual. What is your use case?

So I am wondering if there is a way to have WaveLab prevent or warn when a file is about to be named with double “.wav”? Make it like a soft illegal naming scheme or something? Otherwise, there can be no confidence in a full clone when this condition exists.

Normally, if you try to save a file with a given name to eg. piano.wav, WaveLab with correct this automatically and won’t do eg. piano.wav.wav.
Now, maybe there is a situation in WaveLab where this does not happen. In which case, please report.

#7

It’s not unusual here. I’m always getting them from Mac Pro Tools users. the resource files.

#8

It’s not unusual here. I’m always getting them from Mac Pro Tools users. the resource files.

The system is different on Mac and Windows. On a Mac, a file that has a name that starts with a ‘.’ character, is treated as invisible. Not on Windows.
Hence, while you work on Windows, WaveLab can’t treat these files as invisible, else some Windows files could be missing from the file browser, unexpectedly.

#9

I apologize for not being specific earlier. Yes, this has to due with Mac hidden files which are not hidden by WL nor by Windows explorer. Windows hidden files are filtered correctly as far as I can tell. It is the Mac files which we receive and read on PC’s which are problematic. So it would be helpful if there were an "filter ‘._____’ named files or something. Thanks.

#10

That’s only true for about 10% of these ._ files that I receive. 90% of them I receive, the vast majority, from many different sources, ARE invisible on Windows, they have the Hidden attribute on Windows when I get them.

The problem with Wavelab is how it treats these in it’s File System Open dialog vs. how they’re treated by every other Audio program I’ve tried. The other programs follow the Windows User preference to hide or show hidden files in their File Open dialogs: Reaper, Cubase, Izotope RX, Audacity, iTunes, VLC, Foobar2000, they all do. Only Wavelab doesn’t. Wavelab is possibly the only program that circumvents this somehow, and always shows these hidden files no matter what the Windows User preference is. The other programs are helpful in this respect, when the files have the Hidden attribute, the User can decide whether to see them in the File Open dialog simply by changing the System Preference. Wavelab is unhelpful in this regard, because the User can’t change anything.

If ALL of the other programs follow the Windows User preference, I really don’t understand why Wavelab can’t, so I’d like to ask that this be reconsidered for change. Certainly there’s a way to do it if all the other programs can deal with it.