"Copy media on import" broken, high risk of deleting other sessions' files [RESOLVED]

[willpadgett]

Hello,

I've seen multiple topics on this over the last few years from my recent searching, but I have yet to see anyone admit to the following:

The Preferences > Media option for "Copy imported media to project media directory" checkbox is nonfunctional in the context of Reaper projects.

I know this, because despite this option being overridable by the Project Settings > Media "On import of media to project: Copy media to project path" checkbox, even with both checked, it doesn't work.

The same exact issue occurs when Re-saving a project with the "copy files to new project" option checked. Which is weird, because I could have sworn I've been doing this fine for years. Maybe not, maybe I deleted some audio files back when I didn't realize it.

This is a massive security problem for me. I'm working with thousands of audio files, and want to start a new session and copy over a select 50-200 to continue my work without bloating the everloving crap out of my project with old audio files, but no matter what I do--EXCEPT for painstakingly using the Media Browser to import files one folder at a time--I can't copy upon import.

This is so weird. I know this function works fine when I import a file off of my Desktop, or anywhere else on my hard drive. But when copying between Reaper sessions, it Does. Not. Work.

So if I weren't extremely careful to notice that upon "Clean Project Directory", that the files' paths link to the old project, I would have deleted THOUSANDS OF FILES. The kicker is, the files WERE copied to my project, but the paths weren't. And triply annoying, I can't find an option anywhere to batch-resave my files' directories.

Can we PLEASE fix this on the next update? This isn't a QOL thing, this is a security problem for any professional engineer.

Thanks.

[willpadgett]

Has this been addressed in R7? I'm about to turn a 15 song session into 3 separate sessions, but I'm scared to 'clean up' my sessions if they still all use the same reference audio after 'copy all media into project directory'

Thanks!

[Justin]

Do you mean when pasting items across sessions?

In this case - we did add a preference to enable copying in this instance.

[EpicSounds]

Also worth noting you can see the location of all source files in the Project/Media/FX bay (view menu) on the Source tab.
It should be easy to spot anything not in the project folder, and you can then move or copy it from this window.

But if the project is saved and you have "Copy imported media to project media directory" enabled then all files should be copied on import... unless there's some bug or corrupt preference file for you.

[willpadgett]

Thank you guys for the reply on this. I used the Project Bay to look at my copied files' paths, and they indeed show the new audio folder directory. Not sure why I encountered this a couple of months ago, but it's working great now--and more importantly, I know how to easily check my files' paths in bulk. I really appreciate you!

EDIT: I may have been seeing the audio files' names, which are prefixed by the original session's directory ("sessiontitle_kick.wav"), and mistakenly thought it wasn't copying the files but using the originals.

I've got all the checkboxes for copy on import checked, I think I can rest easy now. Thank you, delete as needed