All tracks gone (FIXED)

[Ice]

SORTED PROBLEM - Don't use any >>>> characters in marker names! For now at least.

(Moderator edit: sorry, actually you can use > characters wherever you like, but don't use CR (carriage return characters) in marker names! That's the real takeaway).

!!!!! SERIOUS PROBLEM - SEE INVESTIGATION VERIFICATION in the 6th POST !!!!!

Mac OS 10.9.5
24GB RAM
2 x 2.66 Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Reaper64
5.12.0


I came in to work today and opened my session from Friday evening, and ALL the tracks are missing. I restored some older Dropbox versions of the session from throughout the day and all the tracks are missing from all sessions.

I opened a session that was saved along with a render, which would certainly have all the original tracks in it, and no tracks show up in that session either.

All the plugins are intact on the Master, but no audio tracks. The track manager also show no tracks are in the session, so its not that they are just hidden.

I also tried the 32-bit version of Reaper with the same result.

[dea-man]

In an attempt to save your work did you accidently save it under some other file name?

Or, did you save the whole thing in a different place?

[Ice]

Originally Posted by dea-man

In an attempt to save your work did you accidently save it under some other file name?

Or, did you save the whole thing in a different place?

This is the type of thing I'm super careful with. But even if I wasn't, every file I render has a copy of the session saved with it by Reaper (I leave the checkbox on to save session file to outfile.wav). Every session I go to re-open has no tracks in it from last Friday. By the session sizes I can tell they must have tracks saved in them but they're not recalling.

I also work in Dropbox for a recall-able history. So far every session I restore from Friday opens with no tracks in it.

I reboot my Mac - same result.

I made an empty session and created some new tracks. That session recalls its tracks, but old sessions from last week have no tracks in them.

[dea-man]

Man, I have no clue for you.

Were you, by chance, working on more than one project at the time?

[Ice]

Originally Posted by dea-man

Man, I have no clue for you.

Were you, by chance, working on more than one project at the time?

Its possible, though I can't say for sure, that I had 2 tabs open at the same time.

In Dropbox I went back to the last saved session from Thursday night, and that opens with tracks.

At some point during the day Friday (I can't say exactly when - there are lots of session versions in Dropbox), it looks like Reaper started saving sessions that "have" tracks in them (at least by file size), but that don't recall when being opened.

This is a scary thing for me (for anyone of course), since I rely on the ability to recall an exact session to re-create files.

[Ice]

Originally Posted by Ice

Its possible, though I can't say for sure, that I had 2 tabs open at the same time.

In Dropbox I went back to the last saved session from Thursday night, and that opens with tracks.

At some point during the day Friday (I can't say exactly when - there are lots of session versions in Dropbox), it looks like Reaper started saving sessions that "have" tracks in them (at least by file size), but that don't recall when being opened.

This is a scary thing for me (for anyone of course), since I rely on the ability to recall an exact session to re-create files.

By doing restores from Dropbox I found the following:

I found that the session saved at 11:45 AM on Friday was the first one to save and not recall with tracks. At 11:43 AM the session does recall with tracks.

Can a DEV PM me so I can send these 2 sessions?

This is a serious problem that needs to be investigated ASAP. If I weren't backing up the way I am I might've lost all progress. But as it stands, no session I saved after 11:43 AM on Friday is usable. I've verified this with all the rendered file session saves as well.

[Ice]

Do any DEVS want to follow up on this one?

This is about as devastating a bug as I can imagine. Fortunately for me that session is just used to export designed files and not a complete project I HAVE to return to. But I did lose the ability to go into over half a days work there.

A "Trackless" session is probably the last thing I'd expect. And there's no way this can be operator error, especially since sessions saved alongside the render files also opened trackless.

[Ice]

Originally Posted by Ice

Do any DEVS want to follow up on this one?

This is about as devastating a bug as I can imagine. Fortunately for me that session is just used to export designed files and not a complete project I HAVE to return to. But I did lose the ability to go into over half a days work there.

A "Trackless" session is probably the last thing I'd expect. And there's no way this can be operator error, especially since sessions saved alongside the render files also opened trackless.

The only thing I can think of that I did that day differently, was to put some GRM doppler on a some media items as take FX, and automate the Y-Axis with a take envelope. I don't think I did it that early in the day when the problem started, but its possible it was.

To the DEVS - I do have the last copy of the session that opens correctly, and 1 minute later the copy that doesn't. You might be able to see from those what is different between the two and why the 2nd opens with no tracks.

[karbomusic]

If you keep an undo history, what does it say happened during the mystery minute in the undo history window?

[Ice]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

If you keep an undo history, what does it say happened during the mystery minute in the undo history window?

I don't - sadly!

[clepsydrae]

Originally Posted by Ice

Do any DEVS want to follow up on this one?

Send the files (or links thereto) to support at cockos dot com -- i think that's the best way to have someone check it out.

[Justin]

Yes, send to support at cockos dot com please.

[Ice]

Originally Posted by Justin

Yes, send to support at cockos dot com please.

Thanks guys - I'll follow up a bit later today.... deadline this AM.....

[Ice]

Originally Posted by Ice

Thanks guys - I'll follow up a bit later today.... deadline this AM.....

Sent....

[Ice]

Sorted!!! Man these Reaper DEVS rock. What can I say?

It turns out I had some >>>>> characters entered into the name of a Marker and that was tricking the session into stopping its loading.

They even sent me back the broken session that now loads.

Big thumbs up!

Confidence restored!

[Justin]

Originally Posted by Ice

Sorted!!! Man these Reaper DEVS rock. What can I say?

It turns out I had some >>>>> characters entered into the name of a Marker and that was tricking the session into stopping its loading.

They even sent me back the broken session that now loads.

Big thumbs up!

Confidence restored!

For future reference, it wasn't just the >>>> that were the problem, that would normally be fine -- it was that there were some carriage return characters in there too. We're adding safeguards to prevent this from causing a problem in the future.

Thanks for spotting this and sending us the projects!

[dea-man]

My GAWD, Reaper and it's crew ROCK on all counts!

[LightOfDay]

why doesnt Justin run for president?

[ivansc]

Because he isn`t an asshole - one of the prerequisites for anyone wishing to become a politician, let alone president of the USA

[Dstruct]

FIXED (5.15pre9)

[Ice]

Originally Posted by Justin

For future reference, it wasn't just the >>>> that were the problem, that would normally be fine -- it was that there were some carriage return characters in there too. We're adding safeguards to prevent this from causing a problem in the future.

Thanks for spotting this and sending us the projects!

Carriage returns - of course!

Again great work and thanks! Not just for this but for the style and business model in general. Sooooo refreshing!

[serr]

That reminded me of Protools...
It had this thing where something would go wrong and corrupt the session and it would never open again. Insidious because if you didn't notice the subtle crashy signs, it would let you keep working away in the session... and the punchline was: this session is crashed and what you are saving will never open again!

There was no way to ever pin it down either. Recover the same way - dig through the autosave folder till you find the last working project file. Then go make the exact same moves when you pick back up but the bug doesn't follow.

So...
You guys find a bug, verify it's repeatable, and get it solved and fixed in the space of 16 forum posts!

Yep, I picked the right product with REAPER all right!