moving a pro tools session between computers

S

srmd22

New member
I have pro tools on a laptop and my desktop, as of recently. I noticed when I try to move a project, including the main file and everything in the folder, some files are inevitably missing when I call it up in pro tools on the computer to which I have transferred it.

I think it may be because I have sort of "reorganized" my pro tools directory a couple of times, so that song "x" and all its related files would be in folder "x" etc, when initially I failed to begin a project that way. Hence a few supporting files may have been left behind. I sort of hoped that on the next save everything would be consolidated in one folder each time I did this, but turns out not, I guess?

So my question is, when moving a project between computers, is there a way to make sure you have every last sound and data file related to that project included? My last attempt it said "failed to find 16 audio files, 0 fades...." etc. But actually all the files necessary to the project were there.

Or is it just a bad idea to juggle files around within the pro tools directory.
 
You might like to consider using an external hard-drive for your song projects. That way you can just swap this drive from computer to computer.
 
Do a "save session as" and check the box that says to include "all audio files". Once you've done that, transfer that new folder to the other computer. Continued to use that session file going forward.

How are your files getting so disorganized? Are you importing files into your session? If so, be sure to set up the file import so that it makes a copy of the file and places it in your current session folder.
 
Hmmm, no access to pro tools atm, but I didn't know about the save session technique-- thanks for the tip.

Also, I noticed that when I moved files from PC to MAC it seemed to work fine? Is there anything else I need to do, or does always just work so well? I was sure it would be a disaster!

In anwer to the question about how my files came to be so disorganized-- it is my fault. I tranferred software to 2 computers over a couple of years, as I upgraded hardware. In the process I thought I would "organize" my sound files a bit, because I had not saved each song project into its own folder (newbie mistake). So I moved a couple of audio files between folders in the directory. Thought it was ok, because when I opened the sessions in pro tools all the tracks were good. Wasn't until I moved the folder containing the session to my macbook that I got the funny messages. Also, I had deleted some old half-assed sessions, and I think there might have been some shared audio files that went in the trash along with those.

Now it is a bit moot, though, since my hard drive crashed last night, and, would you believe it, my backup hard drive just crash a few weeks ago. Lost 5 or 6 songs and a helluva lot of sketches and ideas :( .
 
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