Digital Performer and the pCloud cloud storage

[gjensse]

I´ve been testing the Swiss cloud storage pCloud for a couple of days now making backups of my Digital Performer folders and projects.
Unfortunately it looks like the old DP project files, the ones without the .dpdoc file endings, are saved as Text-files by pCloud.
I don´t have this problem in Dropbox where even the old 2.41 files have the DP10 logo.
I guess this makes pCloud useless for DP backups, archiving, etc.?

[Kurt Cowling]

I would make zip archives of the old projects before putting them on the cloud.

[gjensse]

That´s a good tip for archiving! Still, I prefer Dropbox where I can store the files without zipping.
I have a rather small HD on my MacMini, so I keep all the DP files on an external “Dropbox-only” HD.
This method will probably not work so well with pCloud.
I often need access to the old files for various reasons, and it´s fantastic that DP10 can open the old DP 2.41 files from the early 1990´s.

[FMiguelez]

That´s a good tip for archiving! Still, I prefer Dropbox where I can store the files without zipping.

I agree with Kurt.
I keep hearing it's never a good idea and is asking for trouble. Audio files can easily lose the header info and DP projects become corrupted. I would zip them before you upload, regardless of the service you use, especially if it's a backup archive. You could opt for bundle images in any flavour if you dislike zip.

[CharlzS]

HFS Resource Forks have been deprecated for years. It's amazing that they are still supported anywhere, but they are. Copying Mac files across foreign (as in non-Mac) networks has been problematic since day one.

[HCMarkus]

I use Backblaze. Under $6/Month if paid annually. The downside: You must maintain a copy of the file on your local computer (30 days grace) unless you pay extra for the version that saves stuff for one year, or more still for a version that saves forever. Since I keep all my stuff on several local drives, not an issue for me. Personally, I prefer to not rely on any single backup system.

I'm going to check a file just to make sure the problem noted by gjensse isn't an issue with Backblaze. Thanks for bringing it up!

[mikehalloran]

That´s a good tip for archiving! Still, I prefer Dropbox where I can store the files without zipping.

I agree with Kurt.
I keep hearing it's never a good idea and is asking for trouble. Audio files can easily lose the header info and DP projects become corrupted. I would zip them before you upload, regardless of the service you use, especially if it's a backup archive. You could opt for bundle images in any flavour if you dislike zip.

What happens if your Mac dies or you replace it? Those files will give you major grief if opened on a new Mac unless they were zipped first. Not might. Will. Unzipping restores the permissions and file structure. Been there, went through this particular hell a number of years ago.

Have a Time Machine backup — Restore and Migration Assistant don’t have this issue. Use Dropbox for file sharing—after you’ve zipped your project files.

[HCMarkus]

Just confirmed a file backed up to then downloaded from Backblaze opens perfectly in DP10.13.

[Tritonemusic]

That´s a good tip for archiving! Still, I prefer Dropbox where I can store the files without zipping.

I agree with Kurt.
I keep hearing it's never a good idea and is asking for trouble. Audio files can easily lose the header info and DP projects become corrupted. I would zip them before you upload, regardless of the service you use, especially if it's a backup archive. You could opt for bundle images in any flavour if you dislike zip.

I just received a DP Project from someone via Dropbox and it wasn't compressed. The audio files were unreadable and the DP Project file showed as a Unix file. Once it was sent as a zip, all was well.

[CharlzS]

Any files from DP projects that don't have extensions (.wav .aif .dpdoc, etc.) can be problematic. I think it was around DP6/7 that they went to using extensions, as pretty much all Mac apps do now. The project files can be recovered by just adding the .dpdoc extension, but audio files are more problematic, i.e. SD2 files without resource forks are raw audio with no sample rate or bit depth header. Zipping is always best to keep resource forks when transferring. To future proof, any old sessions that still use SD2 files should be converted to WAV/BWAV files.

[gjensse]

What happens if your Mac dies or you replace it? Those files will give you major grief if opened on a new Mac unless they were zipped first. Not might. Will. Unzipping restores the permissions and file structure. Been there, went through this particular hell a number of years ago.

Have a Time Machine backup — Restore and Migration Assistant don’t have this issue. Use Dropbox for file sharing—after you’ve zipped your project files.

I wrote that I keep all my DP files on an external "Dropbox-only" hard drive. The files are actually offline. I just sync this drive with Dropbox. By using this method I also have easy access to my DP projects on my home computer. But I took the advice and stored all my DP projects as zip files on pCloud. I also have backups on two other hard drives plus TimeMachine.

[peterdna]

It's possible that pCloud's server is interpreting the old DP project files as text files because it doesn't recognize the file type. This can happen if the server doesn't have the necessary software or codecs to handle the file.If you want to use pCloud for storing and backing up your Digital Performer projects, you may want to try converting the old project files to a more widely recognized format, such as .wav or .mp3, before uploading them to pCloud. This will ensure that the files are correctly identified and displayed on the server. Alternatively, you could consider using Technology Services.

[mikehalloran]

I wrote that I keep all my DP files on an external "Dropbox-only" hard drive. The files are actually offline. I just sync this drive with Dropbox. By using this method I also have easy access to my DP projects on my home computer. But I took the advice and stored all my DP projects as zip files on pCloud. I also have backups on two other hard drives plus TimeMachine.

That is changing with the new 164.4..7914 update, currently being rolled out slowly. Right now, it's Mac only, Monterey 12.5 or later and many users haven't seen it yet. With this, your files stay in the Cloud — period. They can be made available offline to your System Drive and only if you have enough disk space. Again, you can't change that. Your files sync to the Cloud whenever the network has access. Your DB icon will have an orange dot when it's your turn to update to 164.4..7914. When done, read the 5 page instructions so you know where your files have gone and ho to make them available offline.

Here's the good news: I am able to work on DP and Performer Lite 11.21 projects being stored in shared DropBox folders. It works and none of us have superfast internet. Anyone familiar with the old UNIX NFS protocol invented by SUN decades ago will grasp the concept. Only one of us can work at a time or work will be overwritten. I make sure that I use MOTU MAS plug-ins only until it's time to Master—then I pull the folder out of Dropbox. Since PL has a track limitation (16 Audio + 16 MIDI + 16 AUX), this is keeping projects small. Proof of concept but it's looking good.

I'm jazzed.

[gjensse]

That is changing with the new 164.4..7914 update, currently being rolled out slowly. Right now, it's Mac only, Monterey 12.5 or later and many users haven't seen it yet. With this, your files stay in the Cloud — period. They can be made available offline to your System Drive and only if you have enough disk space. Again, you can't change that. Your files sync to the Cloud whenever the network has access. Your DB icon will have an orange dot when it's your turn to update to 164.4..7914. When done, read the 5 page instructions so you know where your files have gone and ho to make them available offline.

I know. I was struggling with this for weeks when storing the Dropbox folder on an external drive was not supported anymore. My internal drive was only 250 GB, so I ended up purchasing a M1 Mac Mini with a 2TB drive.

[mikehalloran]

That is changing with the new 164.4..7914 update, currently being rolled out slowly. Right now, it's Mac only, Monterey 12.5 or later and many users haven't seen it yet. With this, your files stay in the Cloud — period. They can be made available offline to your System Drive and only if you have enough disk space. Again, you can't change that. Your files sync to the Cloud whenever the network has access. Your DB icon will have an orange dot when it's your turn to update to 164.4..7914. When done, read the 5 page instructions so you know where your files have gone and ho to make them available offline.

I know. I was struggling with this for weeks when storing the Dropbox folder on an external drive was not supported anymore. My internal drive was only 250 GB, so I ended up purchasing a M1 Mac Mini with a 2TB drive.

When I wrote that a year ago, I might not have been aware that the changes affect all cloud services, especially iCloud which, likewise allows copies to be sync'd only to System drives. Apple really, really wants us to buy more internal storage (my new M2 Studio has 8TB onboard).

Those syn'd copies do backup to Time Machine and Backblaze, thank goodness. My wife did some "reorganizing" last June and lost a client's entire project—took me two hours to find it in a Time Machine backup four months later (she had also renamed it before deleting) but I did. Whew!

Apple no longer allows sharing of Logic or FCPx except over iCloud. Exchanging zipped files over Dropbox works, of course, but you're supposed to drag them to your desktop, decompress, work, re-zip and upload — In case you thought you only wanted to pay for one cloud service.

I share projects with other DP and PL users over Dropbox. My internet is still over copper so really fast, it ain't but it works as long as only one user at a time is in the file. FileMaker works over Dropbox as long as only one user is looking at a time (shhhhhh... nobody tell Apple!) possibly, because it's cross-platform, Apple won't mess with that.
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