DP 11.21 now started crashing or (-43) error

[Kenny B]

So all was good on my 2013 MacPro until recently. Now I am getting these OS error File not Found (-43) while working on a project. I started a new project and the same thing is still happening. I don't know what could be causing except maybe a recent OS update to Monterey Version 12.6.3. That was the last thing I did to change anything in regards to configuration. Any ideas what might be happening and why?

[mikehalloran]

-43 is a MacOS report of an error; it’s not the error. It can mean many things, in this case “file not found” is accurate. No idea why that still happens but I do know what to do about it.

First, know that DP is not crashing. If you Quit when you see -43, you will lose work so don’t do that.

When you see that, Save immediately. It will ask you to chose a location—navigate to your Project Folder and make sure that the box Copy audio… is checked. It will now ask to overwrite, let it do so. Save again and you can continue working. If you don’t select the correct Project Folder, it will create a new file and that will get messy (I’ve done that accidentally).

I’ve been trying to chase this gremlin on my own Mac. I hoped that my recent update to Ventura had gotten it but I saw it again two days ago. I’m keeping Apple’s Activity Monitor open on one of my side screens hoping that it will show me if anything is causing a conflict and how.

[mikehalloran]

Let me add that this is not new to Monterey or DP 11.x. IIRC, I first saw it in 10 over Catalina. Before I knew to Save, I used to Quit.

If you create a new Project, you’re ok as long as you copied the audio files over. Problem is that you now have two projects of the same name and if you accidentally open the older one, you’ll wonder where all your recent work went, even worse if you add more work to the older Project because you didn’t notice (don’t ask—it was late). You can Trash the older version but, to be safe, verify that the one you’ve kept is correct before emptying. Overwriting the existing Project works fine and keeps that from happening.

[Kenny B]

Thanks for the input Mike. You are always there to give a helping hand and I'm thankful for that.

So I did not mention that this started happening after I installed a new 14TB back up drive to be used in Time Machine. So that was set to backup automatically and I'm wondering if that is interfering with DP creating files as I record or as it is just sitting there. I just now turned off Automatic updates to see if that makes a difference. Time Machine will not actively backup anything unless I tell it to. In 3 days since this started happening I now have 4 versions of my project going... a lot of extra disk space is being used to store the older versions.

One more thing, I formatted the Time Machine drive to APFS since it was recommended to be the best format if possible. don't know that it should matter but I just thought I'd throw that out.

[mikehalloran]

I'm absolutely certain that this has nothing to do with Time Machine. I'll spare you the paragraphs why other than -43 would indicate a Systemwide failure and not just DP.

That you brought up Time Machine makes me wonder if it has anything to do with Autosave. That would explain a lot. I already know that -43 means that DP is unable to write to a file or directory — were that untrue, my workaround … wouldn't.

I'm guessing that Autosave may just be a symptom—if so, you would still see -43 but only on Save, in which instance, just do my workaround. If Autosave is the culprit, turning it off makes this go away. The downside is that, if DP actually crashes, you can lose a lot of work since there's no Autosave doc that you can launch after a restart. Since -43 is a report and DP isn't crashing, Autosave is being left on in my projects.

This does gives me an idea of what else to monitor, however.

[Kenny B]

I'm absolutely certain that this has nothing to do with Time Machine. I'll spare you the paragraphs why other than -43

So Mike, I answered this to another person just now. The problem is Time Machine. I had set it to Automatic backups. Time Machine will do hourly backups with this box checked. Which makes sense because things would be going great, then suddenly I'd get the -43.

Or I would stop working, leave my computer on with the project still running, and come back the next day to find the -43. I guess it did not hit the "hourly" mark before I stopped recording and therefore all was good until I came back to work the next day.

To be honest, you triggered me to look at this because I did not know the -43 was a system type error which forced me to think about what else could be going on. I stopped looking at DP being the problem or needed to be reinstalled, etc. The only thing that changed with my setup was the Time Machine drive and I did not even set it to be "Automatic". That was the default setting when I started working with the new drive. The old Time Machine drive was not set to Automatic.

Now i just have to remember to do a manual backup every week or so.

[cuttime]

I've never had this problem, but I am now more confused.

[mikehalloran]

I'm absolutely certain that this has nothing to do with Time Machine. I'll spare you the paragraphs why other than -43

So Mike, I answered this to another person just now. The problem is Time Machine. I had set it to Automatic backups. Time Machine will do hourly backups with this box checked. Which makes sense because things would be going great, then suddenly I'd get the -43.

Or I would stop working, leave my computer on with the project still running, and come back the next day to find the -43. I guess it did not hit the "hourly" mark before I stopped recording and therefore all was good until I came back to work the next day.

To be honest, you triggered me to look at this because I did not know the -43 was a system type error which forced me to think about what else could be going on. I stopped looking at DP being the problem or needed to be reinstalled, etc. The only thing that changed with my setup was the Time Machine drive and I did not even set it to be "Automatic". That was the default setting when I started working with the new drive. The old Time Machine drive was not set to Automatic.

Now i just have to remember to do a manual backup every week or so.

I know that you believe this but I’m certain that you are incorrect.

I can go for weeks at a time without seeing this and then it might happen 3 times in 20 minutes. Time Machine backups happen an hour after the last one is completed.

Most people do not see this; a few do. If Time Machine were the culprit, every Mac owner would.

This was a time consuming PIA till I discovered the workaround that takes a few seconds and does not cause me to lose work. It is now a minor annoyance.

[Kenny B]

Mike, I guess time will tell if I get another -43 out of the blue. But I will say this, I've never gotten this error before on my system using DP going back as far as I remember. All of a sudden I get one every day with no real system changes except the addition of a new hard drive and Time Machine. I had done a system update to 12.6.3 but that was weeks ago and I never got the -43 until the new Time Machine setting was invoked. So it is not too far-fetched to assume that Time Machine was causing the problem in DP.

However, that is not to say that your particular issues cannot be from some other thing happening on your system, perhaps another program, perhaps AutoSave in DP, whatever.

I will keep this thread updated should I get another -43.

[mikehalloran]

Mike, I guess time will tell if I get another -43 out of the blue. But I will say this, I've never gotten this error before on my system using DP going back as far as I remember

So what? You are implying a cause and effect that, if true, would affect every Mac owner running DP and using any backup. Cloneware apps are APIs for Time Machine, by the way.

About a year and a half ago, I had a really annoying spinning beach ball issue. All my testing indicated it was Dropbox or Avira and both company sites had post after post with complaints. Finally the activity Monitor turned red at the exact moment and, drilling down, I found that the culprit was a Corel licensing daemon — unfortunately, none of my Corel apps worked without it so I had to clear them all except Toast that doesn't use it.

Others have posted that they saw this, then it went away and they had done nothing. I've put 30 more hours on the project where I saw it last week and it's not re-occurred — yet. Likewise, I've done nothing. If necessary, I have ways of making Apple Engineering look at this but it has to happen again. I'm expecting the Activity Monitor to show it, though.

It knows I'm looking, though.