DP 7.24 saved project, DP crashed. Project file gone!

[climber]

It sounds as if you were saving over the same file all the time, is this correct? I never do that. I always save files with a new name based on the date and a letter version. Like so:

MyFile-20130502a
MyFile-20130502b
MyFile-20130503a
MyFile-20130503b
MyFile-20130503c
MyFile-20130503d

They sort nicely in the finder and I can easily get back to any previous version. I've been doing saves like this since the C64 days. It doesn't preclude doing full backups with T/M or the like however.

[stevenew]

@Climber

How often do you create a new version to save? I 'save' every time I change something this could be every few minutes. I could see the logic in creating a new version every day based on the date but multiple copies a day? Or does everybody do this, I have I missed something fundamental here - wouldn't be the first time:-)

Steve

[climber]

I save a new "version" every time I think I might want to possibly back up a step. we're talking about taking seconds to do, so I don't see the problem. it does sounds like a new version was never saved and IMNSHO that's not a good idea at all.

[stevenew]

Hi,

I do create new versions of the project file, but not daily more at milestones in a tracks progression, i.e. initial composition, recording vocals, recording guitars, major rearrangements, final bouncing of VIs, mixing etc, I guess at the end of the project I end up with maybe 6-8 versions of the file. In this case I was on version 3 of the file. But my Time Machine backup was more recent than version 2.

I do see the logic in what you are saying and of course as you say, it doesn't take long to do just to form the habit.

I guess this is what versions is doing in Mountain Lion with DP 8 & compatible apps

Thanks

Steve

[mikehalloran]

IOW it's anecdotal, not a documented feature?

Are you playing devil's advocate or do you really not know? This is basic Mac OS since 10.4. here's a tutorial on Find basics relating to locating DP.

There is nothing anecdotal about it. They function differently. Type any search word in Spotlight. You will get 30 items grouped into 3-9 categories normally. Type that same word in Find. You will get every file that contains that word even if part of the code.

Here is the way to locate every DP project on your drives. If I had remembered this, it would have been my first suggestion. Open Find and type in digital performer project document where kind is any. All your DP projects will now appear but not their folders. In 10.8, you can Open Enclosing Folder. You can also right-click an icon to get its location on the drive. If you'd accidentally saved one in the wrong place, it becomes very easy to put it where it belongs by dragging the icon to the desktop or to an alias of the folder where you normally save DP.

Try that same search in Spotlight - can you make it show more than 30?

DP does amend every project folder with the word, Project. In Spotlight, two of my folders show up when searching for Project alone. In Find, they all show up along with 1,859 other items. A quick scroll allowed me to locate all my DP project folders and projects.

Let's say you don't know the above and want to search for a DP project on your drives. With most programs, you would use Find to locate every file with the extension you want - except that DP doesn't amend project names with extensions so that won't work. Hopefully, you remember all or part of a project name.

If it is a common word, you may or may not find it in Spotlight. Example: For some reason, I have four DP projects with the word Someone in it. Spotlight found one of them. Find located 1,159 items containing Someone- scrolling through, I found all four projects plus two additional copies of one of them left over from my 7.24 issues.

I can only assume that you are well enough organized so that this has never been an issue for you. No sarcasm here - I have never had to search for missing DP projects by any of the above.

With me, it is work related as in, I dealt with this issue six years ago, what did I write and where did I put it? Spotlight is useless but really fast so I try it first. Find, however, is my best friend. The same tasks in Windows should fall under the Geneva Convention.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I really "didn't know" and wasn't playing Devil's Advocate. I questioned your statement as I had not heard that before and never saw any documentation from Apple to that effect.

I either open a window and hit cmd-f, enter search terms in the spotlight box at the top of a finder window, of simply hit cmd-f from the Finder, all of which results in the exact same "looking" window and, in fact, do exactly the same thing according to Apple's actual documentation on the matter. (See below.)

No need to get testy Mike; no one can be right all the time. All I asked was where that might be documented. That's all. If you don't know, you don't know. That's OK. And regardless of what you think you know from 6 years of experience, the official Apple explanation seems to contradict that:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343

From the above:

Command-F Find any matching Spotlight attribute

Or maybe this might be more to your liking?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2470?view ... cale=en_US

From the above:

5. Search Field - Start typing a word or phrase and Spotlight will search your Mac for any matches.

Can you provide documentation from Apple to the contrary? Again, that's all I'm asking here. If not, then it remains anecdotal in comparison to the documentation I have provided for you.

BTW, everything I do on my machine is also work related. No need to wag the "pro" argument with anyone here.

[cuttime]

I've mentioned this before, but this little utility is wonderful:

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Thanks c/t. That's a great app, especially if you choose not to index via Spotlight.

[mikehalloran]

No need to get testy Mike; no one can be right all the time.

I wasn't testy. I was surprised that you didn't know this. I have never looked for documentation on it - never needed to. Spotlight has only been around since 10.4. Find has been around since - hell, I don't remember - Finder 4? Earlier?

Control-F has different functions depending where you are. I only use it inside Word or a browser.

My point, still, is that if the OP saved that project, it can be found fairly quickly.

[stevenew]

Hi,

Thanks for all the ideas here, your help has been appreciated. As I have outlined in detail, the file was on the system, I know the exact name of it, I had been saving the same file in the same location with no issues, I saved it a matter of minutes before the crash, I have time machine backups of that same file, in the same location. I pressed cmd s, got the error message, DP crashed (portion of crash log shown in my post above) file disappeared. I searched the system as outlined in my above posts - the file was nowhere to be found.

I presume the file became totally corrupted for whatever reason and thus ceased to appear as the correctly named DP file, hence why it could not be found. Yes I could have waited hours for Data rescue to maybe find it, but I suspect if it was corrupted that badly it would be unreadable anyway, quicker to rebuild the project from the backup.

Taking climber's advice, from now on I will save a new copy of all project files at least once every day I work on them, and backup to time machine very hour - I guess I have become blasé all these years of relatively problem free Macs.

Thanks again

Steve