opening old DP projects

[moondog]

Hi - have several projects made with DP5 on a MacG5. These were stored an a secondary internal drive. I've migrated to an iMac 27 retina with DP9.5.
Some of the projects will load but one newer set of projects give me an error message that DP has encountered unreadable data and has not opened the project. The drive has been checked and is 100%. Any help would be appreciated.

[bayswater]

Have your tried using both the File>Open command, and the the File>Load command? The Load command is the usual next step when Open doesn't work. It will let bring parts of an old project into a new empty project, and partially restore a corrupt project file.

[mikehalloran]

I know this one well having moved projects over without using Migration Assistant or zipping them first. MOTU support told me my data was hosed and there was nothing I could do. I knew that was wrong since they opened in DP 7.01 but not 7.12 or 7.24. In 7.12, I got “access denied” errors while 7.24 crashed.

Try zipping and unzipping the project folder first. This sometimes works.

If not, run Get Info on each folder. Apply read and write privileges to each user and, if you aren’t on the list, add that too. Highlight each line and check “apply to enclosed items...”. Sometimes, after doing that, my files would open but the sound bites would be greyed out. Re-adding the original audio fixed that.

So, different solutions but I was able to bring all my old projects back to life.

32bit Carbon 3rd party VIs and plugs will no longer work but you might hear them. If Sierra or older, 32Lives might bring them back but that won’t work in High Sierra so look for 64 bit replacements. Some MOTU plugs are now part of Trim so you’ll see those errors if that applies. The functionality is still there, however.


Never just copy a project from one Mac to another — this includes Dropbox — without zipping first or using Migration Assistant. If small enough, email is fine since that zips attachments automatically.

[mikehalloran]

Worst case, copy to a PPC and open in DP 5. Zip and move back.

Make sure that the original audio files are included. It is possible to have projects where the audio is stored elsewhere and, when the project is moved, the underlying files don't make it over. After bringing mine back to life, DP didn't know where the original audio was so my sound bites were grey. Highlighting all the original audio and just dropping it onto the screen brought everything back—DP knew where it all belonged.

Since the beginning with 2.x, I always save those files in a folder I name Raw Audio inside each project folder. Redundant and take up more space? Yes but it made things easy once I figured out how to resurrect my DP 2–7.1 files on my new iMac in 2010. I was fortunate in that under OS 10.6 w/ Rosetta, I could install DP 5.13, 6.03, 7.01 & 7.12 so that I could take the time to figure that mess out. Once I got them open in 7.24, DP 8 and 9 could open them, too.

Otherwise, I would be relegated to keeping a PPC so that I could always access my older DP files. Oh well, I wound up doing that anyway but now only use it to convert old files for my wife and kids.

If you really get stuck, I can try to see if one will open for me as long as the zip file is under 1.6G or so. My Dropbox account can handle that. I'm gone this weekend but will be around next week.

[moondog]

thanks for the tips. I'll try your suggestions.
The strange thing is that some files on the same drive will open fine. Some of the VSTs are missing but that's not a huge deal. There appears to be one folder of songs that have been worked on more indepth that seem to all be a problem. It may be that they have lost links to their data as you mentioned. All drives have checked out OK but moving files from various drives may have shaken it up.
I may try to dig up an old G5, drop the drives in and see if that get it all back to normal.
cheers

[FMiguelez]

Never just copy a project from one Mac to another — this includes Dropbox — without zipping first or using Migration Assistant. If small enough, email is fine since that zips attachments automatically.

Does that include moving projects from one disk to another disk? (both disks are NOT OS disks, but audio disk ---> archive disk, where ALL my projects live).

Usually, when I finish a project, I move it using the Finder from one to the other. Is that Ok, or have I been pushing my luck?

My other backups to other disks are via Time Machine and CCC, so those should be fine.

After bringing mine back to life, DP didn't know where the original audio was so my sound bites were grey. Highlighting all the original audio and just dropping it onto the screen brought everything back—DP knew where it all belonged.

Nice! I didn't know that!

[Phil O]

Highlighting all the original audio and just dropping it onto the screen brought everything back—DP knew where it all belonged.

That's a good thing to know! Can you elaborate, Mike? Highlighting where (soundbite window?). Dropping it onto the "screen." Anywhere?
Thanks guy.

Philippe

[David Polich]

In my over 25 years of experience with Digital Performer (going all the way back to when it was just "Performer") I've come to learn that sometimes, projects just get corrupted and there is no saving them. Better to move on to something currently on your table, or get an old mix of the corrupted projects and start them over (I've done that, too).

[mikehalloran]

Does that include moving projects from one disk to another disk? (both disks are NOT OS disks, but audio disk ---> archive disk, where ALL my projects live).

Yes in case you access those disks/drives from another Mac.

Unzipping grants the new Mac the necessary files and folder permissions.