Project wouldn't open until I changed its name

[Jim Stamper]

This is so flaky, I just wondered if anyone else has seen it? 

I have a project name in this format project name.cwp and I wanted to save a copy of it

I did a "Save Copy As" in this format: bak project name.cwp

That copy would not open at all. Cakewalk looked like it was opening each of the plug-ins, etc, but then Cakewalk just stopped and returned me to the Windows desktop. But Cakewalk was able to open other projects. I restarted the PC, same results. 

I wanted to flag that project for myself so I decided to rename it as this: bak project name is corrupt.cwp

And then it opened just fine!

I don't have time to try to troubleshoot this, just wondering if someone else might have an answer.

[John Vere]

Did you save it to a different location, like an external drive?  

I sort of doubt that changing the name would fix a corrupted project but you never know! 

If it created a crash dump file you can report this to the staff and they will look into it for you. 

 

[JnTuneTech]

Unless there is a problem with file permissions, locks by other processes (AV, auto-backup, what have you), -in the location that you saved the backup file to, which then got cleared when you renamed it, I can't think of what would cause that. Very interesting!

[Jim Stamper]

It was saved to the exact same location, permissions,  etc, the only change was the name.  I don't have the time for awhile to troubleshoot this with Cakewalk Support.  However I will comment that it's not too unusual for Cakewalk to behave this way ... that is, it will just exit (crash I guess) to the desktop while I'm working on a project ... or it will appear to be opening a project and then exit to the desktop. Seems like I've seen others mention this type of behaviour. 

[Starship Krupa]

On 6/4/2023 at 1:07 PM, Jim Stamper said:

it will just exit (crash I guess) to the desktop while I'm working on a project ... or it will appear to be opening a project and then exit to the desktop. Seems like I've seen others mention this type of behaviour. 

The devs call those "poofs," as in "poof, it's gone." I was a couple of years ago, and I was one of the ones who was seeing it, and the devs cured it (at least they cured it from happening in Cakewalk by itself).

For regular occurrences of crash-y behavior, 95% of the time, it can be traced to Cakewalk and a plug-in not cooperating. So make note of what plug-ins you're using when these happen. It's the toughest issue there is in the DAW world, getting the host and plug-ins to play nice together. The people who make the DAW's have no control over the plug-in code and vice-versa.

[John Vere]

It’s always a plug in. And just today TTS-1 froze Cakewalk again for me. I didn’t loose anything, I was just re mixing a finished project.  The minute I tried to change the volume of the TTS-1 track Cakewalk froze. 
I re opened the project and immediately replaced TTS-1 with Xpand which is better sound quality anyway.  
It’s always a plug in if Cakewalk freezes or crashes. 
I wonder if they will stop including TTS-1 in the new versions? 

Edited June 7, 2023 by JohnnyV

[Jim Stamper]

In my case, I don't see how it could be a plug-in. I changed absolutely nothing in the project. Only the file name.

"Poof!"  I like that - it's a perfect name for it!

PS. I stopped using TTS-1 years ago, it seemed to crash or freeze often. I gave up on it.

Edited June 8, 2023 by Jim Stamper
added a PS

[Jim Stamper]

The above problem happened again a few minutes ago. I had a project that wouldn't open (It Poofed! while opening).

I re-named it. It opened.

At the very least, re-naming is something you can try if you have a Poof project

[gustabo]

Sounds like you may have a problem with your filetable in Windows.
Run chkdsk in an elevated administrator rights command window.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/chkdsk?tabs=event-viewer

 

[scook]

Could be something particular with the actual characters used in the names.

For example, I have seen users place dots in file names.

While permitted by the OS, I don't recommend using them in project file names. 

 

[Jim Stamper]

51 minutes ago, gustabo said:

Sounds like you may have a problem with your filetable in Windows.
Run chkdsk in an elevated administrator rights command window.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/chkdsk?tabs=event-viewer

 

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea, but I'm not going to get into troubleshooting right now. I spent years in a day job troubleshooting PC issues. It's usually a process of elimination and can take a lot of time.  Plus, if there's a name for this Cakewalk symptom ("Poof") then it isn't just me who's being affected, and I only have this issue with Cakewalk, no other apps.  It might be a good idea if Cakewalk would take a look at how their code handles Windows filetable requests.

[Jim Stamper]

6 minutes ago, scook said:

Could be something particular with the actual characters used in the names.

For example, I have seen users place dots in file names.

While permitted by the OS, I don't recommend using them in project file names. 

 

Thanks, I don't put odd characters in file names. I did it exactly as the format below from the OP

 

On 6/2/2023 at 5:02 PM, Jim Stamper said:

I have a project name in this format project name.cwp and I wanted to save a copy of it

I did a "Save Copy As" in this format: bak project name.cwp