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Re downloading .cwp files from the cloud...


Adam Salomon

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I've just recently purchased 200 GB of Google Drive cloud space to back up some of my recordings.  This is to prevent losing everything if one of my three hard drives fail. 

Ok so I've uploaded many .cwp files but when I try to open them in Google Drive to test their accessibility, it tells me to download them.  After I do that, when i try to open them Cakewalk opens but i get a window that says "Find Missing Audio".  I 've tried several of the choices listed, i.e. "move files", "copy files".  After I click on all the choices I get a message that says.  "audio cannot be found, replaced with silence".   Mind you this is only a test so, I still have original files on my hard drive but when I try to re download them off of the cloud they won't open and are replaced with silence.  Is it not possible to recover .cwp files from the Google Drive Cloud?  Please help!

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Just now, John said:

You don't have to do that. As I said use per-project folders in preferences and save the folder. This will save the project plus the audio and any other files Cakewalk creates.   In your case its a simple copy to the cloud. 

This is also what I would recommend. ^^

The reason I mentioned WinRAR is because sometimes uploading to the cloud gives you "upload one file" options. Hence Packing it with WinRAR.

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In any case, independently of compression, the basic idea is to backup the data representing a complete project, and that means saving the project folder for your song.  

When you create and save a project in Cakewalk, and use the default option of a per-project Audio sub-folder, Cakewalk will create a main folder for the project, such as "Bob's Next Big Hit Song", and it will save the actual project within that folder, with the name "Bob's Next Big Hit Song.cwp" (which is a Cakewalk project file), and it will also have created a sub-folder called Audio, into which any audio files related to the project will be saved.

SO, an individual Cakewalk project will consist of: a project folder, and within that folder will be an Audio sub-folder, and the Cakewalk project file itself, with a cwp file extension.  You want to copy that main project folder to the cloud, for each song project you want to back up.

I hope that makes sense, and don't forget to buy my next big hit song, when I happen to create one.....

Bob Bone

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Create Cakewalk Archives, and put those on Google Drive instead. 

And I generally recommend OneDrive, since Office 365 is dirt cheap and it basically has Time Machine built in - making the Archives really safe to use for cloud backup.

Use two backup locations in the cloud, plus a large external HDD.

Edited by Some Guy
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I concur 100% with all the advice here. Save as per-project folders, and back up the folder. However, note there's more than one way to  back up, and two of these options can save a considerable amount of space - like backing up only the audio that's used in clips, or only the complete audio file from which sections are used. It's often possible to shave a 1 - 3 GB file to 500 MB or so, and you don't lose anything you might need. For more details, please see pages 46 and 47 in The Huge Book of Cakewalk by BandLab Tips, which also includes info on file consolidation prior to saving.

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On 9/22/2019 at 7:58 PM, Cookie Jarvis said:

I've always backed up to DVD...never had a disc fail but I have had harddrives fail! And I don't trust online storage...too many hacker kiddies causing mischief. I'm actually going to blu-ray at this time.

Bill

That's because the disks basically aren't used and are only stored after you back up to them.  People who use HDDs to backup tend to use them a lot more than they use a backup DVD 😉

One scratch can ruin a DVD or BD.  They aren't even approaching the same realm of durability as a HDD - mechanical or otherwise.

And I haven't really had any mechanical HDDs fail, save for one HDD in a Compaq laptop in 2001 that broke when the machine was dropped.

I use a combination of cloud and [local] network storage.

Edited by Some Guy
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For anyone else who has an interest in this thread.  I ended up buying  Microsoft One Drive 365.  Main reason, when i upload my Cakewalk .cwp folders, then reopen them,  I have no problem accessing them.  They come up right away in Cakewalk software.  With Google Drive, each  individual track came up and if I lost my hard drive, I would have to upload each track separately for every song file I have.  I have like 8 TB of recordings.  That would take a year.  Thanks for all the advice dudes!  Much Appreciated! 

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I use the free One Drive that is built into Windows. It's not very big at 0nly 5 GB  but because of how I use it I still have lots of room. ( 2.4 GB ) 

I have over 200 backing tracks stored but they are 100% midi so take very little room. I just looked and these are using 112 MB.  Until you actually record audio you can have just CWP files and there will be no other folders, just the icon.  I put a lot of work into the midi tracks of my songs so these files are more dear to me than the audio which I can always do again. 

The system is brilliant as I work between 2 workstations and the files are always up to date. I also have these backed up in a dated folder in 3 other Back up Hard drive locations.  So that's 5 Hard drives and the cloud. 

Note : I also back these up as midi files too.  Those can be used by any DAW.  Probably for a long time yet. 

To record audio I then open a backing track file, then "save as " to a new One drive folder and start recording.  Cakewalk will automatically create an audio folder.  

I could not do this ( audio) at my last house which had pour internet. I'm on super fast unlimited now so this is working fine. I will keep an eye on One Drive storage and move finished songs elsewhere to clean up if I start getting full.  

Edited by Cactus Music
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