Files Have Become Disassociated

[Tommy Byrnes]

Hi folks,

I'm having a problem that I've never experienced before. I finished up sessions with my client this past weekend and when I went to open one of the songs this morning it opened a completely different song. I've checked the audio files folder and the correct files with the correct project title are in there but the Cakewalk project file is associated with another tune and will not open the correct audio files.

I tried to import the tracks into a new project but of course it imported each file to its own track. This is mostly laying down live drums with several takes so trying to sort it out manually seems impossible, given the number of tracks, which was over 150 when each clip was imported. Yikes! The stuff of nightmares!

So, how do I get the project to recognize the correct  audio  files that go with the project and not point to a completely different song? I'm sure I messed something up but I can't seem to find what I did. It's a real poser and I've been at it for a couple of hours without any luck. The band is back in this weekend and I need to suss this out before they come in. Redoing the tune is not going to go over well and not really an option.

As always, thanks for the help.

Cheers,

Tommy

[reginaldStjohn]

I would contact Cakewalk Support (Support@cakewalk.com) to see if they can help you.

Did you move the project from one disk to another?  Could it be that the copied the audio but not the project file?

[David Baay]

Run the Cakewalk Audio Finder (CWAF) Tool from the Utilities menu. when it's done, you can click on projects to find related wav files or vice versa.

CWAF is the tool everyone loves to hate. It's ancient and awkward in some ways, and slow because it's thorough. 

It helps to do some setup first to make the searching more efficient; here's a summary:

Preparation:
 - Create a folder called “CWAF-Excluded WAVs” at the same level as your Projects folder.
 - Create a shortcut to \Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\cwaftool.exe so you can run it with CbB shut down.
 
Usage:
- Close CbB.
- Empty the Recycle Bin.
- Start CWAF Tool.
- Add your “Excluded” folder and any other paths on the drive that will never have  projects or audio in them to the Folders to Ignore list (it helps if your Projects folder is at the root of a drive with few other root-level folders).
 
- Select a drive to search (usually just the drive with Projects on it).
- Click 'Find'; the button label will change to 'Stop', and you will see paths being searched in the status bar at the bottom.
- Wait for the Stop button to change back to Find, indicating the search is complete.
- Click the 'Status' column header to get all the 'Orphaned' files floated to the top.
 
- Select all the orphans, click the Move button, and select the CWAF Excluded WAVs folder on the local drive as the target.
- Repeat the search and sort, and scroll through the list to be sure there are no Orphaned or Missing files reported (i.e. you found all the orphans, and didn’t inadvertently move something that wasn’t an orphan).
 
- You can now safely Shift+Delete (permanently deletes, bypassing the Recycle Bin) all the files in the “Excluded” folder.

 

[Base 57]

If you use file versioning, try opening an older version of the project (File/Revert).

Edited October 29, 2022 by Base 57

[Tommy Byrnes]

16 hours ago, reginaldStjohn said:

I would contact Cakewalk Support (Support@cakewalk.com) to see if they can help you.

Did you move the project from one disk to another?  Could it be that the copied the audio but not the project file?

Everything is on the dedicated projects/audio drive. It was a long session and I was pooped at the end of a crazy long day so I really don't know what I did. Nothing got moved as far as I know.

 

17 hours ago, David Baay said:

Run the Cakewalk Audio Finder (CWAF) Tool from the Utilities menu. when it's done, you can click on projects to find related wav files or vice versa.

CWAF is the tool everyone loves to hate. It's ancient and awkward in some ways, and slow because it's thorough. 

It helps to do some setup first to make the searching more efficient; here's a summary:

Preparation:
 - Create a folder called “CWAF-Excluded WAVs” at the same level as your Projects folder.
 - Create a shortcut to \Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\cwaftool.exe so you can run it with CbB shut down.
 
Usage:
- Close CbB.
- Empty the Recycle Bin.
- Start CWAF Tool.
- Add your “Excluded” folder and any other paths on the drive that will never have  projects or audio in them to the Folders to Ignore list (it helps if your Projects folder is at the root of a drive with few other root-level folders).
 
- Select a drive to search (usually just the drive with Projects on it).
- Click 'Find'; the button label will change to 'Stop', and you will see paths being searched in the status bar at the bottom.
- Wait for the Stop button to change back to Find, indicating the search is complete.
- Click the 'Status' column header to get all the 'Orphaned' files floated to the top.
 
- Select all the orphans, click the Move button, and select the CWAF Excluded WAVs folder on the local drive as the target.
- Repeat the search and sort, and scroll through the list to be sure there are no Orphaned or Missing files reported (i.e. you found all the orphans, and didn’t inadvertently move something that wasn’t an orphan).
 
- You can now safely Shift+Delete (permanently deletes, bypassing the Recycle Bin) all the files in the “Excluded” folder.

 

This is great advice but I am trying to re-associate the files and not remove them.  What I'm wondering is ifthe actual project file got deleted somehow and left behind the audio files. Yet, there is a project file with the right song name but the wrong audio. What a mess!

[Tommy Byrnes]

I bit the bullet and went through the project audio  folder, took the correct files and just rebuilt the project. There were four full band takes so making sure each track corresponed to the right take was a bit of a pain but it's back and running, just in time for my clients to get here. That was a close call! Thanks for the help, folks. I'll have eagle eyes on what the heck I'm doing from now on.

[David Baay]

3 hours ago, Tommy Byrnes said:

I am trying to re-associate the files and not remove them. 

Just to clarify, the summary was taken from previous posts I've made where the primary goal was to clean all audio folders in one go, but you don't have to do that. Before you get to that point, CWAF shows you everything you need to know about where every project's audio is stored and which projects are referencing which wave files. I still think it would help you sort out what happened.

[Tommy Byrnes]

1 hour ago, David Baay said:

Just to clarify, the summary was taken from previous posts I've made where the primary goal was to clean all audio folders in one go, but you don't have to do that. Before you get to that point, CWAF shows you everything you need to know about where every project's audio is stored and which projects are referencing which wave files. I still think it would help you sort out what happened.

You're probably right, David. I just ran out of time. I did run it and it did show the files I needed as orphaned so I just went to the folder and imported the files I needed into a new  project.

[John Vere]

If you actually had deleted the CWP icon it would have been in your recycle bin