Trouble with a project's audio file management

[Billy86]

I can't figure this out: I launch the project file and get a “Find Missing Audio” popup; not sure how/when I got tangled up, but it's been going on now for weeks. There are about 20 files the project apparently can’t find. I “Skip All.” The Project loads with the message: “Some external audio files could not be found. Missing audio data has been replaced with silence.”  I click “Okay.” The project loads and plays fine.

The “missing” files are obviously not anything I need. (Some old track bounces, recorded clips, etc.). I’ve “Saved as…” a new file name thinking that might fix it, but it didn’t. I’ve tried Utilities/Clean Audio Folder and that didn’t fix it. I searched my PC for the first file name in the list, and it was found in the Recycle Bin. Went to the Recycled bin hoping to restore it to original location, but I couldn’t find the file there (unless it's under some obscure "computer code" name).

My project files are on a secondary SSD drive (not the C drive). I save audio files to project folders on the secondary drive. 

Any ideas how I can get this fixed? Thanks.

[John Vere]

A few things I can think of.

Open the project by browsing to your storage drive and opening it using the CWP icon inside the projects folder. 

Personally I would never trust that Clean Audio Folder Utility It might have been what caused this. 

And when you used "save as" if you somehow didn't Check the  "copy all audio with project"  box this could also happen to the new version.  

It might be too late but here's a few ways to stop this in the future. 

If you are re doing tracks -Always rename them with a system . Like " Guitar lead Feb 24" Sounds dumb but it sure makes it easy to look in the audio folder for the track you want. Always name tracks BEFORE you record them so they will be stamped. They are also date stamped.  

When I'm closed to finished a project I make a "save as"  copy  with date in the name.  I open it and then I export all the audio tracks as stems 48/32 bit no dither, no effects. I then delete all the originals which are probably broken up into a zillion clips and replace those with the stems by dragging from the export folder as complete tracks end to end.  I then close the project and delete all the audio files except for the stems which will have different names or I could use the date. Now that back up copy is nice and tidy, way smaller in file size as well as could be easily transferred to another DAW. I also back them up as Midi files.  

[Byron Dickens]

Good project hygiene can save a lot of trouble later on.

[marcL]

6 hours ago, John Vere said:

When I'm closed to finished a project I make a "save as"  copy  with date in the name.  I open it and then I export all the audio tracks as stems 48/32 bit no dither, no effects. I then delete all the originals which are probably broken up into a zillion clips and replace those with the stems by dragging from the export folder as complete tracks end to end.  I then close the project and delete all the audio files except for the stems which will have different names or I could use the date. Now that back up copy is nice and tidy, way smaller in file size as well as could be easily transferred to another DAW. I also back them up as Midi files.

I do something similar. But I save the track stems in a separate, song-specific directory. I do this as soon I think that a track (without mixing FX) is okay. Like this I can create multiple projects that reference the finished tracks. In the end I create a mixing project that has almost no audio contents as it only references the finished audio tracks. The advantage of this is that I don't have dozens of copies of the same finished tracks and that the projects are really light. And last but not least it is easy to backup!

[Billy86]

Thanks everyone. Good tips. Oh, and the behavior has stopped. Maybe a reboot did it. Should've thought of that; when things get wonky, that's usually the first thing I try.