Unwanted Changes to Take Lane Order and Height

[Tim Elmore]

When Sonar loads a project, it sometimes changes the order in which take lanes are positioned, deletes empty lanes, changes lane height, and changes track height instead of leaving these properties the way they were when the project was saved.

Here is a simple project having four take lanes on Track 1 (lane T3 is empty):

 

With the lanes arranged as above, I saved the project and closed Sonar. Later, when I started up Sonar again and loaded the project, the track and lanes appeared like this:

The lanes are in a different order. The empty lane (T3) has been deleted. The lane heights are smaller, and the track height is smaller.
Without saving, I closed the project, but left Sonar running. I reopened the project. Everything was restored to its original, proper condition:

All projects that are subsequently loaded have the tracks and take lanes properly arranged as I left them when they were saved. But if I close Sonar and launch it again, the issue recurs, but only the first time I load a project. This happens with all of my projects, so it doesn’t appear to be project-dependent.

In summary, the rule is: After Sonar is started up, the first project loaded, and only the first project loaded, has the issue. As long as I leave Sonar open, all subsequently loaded projects have everything properly arranged. But if I close Sonar itself, the issue recurs the next time Sonar is launched.

I first noticed this issue about two weeks ago, but I am not sure which Sonar version I was running.

I hope this can be fixed soon. Meanwhile, the best workaround I found is: After starting up Sonar, open any project and immediately close it without saving it. From that point onward, Sonar will properly open that project or any other projects with tracks and lanes arranged as they should be.

[David Baay]

There was recently an issue with other view parameters were not being restored correctly only on the first project to be opened, so possibly this is another manifestation of that, but I am not able to repro your issue.

Is this Sonar free or paid? If paid, are you using Workspaces? Can you share a demo project?

[Tim Elmore]

I am using the paid Sonar, 2025.08. I use workspaces, but do not automatically apply them upon project load.

Please try the attached project. It is just a single track containing test tones. Make sure to begin with Sonar not running, and then start it up. Load the project using the Sonar File menu, not by double-clicking the project file in Windows Explorer.

After the project loads, note the order and size of the take lanes. Without saving, close the project, but leave Sonar running. Load the project again and compare the take lane arrangement with what you saw the first time.

Take Lane Experiment.zip

[Tim Elmore]

I tried changing Workspaces by setting it to None. The issue went away. Is this expected?

[Bristol_Jonesey]

2 minutes ago, Tim Elmore said:

I tried changing Workspaces by setting it to None. The issue went away. Is this expected?

Probably

[Tim Elmore]

I set Workspaces back to my custom one, but unchecked all the "Load from Workspace" items:

With my custom Workspace configured this way, the issue comes back. It is a mystery to me that a workspace having all items unchecked would affect take lane arrangements. The other part I don't understand is how this would happen only the first time a project is loaded after starting up Sonar. Does a Workspace affect only the first project loaded?