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?

[David Baay]

20 hours ago, Tim Elmore said:

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.

I would say both of those behaviors are unexpected. I wouldn't expect a Workspace to affect takes lanes at all since a project could have many more tracks with different numbers and ordering of take lanes than the project from which the Workspace was originally saved.

This might be something the Bakers need to investigate, but it's possible your Workspace is somehow corrupted or no longer compatible with Sonar, and you just need to create a new one.

I suggest you try starting a new project from the Basic template, arrange everything to your preference, save a new Workspace, and see if it behaves as expected with existing projects.

[Tim Elmore]

David:

I tried your suggestion about creating a new Workspace in case my present one is corrupted in some way. The problem persisted.

I think your first reply is spot on, where you suggested that my problem may be just another manifestation of the known issue where the visible elements of a project are not restored correctly. In one post about that issue, Noel suggested a workaround: Close the start screen right after opening Sonar, and then re-open the start screen. Projects should then load without the issue. I tried his suggestion and it solves the issue I was having. In another post, Noel said that the problem he was referring to will be fixed in the next update. I won't be surprised if it fixes my problem as well, since it appears to be the same basic issue.

Thanks for pointing out the possibility about the related problem. That helped me find the workaround. I will see if the next update does indeed fix it.

[David Baay]

2 hours ago, Tim Elmore said:

In one post about that issue, Noel suggested a workaround: Close the start screen right after opening Sonar, and then re-open the start screen. Projects should then load without the issue. I tried his suggestion and it solves the issue I was having. In another post, Noel said that the problem he was referring to will be fixed in the next update.

I forgot the fix hadn't yet been included in one of the updates already released. That should take care of it.