Where did all my work go!!!!

[jnealand]

F10 backup is very fast and does not create huge files so it is a good practice to do it often.

[Woody929]

One of the [many] reasons I use Dropbox [for everything].  Every time I hit save things are backed up.  If I ever want to go back to a previous version, I just restore to that one.

[RobertB]

I use Dropbox to a certain extent. Before I started using a couple of e682's I did all the time. Then I started using a thumb drive. Looks like while I am working on sequences, I will go back and put them in Dropbox. Didn't realize it uses versions. Have had to do that with some of my school Google Drive stuff and works great when you screw up ;-)

[Woody929]

Google drive also works.  With DB, you can go online & restore back to a previous version.  The history keeps for 30 days

[Santa]

Yep, my show folders are always on Dropbox. That way I can easily switch from my Mac to my PC and never have to shuttle files. Nice. But you still need to f10 frequently, too.

[Gilrock]

In this case F10 backup would not have helped.  We had someone else make this same mistake but I don't think anyone entered it on GitHub so we never added code to block you from doing what you did.  Fixed timing tracks that show you the 25ms, 50ms, and 100ms lines were NEVER supposed to be edited.  When I created them it never occurred to me to block you from editing them.  So even though you were doing a Save it wasn't saving a darn thing for that Lyrics timing track because that is the way we save file space for fixed timing tracks.  Instead of having thousands of lines in the XML for every 25ms we use one line that says draw one every 25ms.  So now you have a 25ms timing track called Lyrics.

There also seems to be a basic misunderstanding when I told you to use 25ms that wasn't for the timing track.  When you create a new sequence you have to choose the smallest duration of the sequence and you told me you had chosen 100ms so I said you probably want 25ms instead otherwise you will never be able to create effects with 25ms intervals.  If you were able to create a 25ms timing track then you already had a 25ms sequence in which case you should have been able to place effects with that resolution but you told me you were limited to 100ms.

The bottom line is those phrases, words, and phonemes only existed as long as you didn't close the sequence they were never being saved in the file.   Did you really leave the program open that long?  That's really a bad idea also.  The Undo buffer alone is a reason to be closing the program a least once a day otherwise its constantly chewing up memory.

The solution to prevent this will be I need to block anyone from altering a fixed timing track.  If you followed the videos from Dan or I you wouldn't have run into this.

[jediknight2]

Where are all your videos at?

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

[RobertB]

The bottom line is those phrases, words, and phonemes only existed as long as you didn't close the sequence they were never being saved in the file.   Did you really leave the program open that long?  That's really a bad idea also.  The Undo buffer alone is a reason to be closing the program a least once a day otherwise its constantly chewing up memory.

The solution to prevent this will be I need to block anyone from altering a fixed timing track.  If you followed the videos from Dan or I you wouldn't have run into this.

Wait, wait.....
I did save and save and save...and save. That is why I don't understand where it went. Yes. I leave stuff open for days if not weeks. Guess  am used to LOR where it takes a few minutes sometimes to load. I literally (in between classes.... I teach) will fix something as the kids come in. I close the laptop, take it to my office and during lunch work on it some more. Close the laptop, take it back out into the bandroom when I finish lunch / planning. Close the laptop, bring it home, work some more.  Does that routine cause issues with the program?  I sometimes like to just leave it open at a place in the sequence just to remember where I am at. 

Github?  Forgive my ignorance .  What is that?  If it is where to post glitches, I have one but will have to recreate it.

Soldering some connectors now. After I get through with those, going to sequence again. These pointers are helpful.

[Gilrock]

So you still don't understand what I said?  You used a Fixed timing track.  You know the one that had a timing line every so many milliseconds.  When you hit save our code says oh it's a fixed timing track I don't need to save any of the timings for this track.  It's our fault for not realizing people would try to use those tracks for something they weren't meant for.  You just made the magnitude of the problem really bad because you like to work for days if not weeks without closing the program so that allowed you to lose a ton of work.  But the main reason I don't recommend leaving the program open is because every operation you do is stored in the Undo buffers so you can undo them.  I don't limit how far you can go backwards which means if you run for weeks you are chewing up more and more and more available memory in your machine.  At some point you will run out of memory and then crash.

[RobertB]

Gill,
My reasoning for I guess picking a "Fixed Timing Track" I didn't really realize that you could go WITHOUT a fixed timing track. Guess with the choices that came up my brain was thinking it was one or the other. Sorry. Makes sense what you said on the buffer too. (and why my machine slowed down so far when using other programs on the computer)
You've been a big help and really appreciate you having so much patience with me 

[Gilrock]

I checked in the change to prevent this from happening again so it will be in next release.  Sorry you lost so much work but you did pave the way for others to avoid this issue.  It ended up being easiest to just allow you to convert a fixed track to a papagayo timing track instead of trying to prevent it.  I just remove the fixed attribute.  Only took one line of code to fix it that way and probably avoids confusion and effort explaining why some tracks can be converted and some can't.

Actually timing tracks are completely optional.  You don't need one to drop effects.  There is nothing anywhere that has the word "Fixed" associated with timing tracks except in the xml file.  But those are the ones you get when you add a new timing and select 25ms, 50ms, or 100ms.  It gives you a timing track with fixed intervals.  Since the intervals are fixed we don't try to save every one of them because it would slow down the saving and loading of the sequence to add those several thousand lines.  Other types are timings you can add are either empty where you can add your own timing marks wherever you like, timings created from importing a text file usually exported from audacity, timing tracks created by importing from a LOR file, and timing tracks created from the queen mary plugins like bars and beats.  You can edit all of them and move the timing marks around except for the fixed timing tracks.

[Santa]

Gil, I just wanted to make sure the changes you made would convert the fixed timing track to a Papagayo track if someone manually adds lyrics (i.e. breaks down a "label") or does a right-click Import Lyrics. I think Robert did the latter.

[gerry]

Robert,
Am not sure if already covered above, but when you create a new timing track and you have to then select the time eg 50ms or type e.g bars , you need to select Empty.
Then rename the empty to a name such as lyrics.

Gil, re the new fix , if a user had selected something other than empty , at what stage does the option to convert it come up ? Accordingly I will try that (to add to manual).

[RobertB]

Good Deal Gerry.
Was going to put up window frames today. However, here in GA... it is a little wet (under exaggeration ;-). Will be sequencing in just a few minutes. Good timing :-)

[Gilrock]

Robert,
Am not sure if already covered above, but when you create a new timing track and you have to then select the time eg 50ms or type e.g bars , you need to select Empty.
Then rename the empty to a name such as lyrics.

Gil, re the new fix , if a user had selected something other than empty , at what stage does the option to convert it come up ? Accordingly I will try that (to add to manual).

When the user executes the "Import Lyrics" operation it removes the Fixed attribute.