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tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 3:27 pm
by Tone
So I go to a friends house to help him with live, he owns a registered copy of 9 standard. He is not very computer savy so he wanted some help. When I get there he has ver 9 but has never upgraded since he bought it (2 years?). I say oh U should upgrade, you sample alot too?? you will love the new features in 9.5. He signs in to Ableton...starts the download and it says its going to take over an hr. OK so we spend some time going over sessions, then I have to leave before the download is complete. When it finished he told me he mounted the image then proceeded to drag 9.5 to applications folder to upgrade. After hes done he opens live and ALL his sessions (2 years worth!) are now greyed out under recent sessions. I come over the next day and do a search for some...cant find a single one. I go to save a new session and notice when the save dialog comes up the default location to save is in the ableton app package next to contents??????? WTF?? so my only guess is that this person has for 2 years been saving all his sessions inside the ableton app in applications, and when he dragged over a new version of live and the OSX dialog comes up to keep both or replace , he replaced and erasased all his work! wow not very smart on his end but I know alot of people at his skill level that use computers and I cant believe that was that easy to do so much damage. There is no way to avoid that? like maybe not allowing saving inside the package when dialog comes up to save??

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 3:59 pm
by stringtapper
Believe it. Knowing how to use a computer can be an important step in the process of using a computer.

I do recording work with a friend who really knows his shit when it comes to microphones and analog gear but put a computer in front of him and he will freeze up. He will do things with his computer that are equally as dumbfounding and I wonder how it's even possible.

It pays to take the time to learn how to work with these things and hopefully that's a lesson that your friend intimately understands now.

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 6:59 pm
by Richie Witch
I learned this lesson the first time I reinstalled Live and discovered my custom VST folder was inside the application folder.

It took a couple days to track down all the VSTs that were erased, but at least it was recoverable in my case.

My condolences to your friend.

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 7:51 pm
by beats me
Sounds like it’s time for Time Machine backup drive!! Just roll back to a date/time before he f’ed it up.

He does use Time Machine with a backup drive, right? :) :| :? :x

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 11:19 pm
by Tone
of course he uses time machine, what would you expect from someone who has no clue where he was saving sessions?!?! when I was looking around seeing maybe they were in downloads or something by mistake. I clicked on downloads on the sidebar from a finder window, he says check "that downloads too" and points to the springload path on the right of the dock 8O I then proceeded to explain how it was the same folder just different ways to get there , like a room with 2 doors! seriously I dont know weather to feel bad he lost his files or mad do to the level of ignorance. I had to post it here because I needed to tell someone(s) who get it, and yes the first sentence is sarcasm he does not have time machine running, not sure he has heard of that "times machine thing"

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 11:25 pm
by H20nly
8O oof.

i know that stings. i lost a track once. still haven't got over it.

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 2:13 am
by beats me
Tone wrote:of course he uses time machine, what would you expect from someone who has no clue where he was saving sessions?!?! when I was looking around seeing maybe they were in downloads or something by mistake. I clicked on downloads on the sidebar from a finder window, he says check "that downloads too" and points to the springload path on the right of the dock 8O I then proceeded to explain how it was the same folder just different ways to get there , like a room with 2 doors! seriously I dont know weather to feel bad he lost his files or mad do to the level of ignorance. I had to post it here because I needed to tell someone(s) who get it, and yes the first sentence is sarcasm he does not have time machine running, not sure he has heard of that "times machine thing"

I figured he didn't. A friend of mine didn't think that was an important thing to have until he lost his entire music library. TWICE. And even then he only did it because his girlfriend bought him an external drive for Christmas. That drive has now saved his ass several times since then.

He had the best reaction that your friend should probably have at this point. A completely calm "Meh, whatever. I'll just start over."

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 1:51 pm
by Angstrom
I think I can win this tragic thread.
I knew a guy who used to save all his files in the Mac trash can. Why? Because it was handily on his desktop, that's why! :?
This was in the days of System 7/8. Because he never emptied it he ran out of drive space so he then deleted all his un-needed system extensions to save space. Or to put it another way, deleted most of his operating system over a period of a few months until his system died.

I managed to recover his OS and most of his files.

I think the problem is that Mac OS is a bit of a magnet for people who are not adept at computing. Or worse, they are so deadly that they can even fuck up a mac.

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 1:52 pm
by beats me
:lol:

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 5:34 pm
by H20nly
Well there's a new one for the Mac vs. PC debate. In Windows you can't launch a file from the recycle bin... You have to restore it first... so much extra work.

I'll leave it to more keen minds than mine to determine which method has more benefit.

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 5:55 pm
by Tarekith
I think these days it's the same in OSX, you get prompted to remove files from the bin before you can use them. In older versions though, lol, tough story!

Re: tragic all sessions lost

Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2015 9:07 am
by sinnatagg
Shouldn't the old app bundle still be in the trash?

Edit: Not if the new app overwrites the other of course.

-a