Project cannot be opened (external hard drive error)

[massivewolf]

So, I did a dumb thing

I just bought a new computer and it's been tedious transferring every single file for re-organization. I wanted to use part of an old composition that was stored on my external hard drive, so I was lazy and opened it from there and made a new project from it rather than dragging it onto my new computer.
The file "/Volumes/MyExternalHD/Backups.backupdb/MyMacbook/2017-12-04/HardDrive/Applications/Ableton/Music/ProjectFiles/DemoEP/Track1.als" could not be opened. is the error I get whether I want to freeze/flatten, save, etc.
The only thing that works is "Save copy as" which I did this time on my computer, but of course it didn't provide a Samples folder.

A screenshot below of my finished project, which I made sure to use samples from folders on my new computer.


Is there a workaround, what's the easiest way to fix this other than not do it again? I'm afraid of closing out the project and re-opening the copy sans the samples if I'm uncertain it's actually been saved. Thanks in advance!

[alpertt]

I couldnt see the screenshot but did you try "collect and save"?

[massivewolf]

I couldnt see the screenshot but did you try "collect and save"?

Yeah, I definitely did, Same error

Like I said, only “save a copy” works but it didn’t create a samples folder. Is there a way to change the permissions somehow and sync my external file to my computer project as one? Or override?

I’m starting to think that I’m gonna have to exit the project and reopen the saved “shell” of it, then see if it links all the samples to the ones on my computer since that’s where they are anyway....


Edit: BTW this is a backup that I haven’t synced with my computer yet (Time Machine) so if I was to try to save anything to it like a photo, documents, etc it’ll say that “the backup cannot be altered”.

[massivewolf]

(Apologies to the admin, I responded from my phone and its posted again).

[massivewolf]

Ok, I figured it out. In case this happens to anyone else (I can only speak for Mac users):

Force Eject your external HDD while the project is still open.
Hit "Save As" and save to the project files folder on your computer.
Start freezing each track and then double-check the project folder to make sure a samples folder has been created.

It wasn't allowing me to really do any of that stuff - freezing, flattening etc because it was still trying to access the external and there was a directory conflict. Hope this helps others.

[fishmonkey]

your big mistake was that you opened the project from inside a Time Machine backup, which is a bad idea.

it's good that you came up with a workaround, however force ejecting a mounted drive with open files on it is really not a good idea either.

[massivewolf]

your big mistake was that you opened the project from inside a Time Machine backup, which is a bad idea.

Yeah, hence the "I did something dumb" in my first post. Of course it's not a smart thing to do and I figured that it would create problems, and now I really know. Hopefully this thread will help someone not be as lazy about copying it over to their main HD. Def not doing it again!

it's good that you came up with a workaround, however force ejecting a mounted drive with open files on it is really not a good idea either.

Noted. Thanks.

[fishmonkey]

the thing with Time Machine is that although you can navigate around inside the backups using the Finder, the incremental backup history structure is maintained using special file links, so actively working on files inside the backup is not a good idea...