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So tired of "audio file is locked" thing in Logic...


Guest ClydePaquin
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Why God?! Why?!? Why doing this to me... I have all the permissions on the disk... all is unlock, no Plex, I have a clean computer, some files are locked and I cannot edit them in the file editor... why are some files locked, other ones no problem... WHY!!?!?!? I tried the repair permissions and it once worked... but now it's a little more complicated to do... why would I have to do this anyway?! Reparing permissions of my Mac every week to work in Logic?! 

 

Any psychological support would be nice ;)

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Yes. It's you that told me the repair permission thing the last time I think... It worked once then but not anymore... could it be something with a dropbox? Cause sometimes I make a back-up of the project on a dropbox and then realise that I "move" the project on dropbox instead of "copy" it... so I copy it back into my Logic folder on my system HD. But I "repair" permission after and re-checked to have read/write access on all my sytem files... the files are not locked in the project audio bin, have all access to that folder, no automation, Flex on the file... even if I convert to a new audio file it's still locked...
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could it be something with a dropbox? Cause sometimes I make a back-up of the project on a dropbox and then realise that I "move" the project on dropbox instead of "copy" it... so I copy it back into my Logic folder on my system HD. 

After you do that, open your project in Logic and check all the audio file references in the Project Audio Browser to make sure your project is referencing the files in your project folder on your local drive and not the one in your dropbox folder? 

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am experiencing this today as well, for the first time (or the first time in a very-long time). my audiofile is in the project contents. it was on the desktop, i moved it to an external drive; same error. i even tried changing permissions on the contents folder and the 'enclosed items'. hmmmmmm...

Are those project folders or project packages?

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Ok for what it's worth I've never had this issue and I've moved many, many Logic projects from my Mac to a server to another Mac etc... but I never use packages - only project folders. Maybe try using project folders? And before I upload a project folder somewhere I typically zip it (in the Finder, control-click and choose compress). 
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hmmm. i just dragged a different audiofile to my desktop, opened it in logic, edited it. then i saved as a package. then i reopened logic and.... edited it. so, something to do with the source file. clydePaquin, maybe try recording to a different drive/folder? not moving the file after the fact, but recording to another location? see if anything changes.

 

again, for me, this only happened today, and with a file from someone new.  

 

hope this is useful info (altho no substitute for therapy... )  ;-)

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could it be something with a dropbox? Cause sometimes I make a back-up of the project on a dropbox and then realise that I "move" the project on dropbox instead of "copy" it... so I copy it back into my Logic folder on my system HD. 

After you do that, open your project in Logic and check all the audio file references in the Project Audio Browser to make sure your project is referencing the files in your project folder on your local drive and not the one in your dropbox folder? 

Yes thanks... good question! I just checked but the all the files are really the one on my drive... and I make sure to save in a different name on dropbox to avoid those conflicts...

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hmmm. i just dragged a different audiofile to my desktop, opened it in logic, edited it. then i saved as a package. then i reopened logic and.... edited it. so, something to do with the source file. clydePaquin, maybe try recording to a different drive/folder? not moving the file after the fact, but recording to another location? see if anything changes.

 

again, for me, this only happened today, and with a file from someone new.  

 

hope this is useful info (altho no substitute for therapy... )  ;-)

Yeah I record those tracks in another studio and import them in Logic... could it be that? But like I said I convert them and no change... I think the files were 32 bit wav. but Logic convert them to 24bit aif when importing them... me too my folders are all in a "package" project. Hmm... oh could it be that I'm not putting the files in that "package" but a different folder? I'll try putting them in the audio folder of the project package... 

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  • Solution
OK it's not about audio files location... I just find out that it was a file that I put Flex on it but removed it... and then not able to edit this file anymore... even when you REMOVE Flex you can't edit them after?!
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I experienced this last week for the first time..  I dragged an audio sound effect into project..  went to project audio, made a copy of it (aif) and tried to work on that..  Several attempts. Logic would not let me process it (normalize)..  Checked got info.  everything was OK..  I ended up putting a limiter and then a gain on it, to get the smoother even louder volume I needed..  Don't know why..  Only this one file though. all others were fine.. Including a number of audio clips I dragged into project to use..
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Two of the three reporting here use Package (vs Folder) as the saving format for Logic projects. (and angelonyc didn't mention what format he uses).

 

I'm writing out of the blue here, but just in case, I would suggest a test.

1/ Open the project with the "locked" file, Save As..., make sure you change name and location, and that you select the Folder (not Package) format. Now you should have a Finder folder at the new location, with the new name, and inside it you should have a set of folders and a Logic file with the new project name.

2/ Open the new (saved as...) copy of the Logic project file, and chose File > Project Management > Consolidate, and check every possible box (the one we want is Audio Files, but let's take everything). This will put a copy of all audio files (including the "locked" one) into the Audio Files folder of the new (saved as) project folder, in case they were not already copied there during the "save as" process above.

3/ Save, close, and reopen the new project. Is the issue still there?

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def worth exploring. for me, it only happened with a file from another source (in this case, a wav file recorded on an iphone app, transferred to another mac, then copied to a flashdrive). 

 

just tried editing in LX with a few audiofile on my mac (from a variety of sources, including the studio i do all my vocal recording in), and all files were editable.

 

would be great to find a 'universal' fix for this tho...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello people .. I would love some help here. Fairly new to LOGIC X but this problem I am having is not due to ignorance on my part I'm sure ... it is faulty software. When I use Flex Pitch it does something to the file so I can no longer edit it in the file editor. For example many of the tools in the menu are greyed out (cut, fade etc) and although Gain is not greyed out when I attempt to raise a selected portion of the file by 3dB I get an error message:

"This audio file can not be changed! Volume or file is locked." I'm not doing anything unusual .. the files are just a normal part of the project, I haven't moved them from the audio bin or anything like that. I just can't edit them once Flex Pitch has been used on the file. Any ideas? I have searched the internet and there are sooo many people with this problem, but I have not found a solution that works for me. You would think Apple would be onto this?

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The same thing happened to me again two days ago..  I repaired permissions, tossed plists. rebooted computer.. a couple of times.. hand copied the file, to a different location, changed names put back in audio folder..  All folders and files were read/write for administrator.. I unlocked them all.. Then after two hours, I could normalize the previously locked file (even thought it wasn't locked..  

 

When ever Logic gets stuck in some impossible situation, I work around it for as long as I can.. Then I 'recover' the OSX. and Logic starts behaving..  Wouldn't want to do it with the studio clock running. or have to pay for the time.. But I work for myself now, so I go for a walk, or watch TV for a while..  Logic like many apps, accesses chunks of code built into OSX..  my guess is something gets changed somewhere, and the bug is not readily apparent in any other apps, or only when you use certain commands in Logic..  This seems to happen to me 2 - 4 a year..  A minor pain, but once you get over the original fear of your project is 'damned', you can get everything working again..  Maybe it's life just giving you a 'opportunity for adventure'..  

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When I use Flex Pitch it does something to the file so I can no longer edit it in the file editor. For example many of the tools in the menu are greyed out (cut, fade etc) and although Gain is not greyed out when I attempt to raise a selected portion of the file by 3dB I get an error message:

Do a bounce in place of the flexed file first. Then do the edits in the file editor.

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I use 'Folder".

 

This has VERY rarely happened over the years.. .. Since Logic X, it seems to be more often.   It has happened I think 3 times in the last several months..  (2 of them were in the last month)..  

 

Perhaps when anyone encounters this next.. Try a destructive process (normalize, change gain etc)  on other audio files..  This would determine if it's the audio file itself (which I doubt) or Logic itself...  I myself too discovered this when I could not 'normalize' an audio track..  I tried making a copy using Logic.. This file was also not able to be destructively accessed.  One could also try copying it outside of Logic (from Finder, changing name and  dragging it into your arrangement..

 

Obviously I had permissions to read/write to all files.. 

 

(Would it make a difference if audio file was dragged into project from OUTSIDE of project audio, or only INSIDE project audio..  I haven't tried that.. 

 

For someone with a 2nd DAW of Audio editor see if they can make destructive changes..  This would break it down to 

 

LOGIC or OSX.   

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi everyone,

It seems I found the cause of this anoying "feature"!

 

An audio file always gets "locked" if you record the file while flex-pitch is active on that track (atleast in my test-session)

 

I recorded a short test file with flex active on that track --> audio file gets locked

 

Then I recorded a short test file again, this time with FLEX OFF on the same track --> audio file is normal, you can edit everyhing in the sample editor-window!!!

 

REMEMBER TO DEACTIVATE FLEX ON THE TRACK YOUR RECORDING!

 

Hope this helps everybody :-)

 

Cheers

-Matti

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Hi again,

Here is how to do a quick workaround...

 

So, lets say you´re editing a vocal-file and you realize: "Damn, I recorded this one with flex active --> audio file is locked --> can´t do any sample-window editing..."

 

You can fix it simply with the "Bounde in place" -command for that particular region (right-click on the region -->"Bounce in place" [ctrl B])

BUT YOU HAVE TO DO IT WITH FLEX OFF on the track!!! Otherwise the new bounced file will still be locked...

After the bounce, you simply put flex back on...

 

Hope this helps :-)

 

- Matti

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HI again....

 

One more thing:

 

1. Do a "bounce in place" to the region with FLEX OFF

 

2. Do the edit in the sample editor window

 

3. Then put FLEX back on

 

In my test-session the audio-file gets locked immediately when flex is activated on that track...

And the only way to "unlock" (that I have found) is to do the "bounce in place" with flex off...

 

-Matti

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  • 2 months later...
It seems to be established by a few posts that selecting flex ( just flex pitch?) disables ( locks ) sample edit parameters .However switching it off again does not return the unlocked file status unless you select"update file information"from the pull down menu.I now wonder if the file locking from flex has an impact on issues with incorrect audio region priority playback which I think is related to A) some regions having flex applied while other regions are without.or B) Some audio files from a cycled take folder ( unpacked or merged ) and some recorded normally. In some cases depending on Logic's Playback pre-roll setting I get 2 regions playing simultaneously on the same track ! More testing needed but it is not logic 9 reliability level in terms of fast , random audio editing and comping for me in X at this point.
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