"Cannot find X audio files"

[mada1990]

Hey everyone, I'm hoping someone can help. Recently, I recorded a jam session with a friend of mine. We set up a bunch of mics and a direct-in guitar. After recording the session, I saved the file as something generic "Jam Session" (package). So I didn't have to go through the trouble of making 6 more audio tracks, all with the same inputs and same label, after saving again (just to make sure), I deleted the regions and clicked "save as," renaming the new save as "Jam Session 2," then did a new recording. Now, all my files are missing for "Jam Session," while "Jam Session 2" still has all its files just fine. I already tried locating the files from the Project Browser, but was unable to find the files. I also tried reverting the first jam session to a previous save, but the files are still missing. I then opened the package contents and I can see a Window Snapshot of the "Jam Session" with all the proper wave signals, so I know that the data must not be deleted. I just have no idea what happened to it. So to make things less jumbled, here's my order of operations:

 

-Opened a new project, recorded 6 tracks (OH L, OH R, OH CENTER, KICK, SNARE, and GUITAR).

-Finished the recording, then clicked "Save As," (default package)

-Named the project "Jam Session"

-Listened back to the recording, enjoyed it, and saved it again

-Deleted the regions (so I could keep the track inputs and titles without having to go through the process again) and clicked "Save As," (default package again), naming the new start as "Jam Session 2"

-Recorded another 6 tracks, finished the recording, listened, and then saved again

 

[polanoid]

The "Deleted the regions" step would - if your steps are complete - have popped up a dialog asking you 

Did this dialog pop up and if so, what did you tell it to do?

[mada1990]

3 hours ago, polanoid said:

The "Deleted the regions" step would - if your steps are complete - have popped up a dialog asking you 

Did this dialog pop up and if so, what did you tell it to do?

Ah, I hit "delete" instead of "keep" because I clicked through it fast. I didn't even realize "keep" was an option.

[polanoid]

Well OK that explains your issue then 😉 

[mada1990]

But you can’t get back those tracks even if you saved it twice beforehand? I’ve deleted regions before and was able to get them back because I saved the whole project beforehand. They’ve never just showed up as empty regions in the file when loading back up before.

[David Nahmani]

2 hours ago, mada1990 said:

But you can’t get back those tracks even if you saved it twice beforehand?

Unfortunately no. What you saved twice is the project file, which does not contain the actual audio files. 

The project file contains the regions which are pointers to the audio file that resides somewhere on your disk. You can edit the regions in the Tracks area nondestructively, meaning all you're editing are the pointers to where playback starts and ends in the audio file, without changing the audio data inside the audio files on your disk. You can even delete the audio regions and the audio files are still there. 

But once you've deleted the audio files, unless you have a backup, there's no getting the audio files back. 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, we've all been there at one point or another I'm afraid. 😞