Although none of the team has experienced this we have become aware of a problem that a growing number of users are experiencing where when you close and reopen a session, Pro Tools starts to play the wrong audio or cannot find the correct audio. In this article, we look at the problem in detail, share some workarounds that users have developed as well as Avid’s explanation and suggested workaround.

The Problem

Tim Reisig started a thread on the DUC, and then went back in and produces a summary of the problem…

1. Create session in Pro Tools 2019.12 (It doesn’t seem to matter whether this is created from a template or a clean new session).

2. Use Import Session Data from another session that had last been saved in a PREVIOUS version of Pro Tools. (2019.10 or earlier).

3. There are no problems as long as the session remains open. However…

4. Close and reopen the session.

5. You get a warning saying "Some clips had invalid bounds and were adjusted or deleted".

6. Now many clips from the imported tracks refer to the incorrect audio files or have just been deleted.

Tim goes on to explain that “there is NO way to recover the tracks that have corrupted. Using Save Session Copy In doesn’t help. in fact, for Tim, it crashed Pro Tools every time.

You CAN import remaining tracks (that weren't imported in step 2 into a fresh session to salvage THAT work. but you cannot salvage the work on any track that was brought into the session using Import Session Data that was created and saved on an older version of Pro Tools.”

‘SFXgeek’ also confirmed the issue saying…

“Just had this happen too and it is very troubling, just updated recently to 2019.12 and now having tons of import audio issues. This one was a session in our edit room which I had just opened multiple times in the editing room, then imported the session data into our mix room and on import gave the message about " invalid bounds etc.." The same message as Tim is reporting and it replaced a bunch of audio within the session. Did not save, went back into the editing room and now the edit room session is giving the same message and we now have lost a lot of work that is due to be mixed tomorrow!!

Just working on a 2019.12 session and went to import clip group (which was created in a 2019.10 or earlier session) and got this message. After that message came up I got the other dreaded message and now a bunch of my clips are referencing the wrong audio!!!!”

It reminded ‘MikeReganNoise’ of a similar issue to something he had run into running 2019.10 (and.6) with macOS Sierra 10.12.6…

“Here's a link to a thread from earlier this year. I hadn't experienced the error most of the year until it happened again to me today. The main symptom is a corrupt session file and several corrupted backups. The corruption is evident by the size of the session file back up. After the error, it's much smaller than before. All of the backups have missing audio and/or clips addressing the wrong audio, but there is no way to re-link anything.”

The User Workarounds

The conclusion of the discussions on the DUC thread and the experiments from several of the people affected by this issue is to open any session you are going to import into your session created in Pro Tools 2019.12, and then use a ‘Save As’ to create a 2019.12 created version BEFORE you try and import session data between them. That said, some people are suggesting using Save Session Copy In as an extra level of security and isolation.

An alternative workaround that ‘SFXgeek’ is using is to…

“What I've done to get things back to some normality, is all our systems have been switched back to 2019.10. Any sessions that we did create in 2019.12 and any sessions being delivered to us that were created in 2019.12, we are copying the entire folder (instead of simply Import session Data) to our computer (which is now running 2019.10), opening that session and then doing a "Save As" and calling it " .....Ver2". Also, we are doing a "Save Copy In" and saving a copy to our server. Then we use Import Session Data from that copy that lives on our server, so far so good.”

Coll Anderson reached out to us directly…

“The workaround we found that is solid is to back up to 2019.10. We run multiple rooms and multiple stations and it caught us a bit off guard.”

Garrard Whatley has “decided to open and re-version all my internal templates.”

Avid’s Response

We reached out to Avid and asked them what the situation is with this issue. The team at Avid are aware of the issue and have been working in the background to initially produce a Knowledge Base article to help users negotiate the issue and potentially work with and around it in the short term.

Avid has now released that Knowledge Base Article, which explains the problem in more detail and includes recommendations for a workaround….

Avid’s Explanation Of The Issue

Avid says that this problem can occur if the Rendered Source fails after Importing Session Data from a Pro Tools 2019.10 session into a 2019.12 session. Typically whilst either Copying or Consolidating media.

The error will display itself in several ways:

1. Upon saving and re-opening the session, audio clips will playback the incorrect audio

2. You may receive the following error: "some clips have invalid bounds and were adjusted or deleted"

3. You may receive the following error: Could not complete your request because out_of_range: Cmn_PolyVectorImpl::At

Avid’s Recommended Workaround

Avid recommends the following workaround…

• Take a screenshot of "Render Sources" folder contents from the Workspace Window for reference to tell you what audio files are in that folder.

• Next, select all tracks & Export > Tracks as a new session, including media

• Open the session that you have just saved. (Be aware that It might be required to relink some files).

• Check that new session doesn't have a "Rendered Sources" folder in the Workspace.

• Verify that Clips linked to Files from Screenshot taken in step 1 are fine.

If you experience this issue, Avid suggests that you contact Avid Support and create a support case.

When Will It Will Fixed Properly?

Avid have told us that the full fix will be in the first Pro Tools 2020 release, and Avid have since let us know that it was indeed fixed in Pro Tools 2020.3. It’s listed in the Import section of the Bug Fixes in 2020.3…

“Import

• Fixed several issues that may cause 'Invalid Bounds' messages, 'some clips have been adjusted and removed', and crashes with Save Copy In after importing session data. (PT-258188/PT-256155/PT-257459/PT-259110)

• AIFF-C audio files can once again be imported (PT-257836)

• Import Audio Dialog now allows use of the Ctrl modifier instead of the Cmd modifier for existing key commands on macOS Catalina (PT-257178)”