I had a sudden power outage a few hours ago while working (I was recording a lot of bass takes). I reopened Ardour when power was restored to continue working but I got the following error message:
Session “/home/ophyong/Spawn/Audio/Angel Chidinma - You Are A Wonder (snapshot Angel Chidinma - You Are A Wonder)” did not load successfully:
Cannot initialize session/engine: Invalid or corrupt session state.
—ERROR: Could not set session state from XML
ERROR: Session: cannot create Playlist from XML description.
ERROR: Playlist: cannot create region from XML
ERROR: Session: XMLNode describing a AudioRegion references an unknown source id =5214106
ERROR: Session: cannot create Region from XML description. Can not load state for region 'Take265_Bass-1'
ERROR: Session: XMLNode describing a AudioRegion references an unknown source id =5214106
…
I’ve tried the backup file but the result is the same. Any help?
There should be a .ardour.bak file (most recent save before last) in the session folder.
Other than that, the existing session file can be fixed manually. Upload the .ardour session file (dropbox or similar) and we can have a look. It is a text (XML) file, and the solution is to just remove all reference with ID 5214106 from the file using a text editor.
The “Take265_Bass-1” .wav may still be on disk (depending on what the filesystem did when the power went out), and you can re-import it.
May I recommend, if you swing $80US, getting a UPS battery backup. For me, it has paid for itself in reduction of aggravation many times over… reduces the chances of wrecking your work, and buys you time to notify people that you have an issue and will be shutting down.
Yeah. That is a great idea. It’s not even optional in the country where I live. I don’t yet have one in my home setup because usually I find my way around any power mishaps. But we do have one at the space where we record. I agree with you completely. I should get one soon.