All My Shoot Session Files DISSAPEARED Right Before My Eyes
Same as this post: https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360012185997-Disappeared-files-
This has happened to me twice in all my time with Capture One and yesterday was the second time... unfortunately while on-location for a client. I about lost my mind, thankfully it happened during our lighting testing before hero shots. I immediately checked my back-up hard drive (no files... it seems it had just run and I mirror the drive so the deleted files were removed from the mirrored drive too). I use Carbon Copy Cloner... it's worked really well for me for years... time to rethink my system.
I checked trash, searched for file names, checked the laptop HD, the external, the backup, everything. I literally saw the files blink out right before my eyes inside C1. As it happened I was about to click on the images to the right to select a different file... I may have clicked twice by accident and then BAM! Gone! EVERYTHING... literally. As if the shoot never happened.
I searched the trash bin, the laptop hard drive, the external, the backup... all gone. HOW THE HECK? And this is the second time in my tenure with CaptureOne that this has happened. The first time I brought it up to support long long ago and I was told there was literally no way this could happen because C1 doesn't have that capability.
Today I checked the backup drive and found in the "safety net" folder created by Carbon Copy Cloner that keeps versions that change and files that are deleted and found a selection of the captured RAW files from that session.
I'm curious if there's some way to figure out how/why this has happened to me a SECOND time. Is something interacting with C1 in a weird way?
All the shoot folders are there, but all the assets are gone and when I open C1 it has no memory of that shoot in recent shoots. I believe at the time I had an error pop up inside C1, but it was such a shock I didn't think to screen shot it or write it down... something like Error: Shoot must close bla bla bla" then everything was just gone from the folders... the session db file is still there, but all the RAW files and adjustments are gone.
I believe the first time this happened the C1 support team had me pull some log files, I can't remember if they found anything.
Should I buy a lotto ticket because this is so crazy and unheard of? I'm grateful for the post above so I'm not 100% alone, but I believe this is a pretty rare hiccup and I'd really rather avoid it happening to me a 3rd time.
- File name (no weird characters): RL-MAR23Social_3070.ARW
- OS Ventura 13.2.1
- C1 23: 16.0.2.21
- Carbon Copy Cloner: 6.1.5
- Shooting tethered
- Macbook Pro M1
Any thoughts?
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You didn't have composition mode switched on did you?
Ian
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Hi Ian Wilson
I wasn't in composition mode. There would be at least one file still there if it had been in composition mode, correct? Once it blinked, absolutely no files existed in the shoot.
I found the deleted RAW files in the "safety net" folder on the backup drive too, so another indicator I was not in composition mode (also no icons on the screen while shooting). I wonder if somehow that composition mode ability is what allows the software to delete all the session files.
But again, I wasn't in that mode.
Also, to be clear, all the folders were empty, Capture, Selects, Output, Trash 100% empty so they also didn't somehow move to another folder. I searched the entire computer and external drives.
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Then the next thing it might be worth checking is whether session is set up correctly.
The standard session folders will look like this in the Library tool.
They should look like this in the System Folders section of the tool.
If they don't have those icons next to them, then Capture One has got some other folders set as Capture etc. Worth checking?
Ian
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Ian Wilson I've been using captureOne since 2012 :) So yep! It was set up correctly. The software deleted my files. This has happened to me two times in my tenure with the software. Once many years ago (just like the link provided in my first post) and then again while on set with clients Thursday.
Also, I did a search for the files that disappeared right in front of me... as I was watching... they vanished from the session entirely. The only place they were found was in the "safety net" folder in my back up software which saves DELETED files. :) As in, the software deleted them. They were not being saved to some mystery folder that I didn't intend to save to. They were deleted.
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Well it was worth checking.
I don't know why it would happen, but presumably you can restore them from the CCC safety net.
Ian
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> suzanne clements: I found the deleted RAW files in the "safety net" folder...
As I am ignorant when it comes to Mac and also the Carbon Copy Cloner, could you explain the likely chain of events if mirror mode CCC by accident happened to be pointed to an empty source folder and a Capture One target folder?
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OddS. Carbon copy cloner basically does a copy and paste from the source to the destination. It doesn't replace anything on the destination drive except for what you're having it copy over if you change what's on the destination drive... if you delete something, Carbon Copy Cloner will remove those files as well (but then puts them into the "Safety net" folder).
A little workflow information. The day before a client shoot:
- I format the external hard drives (or remove past shoots)
- Then set my source and destination drives in Carbon Capture Cloner
- Set up my backup frequency
- I set up my shoot in Capture One, including:setting up my naming convention and Capture Pilot Server name
- Lastly, I do a test back-up on Carbon Copy Cloner and confirm on the backup drive that everything matches.
This way on shoot day all I have to do is plug everything in and get going.
When the files blinked out I was a little over an hour into the photo shoot and up to that point everything was working as expected.
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> suzanne clements: ...if you delete something, Carbon Copy Cloner will remove those files as well
Does CCC remove those files as a response to the action (event) that deletes the files or as a followup of a CCC "sync check" that detects target is not in sync with the source?
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OddS. At the time of the shoot the backup was running every hour, so I believe it detects the target is not in sync with the source.
I'm going to do some testing having CCC actively monitor the source and backup whenever there's a change.
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> suzanne clements: ...I believe it detects the target is not in sync with the source
If so, CCC works like other software I know. If CCC for some reason, detects an empty source, it would delete files on the target, right?
CCC could have detected an empty source because something deleted the source files. I understand you think Capture One deleted the source files. I wonder if there may be other explanations. Human error comes to mind, but there could be other suspects. CCC itself, unstable system or unreliable source disk may be more far fetched, but still possible.
My suggestion would be to play it safe(r) by setting up CCC to copy rather than mirror. When all done, close CCC, Capture One and other processes you may have had running (web browser, mail program, chat programs...). Verify that the source and target have the content you expect. Run CCC in mirror mode to clean up the target. If that ever fails, you have a shorter list of suspects.
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OddS. I just don't know how human error could have telepathically deleted all the session data while I stood there and watched them blink out. Yes, I was just about to click on another asset in the shoot, it's possible that I may have clicked or double clicked the asset as it blinked out, but if it's that easy to delete everything in a session I'd think this would happen more often.
Even if you intentionally "delete" files in a session they go to the Trash folder (the first place I checked).
Plus this is the second time this has happened to me now. The first time was probably close to 10 years ago, likely long before I was using CCC.
I'll take a look at my CCC options, but there's definitely something funky going on. :(
Definitely not using those HD's again either just in case, but weird, just weird. I've been shooting with this setup for years... and then *POOF*
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