Change project folder in pool

When I want to change the project folder, I go to File> Save as Template, followed by giving it a name, then I close the current project.

Go to File> New, select the template that I just created, give the new default project location, with a new folder. From there, you go to Project> Pool and the new location has been set correctly

I appreciate both the statements of facts and the methods of working found above.

I will state though that I also agree that being able to change the Project Folder (as seen) in the Pool window is greatly to be desired.

Foresight is never 20/20 (at least mine is not), and I often want to move things around on disk either to store them in a different location entirely, or to rename a project and/or it’s folder. Also sometimes I want to merge projects into a single folder, or separate projects out of a single folder into multiple folders. In all of these cases, I find myself wishing to simply change the Project Folder reference in the .cpr file to point where I know I’ve put things (i.e. the Audio), and where I want new recordings to take place.

Because ‘Back up Project’ will not allow us to target the backup to a non-empty folder, often the only way to accomplish my desired reorg is a tedious process of folder A rename, new folder B create, doing ‘Back up Project’, save .cpr to folder B, folder B rename, folder A rename, copy from folder B to folder A, delete folder B. Whew! All this just to get the Project Folder set as desired in the Pool of the .cpr file. I really would rather just be able to edit that path in the Pool window!

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+1 for a button to change the project folder. It would make life so much easier when using scratch projects to catch different creative moments which need to be split up separate projects at a later time.

Mike.

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+1 for being able to change the project folder from the pool window. “Backup project” doesn’t make sense in this context. A backup is a backup. A duplicate, a secondary copy. Having to “backup” to use a primary copy is a little weird. We’re not trying to make duplicates of the project, we’re trying to keep our current project and change where future audio will be recorded to.

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Found this on Google.

+2

I store all my projects in OneDrive, and the last thing I want is audio files syncing when I haven’t even checked them.

By now, one would think the Pool would be obsolete and there would be improved MediaBay options available.

I have just found this thread looking for a similar answer, so to confirm in 2018…

My situation, I created several new projects at the same time (coping files from a big recording session in one project). I had started recording on track 3 and realised afterwards all my files were going in to project 1 audio folder. I can see in the pool window the “project folder” which is unable to be changed (set to track 1/audio).

So to confirm, currently on version 9 you can’t change the project folder. (not sure if this differs on 9.5 onwards).

I did find this help article, but all this did was create a folder inside the audio folder of the wrong project (ie track 1/audio/newfolder/):

So, to confirm, I tried the advice above in this thread. saved my project, created a new folder “track 3 V2” and backed up the project to that folder, deselecting “keep current project active” and making sure the files were copied over. Afterwards, I closed the current project and opened the new one and it worked like a treat. I could also see the files had copied into the new folder and most important…

The new project was using the new project folder in the pool window.

Hope that clears up some of the answers above.

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+1 on being able to change the project folder path in an existing project. Backups, templates and the rest are cumbersome workarounds.

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Move project, re-open, save; prompted for new project location.

Yeah, I tried that and my project wouldn’t open at all. It’s just not that simple when you move a folder that has audio in another project’s pool. This problem has been paralyzing for me because I have just been using past projects and renaming them so all of my projects and pools are intermingled. It’s a big mess. I bought a back up drive to start storing projects but I can’t move any of them because of this pool intermingling mess. I have Cubasis also and there is no problem copying projects to start new ones.

I’m going to try this “Save as Template” idea above and see if that works. Ironically, this all started because my first project was a template. But I just renamed it and saved it for each new song, which caused the pool to be saved in the previous project. How stupid. Why would anyone want the audio pool to be in a different project folder? I really had problems when my folders would go up into the cloud after not being accessed for a while and the active project couldn’t access the cloud saved pool audio. So much time trying to figure all this out.

So I guess you have to choose “save as template” each time to make sure the pool stays in the project folder if you are starting with a template or another song. Now I know. Sigh.

Update 1:
No, the template method did not work. It actually creates a Project folder in the pool that says “untitled” even after I created a new folder, renamed the project and saved the newly named project in the new folder. It also lists the pool record folder as “Media/Audio.” That’s not going to work. Time to try the Back Up Method. Wish me Luck.

Update 2:
Yes, the back up method does work! Yay! Now I can surgically remove all of my projects from one another and start moving the finished projects into my back up drive. That will be a headache, but it’s better than feeling paralyzed. Btw, all of the pool record folders say “Media/Audio.” I didn’t notice that before. I’m using Cubase 9.5. I hope this helps someone else.

Ultimate solution:

We assume that you already saved your project in a new folder but the audio and project folder are still at the old location

Step 1:
Save and close the project. Rename the new project folder to something slightly different, doesn’t matter what.
Step 2:
Open the project from the new folder again. It’ll ask you to assign a new project folder. Select the one you want to be the actual project folder.
Step 3:
Save and close the project. Move the audio files from the old folder to the new one (where you first need to create an ‘Audio’ folder). Or copy them over there. It’s just important that the ones in the old folder aren’t there anymore.
Step 4: Re-open your project. It’ll be like “??? where da files man” and then you can select your new audio folder with the ‘Folder’ button.

After that you just change the name of your new folder back to the actual one and you’re fine. :slight_smile: Hope it helps!

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Cubase is dissapointing on that end. Sure one can do it that way. But that doesn’t solve the problem at all.
If you want to record new stuff in the project, guess where it will be saved.
Every programm is able to change directory. Cubase not? Why?! :unamused:

I HATE the way Cubase does this. Every other piece of software creates your project, in its entirety, in a new location when you “Save As”.
It is absurd that Cubase calls this “Backup”, when that isn’t the actual purpose. BACKUP IS FOR ARCHIVING/SAFE-KEEPING, not for saving a new project from an existing one.

I suspect this is some screwed up Mac way of thinking. I still sometimes loose work because of this nonsense way of naming things.

I am currently going through some projects to make sure the pool is actually in my project folder, and NOT in “Untitled23”, or what ever. Because guess what happens when I delete all those “Untitled” folders… Some of my work will be lost. Did I put those files there? NO.

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FYI for those that get their project files scattered by Cubase… Basically, if you don’t see an “Audio” folder in your project folder, then Cubase has written one somewhere else. If the path isn’t too long you can see it by looking at Project menu, Pool.

What I am doing to fix it…

This will work if you only have one version of your project in the project folder (not multiple Cubase Project .cpr files). If that is not the case, you will have to do this for each of the project files that you want to reference the audio pool in your actual project folder.

  1. Rename the project folder of interest with an underscore at the end.
  2. Create a new folder with the same name as the project folder, minus the underscore. Of course, you can make it a different name if you like.
  3. Go into the underscore folder and open the cpr file for your project, which opens it in Cubase.
  4. Cubase will ask for the project folder. Specify the same underscore folder (as in step 1) from which you just opened the project file.
  5. In Cubase, under File menu, choose “Back up Project”.
  6. Select the newly created folder you made in step 2. Cubase will save the project there, including the Audio Pool folder for the project.

Again, THIS SHOULDN’T BE NECESSARY.

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Here’s what I did in Cubase 10 when I discovered that all the Pool files in a project had somehow been created in a folder rather than the folder in which the project was located. They’d been created in a default folder on a different volume. I have no idea how this happened; usually my Pool files are all in the Audio folder inside the project folder, unless I’ve specifically set it up differently for some reason (don’t think I ever have).

I closed the project in Cubase, then on the computer Desktop copied all the files from the incorrect default folder where they’d been placed to the Audio folder in the project folder, where I wanted them. I then re-opened the project in Cubase, & it prompted me that it couldn’t find the audio files in their previous location & offered to run a search for the files. I specified the proper project folder as the search folder, clicked Start, & it located all the files in the Audio folder where I’d placed them (if I hadn’t placed the original files in the Trash it wouldn’t have looked for the new location). The files all appeared in the Pool, listed under their new locations.

This was in Cubase LE/AI 10, Mac OS 10.14.6, but as far as I know, this portion of the Cubase user interface operates the same way in Windows, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work there too.

I´m doing that on 11 in 2021 and it still insists in defaulting to the previous location. ADD A CHANGE AUDIO FOLDER OR CHANGE PROJECT FOLDER OPTION PLEASE.

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+1
Steinberg please get with the program. This is basic level stuff! How come smaller developers like Reaper can do things like this easily and you cant? What a mess Nuendo 11 has made, just from using a project template. Completely defeats the purpose.

What is the point of the setting in Project Setup called “Project Location” if you cant have the option to copy and/or move dependent files. (take a page from Reapers book, you can opt to move or copy upon Save As).

PLEASE MAKE THE AUDIO AND PROJECT FOLDER CHANGEABLE.

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I was a beta tester for Cubase 1989, for V 1.0. I was using Opcode Vision, and everything in Cubase seemed innovative but backwards so I stuck to Opcode, which in my view and for what I do, is still by far, the best most creative DAW. Everything since then… is a serious downgrade and no where near as creative. But, that’s history.
I thought by now, this storage problem had been long fixed. Try going through your project files over the past twenty years. You will really wish Steinberg/Yamaha would actually have listened to what this guy was trying to do instead of blaming him for daring to want something logical.

One thing that helps me is I move the project .cpr file outside the folder. It still knows where its files are and you can see the project title, and mod dates, which makes it much easier to locate a specific project, especially if you’ve got twenty years of Cubase usage behind you.

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In version 11 I also found this. Not sure if was already mentioned but here it goes:

Hi,
Imagine this specific case scenario:
I have a main project with lots audio from a big recording and I need split it into sub-projects for each song and at the same time preserving the reference of each item to the files in the main project.
For that reason I did a save as of the main project in a new folder for each song.
If you look at the screenshot, project settings window points correctly that the sub-project is located in the new folder, but at the right, the sub-project pool points that the project folder is located in the main project.
Basically I wish that every time a new file is rendered (by using render in place, bounce selection, offline processing, audio mix down) to be stored in the new sub-project folder instead of the main project folder.
I don’t want to do backup project for each song because it will take to much unnecessary disk space.
I’m thinking at the moment (haven’t tried that yet) that the only way to achieve this would be to create a empty project for each song and import all the tracks from the main project.
Any thoughts about this? Thank You

I think I know what the OP means - the project folder as listed in the pool window can get out of sync if you move the project file somewhere other than where it was originally created.

If you back the project up to another folder, the backup project’ s pool will point correctly.

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