I spent the last week sequencing songs, making splits, editing sounds etc, had like 16 songs and this morning a hit the save button of my ALL File to save, for some reason I didn’t want to save and hit cancel, well guess what, it deleted EVERYTHING, all songs gone, everything I did gone.

I loaded back again and everything gone. I didn’t make a backup so everything is lost.

WARNING, NEVER hit cancel when saving on the MOtif XS, let it finish saving.

Sorry you had such a bad experience.

Please explain in detail what buttons you pressed to save and to cancel.

Are you saying that what was in the XS itself was deleted, or just the ALL file?

Did you give the ALL file you were saving a new name, or did you use one already on the drive?

Which OS version is installed on your XS?

(I’d like to see if I can duplicate what happened.)

1- The buttons I pressed were the save button for the ALL file, then when I went to song mode everything was gone, I loaded the ALL file back again and everything was gone. Seems like it is a procedure you MUST NEVER DO, even though it gives you that option, I had never done this before.

2- It was an ALL file what was deleted

3- I did not give the ALL file a new name, I used on already on the USB stick memory

4- My motif XS has the latest OS update, the one everybody waited so long to be available, the one that added tap tempo etc.

Tandem - 28 October 2012 12:33 AM

3- I did not give the ALL file a new name, I used on already on the USB stick memory

I have a suggestion to help prevent total loss of data in the future - use a new name for the ALL file each time you save it. The name can be just slightly different than the previous one. Let’s say the file on the USB drive is “MySongs+Sounds”. Then, for example, make the updated one “MySongs+SoundsA”, the next “MySongs+SoundsB”, etc. Or incorporate the date and/or time into the file name, etc.

By using a new file name, if the file is incomplete due to being cancelled before saving is finished, you still have the previous version. If the data in the XS gets damaged, you can reload the previous file from the USB drive, losing only the most recent work, not everything. If you save frequently, the amount of data that can be lost is greatly minimized.

It’s also not a bad idea to save to more than one USB drive. If you use just one, and it gets lost or damaged, you’re again out of luck.

If you begin running out of room on your USB drive, you can always delete older files that you no longer need. Again, having a second drive is useful, in case you delete a file by accident.

I’ve never cancelled a Save operation, but I’m surprised that doing so would cause loss of data in the XS itself, as you reported. I’ll look into that as soon as I get a chance, because if it can duplicated, the problem should be reported to Yamaha.

If you use a FILE name of one that already exists, you are OVERWRITING a File, (the XS will ask “Overwrite?)” As soon as you execute the Overwrite that original file is gone - so it is unclear how you then LOADED that file back in.

It should have been gone - the moment you begin to OVERWRITE the file, it is deleted and a new one created with that name. By ABORTING the file should simply disappear. It does not remove or replace any data in your current Motif XS… what did replace your data in your XS is when you state you loaded the FILE back in… the curious thing is WHAT FILE did you load back in - certainly not the aborted OVERWRITE File? It is gone immediately.

Aborting the writing of a FILE did not affect the internal memory at all.
What affected your internal memory was the act of loading in a different ALL data file.

Sorry you lost your data.

Until you are sure about FILE management - the good advice is create a NEW File with a unique name. By selecting a FILE NAME that already existed and then aborting the SAVE you deleted that FILE, you did not delete your SONGs, PATTERNs, VOICEs, PERFORMANCEs, MASTERs, etc., etc., etc., they were still in memory until you LOADED another file (I say “another file” because the one you OVERWROTE and ABORTED was completely DELETED. Trust me, Motifs have worked like this since 2001.

Just an idea: I always SAVE by the ISO date:
for today that’s: 20121028.

And ... overwriting is always a bad thing: don’t you ever want to
go back to a previous version of a Song or Voice?

;JOOP!

sciuriware - 28 October 2012 02:46 AM

Just an idea: I always SAVE by the ISO date:
for today that’s: 20121028.

Yes, that’s a good idea. I also do the same. This is also helpful because the Motif does not time-stamp your files while saving.

I always start the file name with the ISO date, as suggested by sciuriware, followed by a serial number (01, 02, etc.) and a small description of the contents. That way you can easily sort and search the files on a computer just by name.

It takes a bit more time while naming the file but comes in very handy at a later date when you need to search through a lot many files. And if you’ve a USB (wired/wireless) keyboard attached to your Motif, this becomes very easy.

My XS6 has OS version 1.60 installed. Not that I didn’t anticipate the outcome of the “experiment”, but here’s what I did and the result:

1) I saved an ALL file that I named “1”, which was called “1.X0A” on the USB flash drive.
2) I saved a second ALL file (using the same data) that was called “2.X0A”.
3) I verified the existence of both files on the USB drive.
4) I again initiated saving the data as “2”, but canceled the operation by pressing [EXIT] before completion.

That resulted in the deletion of “2.X0A” on the flash drive, but it in no way affected the data stored in the XS - as expected. It certainly seems that there’s no problem with the way the XS behaves when a SAVE operation is canceled - as long as one doesn’t expect the file to remain available on the drive when reusing a file name.

Since Tandem hasn’t provided sufficient detail of what he did to allow a determination of specifically what went wrong, it’s hard to comment further about what he experienced.

For my own curiosity, I ran data recovery software (Jufsoft BadCopy Pro) and had it look at the flash drive. While it indicated the possibility of recovery of several files with JPG, PDF, and RTF extensions (from previous usage of the drive), it didn’t even see the 2.X0A file. Perhaps other recovery software could do better, although overwriting might have made that impossible. Of course, if anything has been written to the flash drive since the “incident”, the likelihood of any recovery is minimized.

I give you little hope, I’m an expert in losing data .. (LOL)

If you recover half of a document it’s still a document to you.
If you recover half of an ALL file ....................
................. you need a blueprint of those files and then, still ...

I learned the hard way.
Backup, backup ... and backup!

;JOOP!

sciuriware - 28 October 2012 12:34 PM

[...]If you recover half of an ALL file ....................
................. you need a blueprint of those files and then, still ...

Motifator member cdw has provided some “blueprinting”.
See https://gist.github.com/2883877
If someone had the time and inclination, it might be possible to develop specialized recovery software. Since the data is in blocks, even if all of the file isn’t recoverable, it might be that portions could. Getting back the sequences, or the samples, etc., if possible, would be better than nothing.
.

sciuriware -

I learned the hard way.
Backup, backup ... and backup!

I do - which is why I’m not personally “motifated” to write recovery software.

Somebody please develop a program to save this forum from spammers.

5pinDIN - 28 October 2012 12:13 PM

My XS6 has OS version 1.60 installed. Not that I didn’t anticipate the outcome of the “experiment”, but here’s what I did and the result:

1) I saved an ALL file that I named “1”, which was called “1.X0A” on the USB flash drive.
2) I saved a second ALL file (using the same data) that was called “2.X0A”.
3) I verified the existence of both files on the USB drive.
4) I again initiated saving the data as “2”, but canceled the operation by pressing [EXIT] before completion.

That resulted in the deletion of “2.X0A” on the flash drive, but it in no way affected the data stored in the XS - as expected. It certainly seems that there’s no problem with the way the XS behaves when a SAVE operation is canceled - as long as one doesn’t expect the file to remain available on the drive when reusing a file name.

Since Tandem hasn’t provided sufficient detail of what he did to allow a determination of specifically what went wrong, it’s hard to comment further about what he experienced.

For my own curiosity, I ran data recovery software (Jufsoft BadCopy Pro) and had it look at the flash drive. While it indicated the possibility of recovery of several files with JPG, PDF, and RTF extensions (from previous usage of the drive), it didn’t even see the 2.X0A file. Perhaps other recovery software could do better, although overwriting might have made that impossible. Of course, if anything has been written to the flash drive since the “incident”, the likelihood of any recovery is minimized.

What I did is to hit cancel while saving because I didn’t want to save what I had done(big mistake), immediately after that I went back to song mode and notice my song and not just that song but all songs from that ALL file were gone, until then I only had one ALL file for everything I do, then went back to load back again the same ALL File to see If I would recover my songs, and it didn’t. Maybe I did something else but I’m pretty sure that what messed up my ALL File was to interrupt the saving process.  In my opinion one should not loose data when interrupting a saving process, another thing can be that my USB Flash is damaged and it’s time to get a new one however I don’t recall having damage it but these things might not be made to be reliable.

It seems to be a very good idea to save ALL Data files with different names, and also do backups in the computer as well as having a second USB stick just in case.

A friend who has the Disk Drill for MAC will attempt to recover the lost data, however it might not work but at least we’ll make it a try.

Tandem - 28 October 2012 05:39 PM

What I did is to hit cancel while saving because I didn’t want to save what I had done(big mistake), immediately after that I went back to song mode and notice my song and not just that song but all songs from that ALL file were gone,

The reason I was willing to try to duplicate what happened to you is because I’ve experienced unexpected results in a couple of instances when I pressed [EXIT] (although not loss of data). If something unusual is going on, in order to duplicate it I’d have to know precisely what you did. That means knowing what mode the XS was in, the exact buttons you pressed, and the order you pressed them in. Saying that you “hit cancel” actually doesn’t help, because there is no [CANCEL] button on the Motif. Depending on what is being canceled, typically either [EXIT] or [DEC/NO] is what causes cancellation. If you can recreate the circumstances, please post with that information.  (Of course, don’t do anything like that until you have safely backed up everything important.)
.

Tandem -

until then I only had one ALL file for everything I do, then went back to load back again the same ALL File to see If I would recover my songs, and it didn’t.

The reason I asked if the file you were saving was given a new name or was the same as an already existing one is because if the same (as Bad_Mister pointed out), the original file is deleted before the new one is saved, and canceling the SAVE operation therefore leaves you with no file at all. It’s hard to understand what file you were then able to load, since the one with the previous name shouldn’t have existed any longer.
.

Tandem -

Maybe I did something else but I’m pretty sure that what messed up my ALL File was to interrupt the saving process.  In my opinion one should not loose data when interrupting a saving process, another thing can be that my USB Flash is damaged and it’s time to get a new one however I don’t recall having damage it but these things might not be made to be reliable.

There’s no question that saving a file with the same name as before will overwrite the previous file, and if you cancel the SAVE operation will result in loss of the file with that name.
.

Tandem -

It seems to be a very good idea to save ALL Data files with different names, and also do backups in the computer as well as having a second USB stick just in case.

Yes.
.

Tandem -

A friend who has the Disk Drill for MAC will attempt to recover the lost data, however it might not work but at least we’ll make it a try.

Best of luck.

The button I pressed was the EXIT button when it says . Everything I made on that ifle was gone, but the file name still exists, or the file still exists. If I load it it will load but instead of me scrolling through my songs, its empty songs in which all sounds are piano by default.

Tandem - 28 October 2012 09:43 PM

...but the file name still exists, or the file still exists. If I load it it will load but instead of me scrolling through my songs, its empty songs in which all sounds are piano by default.

Can you post that file here in this thread?

VikasSharma - 28 October 2012 02:04 PM

Somebody please develop a program to save this forum from spammers.

What we need is the opposite of recovery software.