Before powering down Octatrack:
Save each track buffer/sample
Save each part
Save project
Then power down
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Cheers Airyck. It’s the first time it’s happened but it WILL be a lesson learned.
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I learned the same way 
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I’ve never lost any project, even when I had a problem with my PSU socket (bent), OT was often turning off suddenly.
Usb with Mac connection ?
Did you start with a new project ?
Save as new ?
Files are auto-saved on the CF card : .work files.
When you save, .strd files are created.
It’s better to save of course, especially after “save as new” for reload.
Parts informations are saved with project.
You can save them if you want to reload them.
If you reload them by mistake, your new settings are lost.
I don’t save them.
Maybe I would if I’d play/tweak in live conditions.
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Not just before powering down, do this after every major change you make. At least any unsaved parts and the project. Once it becomes muscle memory it takes less than 10 seconds to save all parts and save the project, and you’re a lot less likely to lose anything that way.
The OT is a lot more forgiving than any other hardware I have in this regard, though, since it at least retains the current state (other than record buffers) when you power down. Most hardware I’ve used doesn’t retain anything you don’t explicitly save, it’s really only the last few years that stuff like autosaving and retaining the current state has become much of a thing.
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Something like this happened to me a couple months ago. It’s only happened once, and without any clear reason. I’m suspecting it might have gotten a bit of a power spike on an old piece of gear (Yamaha TG-33) I had connected via MIDI and was powering up while Octatrack was booting. But that’s just a wild suspicion.
I try to save more frequently now. 
It’s mildly frustrating on a Mk1 as it’s a few menus away. The Mk2 has a dedicated ‘Save Proj’ (FUNC + PROJ) shortcut. (Edit to add: it’s like remembering to save parts often as I’ve accidentally hit the ‘reload part’ key combo when meaning to get the contextual menu)
I also try and ensure the Octatrack is fully booted before anything connected to it is powered up; or wait for connected things to be powered up before powering Octatrack.
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I used to save all the time but as OT was “auto saving as I go” I’ ve stopped…
Maybe I’ll start doing it again…
Ive just got used to powering off and not having to worry about a save.
Welcome to the club
It doesn’t happen if you don’t save parts. Part settings are saved with project.
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Cheers for the advice everyone.
I think saving the project will become an inbuilt behaviour soon enough; the level of pissed off that I was at when discovered what had happened pretty much tattooed the workflow change into my grey matter!
Gutted for the OP and may body else.
So this is a 1.30c random thing then? I’m still on 1.25E and I’ve never lost a thing.
The only time a project goes missing in my experience is if you delete it in the card manager while active in the project and then carry onworking in that project afterwards and then close without saving , that makes sense to me.
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1.30 or MKII ?
Any MKI users with lost projects in regular conditions ?
Indeed, good question sezare
I always “save project” before powering off, but as sezare56 mentioned, there is auto saving, and files are created.
I’ve never lost a project on the OT from power cycling.
func+project, yes yes
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Same here. I’ve never lost a project from power cycling either. I use all the save commands except “sync to card”, since I rarely take my CF card out.
Mostly saving at bank level and occasionally saving the whole project before powering off.
The closest I’ve come is having a bunch of record settings get changed in strange ways and some corrupted files on card after the OT was in the trunk (in its hard case) on a 90 mile drive in sub-zero degree weather, but a low level reformat of the card on a computer seems to have fixed that, everything has been fine for a month. I’ve never had issues with cold negatively affecting electronics before, only heat, so it took me by surprise.
EDIT: that seems like a CF thing rather than specifically an OT thing.
I’m a Mk1 user that lost the data in regular conditions. It was 1.30C. I link to a full description earlier in the thread.
Lost bank + pattern problem with another MKI, French Audiofanzine forum. I think his OS is 1.30C.
I’m kinda opposite…
I have my main project and all of its parts saved exactly how I want them. When I’m jamming and experimenting I never save the parts or the project. I might go this way for a week or even a month or more powering on and off many times but never saving anything. I go nuts on the parts and use part reload often, sometimes project reload.
When I reach a point that I decide I want to integrate something I’ve been exploring into my project for good, I then reload the project and add to it just the exact things I need to make the new trick happen. I then save all the parts and the project. After this I go on exploring and not saving anything until it happens again that I want to add something fundamental to my project…
I’m a looper though so I’m not building all sorts of pattern progressions. I’m more going nuts tweaking all sorts of stuff live and then wanting to reload and get back to my starting point to do it all over again…
@apmbpm Sorry to hear this… If it’s any reassurance I’ll say that I’ve never lost anything that was the OT’s fault, a couple times I’ve lost stuff but it was because of something I did. Still sucks but I’m just saying there’s a good chance you hit the panic button on accident and it wasn’t the OT that just randomly lost it…
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Yeah, I’m trying to convince myself it was a button press or something; in not sure it was though.
This mk2 replaced my previous one which I sent to Elektron due to interface issues. I’ve had a couple of peculiar moments with this one! I don’t want to send this one back too.
I’m keeping a close eye on it and will raise a ticket if anything else weird happens.
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