It's definitely a logic issue (update anomaly), do you have anything in common with Bob?

He disappeared when I started probing questions, so I don't know how anyone can solve it, except maybe don't mix too many eggs in the same basket.

Very wierd problem. I tried several ways to try and fix the problem without deleting the media from the project to no avail. Worse I couldn't resolve any logical way the mixup was occuring. Thankfull I was pretty easily able to go back to the previous version of the project with nothing lost but yes, I can see how this problem could occur and not be noticed for a long time leading to a significan waste of time.
I had hoped the problem was unique to the version of Vegas I was using but your experience adds further weight to the belief that this problem has been around for quite some time.

Bob.

I have not experienced this problem, but if I did, after first trying the things already suggested, I think I would close the project, and then re-name the files causing the problem. Then, I would re-open the project, and when Vegas complained about missing files, I'd specify the new name and see if Vegas might re-build whatever index has been corrupted. It is possible that, even if the file has disappeared from the Project Manager, that there might still be some pointer left that would cause this search/replace dialog to appear during the open. I'm not real confident this is going to work, but it's worth the one minute it would take to try it out.

"Thankfull I was pretty easily able to go back to the previous version of the project with nothing lost"

Bob, I know this may sound unbelievable but I went back to 3 different versions created hours before and they all had the same file problem. Now, I also know that when those projects were saved, the file problem was not evident!!

I wouldn't believe this myself if it didn't happen to me. Only solution was to delete and re-import. Out of paranoia I also saved the project under a different file name while doing the rebuild. And I know think that renaming the veg file is the real key to solving the problem.

The reason I say this is because of what I forgot to mention in my first post. The first time I deleted and re-imported and closed Vegas; when I reopened Vegas I GOT THE SAME PROBLEM as before!! The Veg file still had the same name. Again though, the second time I deleted and re-imported, I also changed the veg name and the problem went away.

My advice at this point would be to rename the veg as soon as possible after fixing any problem of this type.

Erik

John.
I tried exactly that and it made no difference.

I also tried copying the same file to another folder and renaming the file and then in the Project Media doing a Replace. No dice either. The Project Media pane says I have file B.mxf and on the T/L the Active Take Name is A.mxf as it was before. Go figure :(

Erik,
now that is really scary however in my case and perhaps very luckily I had branched the project out so I also changed the project file name, phew. The one file that became wrong was 90 minutes long with lots of cuts.

Bob.

Bob, interesting... so far, a possible confirmation that the key is a corrupted veg file and renaming is the workaround. Why, why, why though all of a sudden are people talking about this problem.

There is post right now entitled "everything is messed up on the timeline" on DVInfo with a guy having what sounds to be a very similar problem. I could understand if this were related to version 9 but it seems to be just as likely with version 8.

I'm going with the theory that the recent Avid promotion posts on this website were also secretly distributing a super duper Vegas Veg Virus that is going to be the end of our careers and Sony Vegas. Ahhhhhhhhh!

Erik

"Why, why, why though all of a sudden are people talking about this problem. "

When I first read through the posts above I get the impression that this problem was noted as far back as V4. One of the issues with intractible problems is people simply stop talking about them.
If they get annoyed enough with the failings of any product in any sphere most people just quietly go elsewhere. This is why I keep saying a fatal mistake is to let your customer support be based on "they stopped complaining therefore the problem is fixed" kind of mentality.

It should only take one of these messed up VEG files for someone in support to at least acknowledge that something has gone seriously wrong. Finding out how it went wrong could indeed be much more difficult but even if you cannot pin it down it could be easy enough to effect a brute force fix. The first step though is getting the problem recognised and that seems very difficult. The more of us who report these problems the better.

Bob.

Yeah, good point, how would you create a .veg file with mixed up pointers? There's no end-user access to any of that. The existence of such a file would be prima facie evidence.*

A "brute force fix" ? Like what?

What John is saying is maybe it's better to look for our own brute force fix.*

But what if you don't notice it right away?

*See Disclaimer
============================================================
It should only take one of these messed up VEG files for someone in support to at least acknowledge that something has gone seriously wrong. Finding out how it went wrong could indeed be much more difficult but even if you cannot pin it down it could be easy enough to effect a brute force fix.

All a bit unsettling.
I traced it back through 3 versions of the project before I found an uncorrupted project. All the same symptoms as before. Remarkable that in around 10 years of using Vegas I've never noticed this happening before and now it's happened twice in a few weeks.

The problemo is it may well have happened before and I just thought I'd made some huge stuffup and got on with it.

I'll try sending off one of the corrupted project files and see if SCS can make any sense out of what is happening.

Bob.

I think I understand your initial problem with media being swapped out for other media. This is a HUGE problem with Vegas 9, and as far as I've observed, it's ONLY with version 9. I've used Vegas since version 3 and have never seen this issue. It has cost my TV station many headaches and many hours of time to work around it.

In a nutshell, Vegas is somehow mixing up references to actual media used on the timeline or media that's simply contained in a project media bin. We've had scenarios in which AVI clips will be replaced with MP3 files, so the mismatch of referenced media is happening even among different file types. The most recent example is when several MPEG video clips on a project timeline were replaced with pieces of an MXF file (the MXF file was in the project media, but not used on the timeline). The only workaround we've found is to close the project, rename the MXF file to any other name (as in this last case), then load the project again. Vegas will report that the MXF file can't be found, so we then point Vegas to the CORRECT file (the MPEG file in this last case) and do "replace media". Luckily the edited clips on the timeline pointed to the correct MPEG file instead of the incorrect MXF file, and all was well.

What sucks is that if a project is corrupted, and you continue to work in that same project, further "media file swaps" can occur, and you won't know it unless you go back and check your work frequently. We had a project in which this happened when 9.0a was out, and it was a nightmare to sort through all the incorrect media. In many instances, the edited portions of the timeline had to be deleted and re-edited. There was one instance with one of our editors in which after the usual close/rename erroneous media file/open/replace trick did NOT work. Even after renaming both the correct media clip AND the erroneous clip, Vegas would never display the correct media clip. I can't remember what he did to finally fix it, but I know it cost additional hours of fixes.

We have 3 edit bays here running Vegas 9c, all XP pro machines, and this bug has surfaced on all 3 machines by 3 different staff members. It is a BUG, and I hope SCS fixes it very soon. When I first complained to SCS support about it, they said it was something with the UNDO BUFFER and that it was only happening with generated media. We were experiencing Sony Text media clips getting replaced. I had 3 text graphics at the front of a project; 1 of them reverted to "Sample Text" and the other 2 pulled copy from other Text events further down on the timeline. If I retyped one graphic, it'd screw up another. I had to delete and recreate them all. I haven't seen this issue in 9c yet, but the problem of media getting swapped for other media is STILL present.

Maybe they'll get this bug, along with many others, worked out in 9d.

This problem has done it to us again. I'm wondering if this issue got addressed in the new release. I've used Vegas since v.4 and loved it. This issue is a deal killer for any further projects in Vegas if this is not fixed.

We are having m2t files from tape swapped for mxf files generated in Vegas -- no similar tape name, no take mixups.

"I'm wondering if this issue got addressed in the new release."

I haven't seen it mentioned in the release notes. As I've said before SCS seem to be in denial over this issue, not good, not good at all.

The Undo Buffer theory might fit what I've seen and it sounds plausible in your situation. I don't see why some sanity checking code could not be added to at least detect this problem. All the information to determine that something is remiss is in the project.

Now that I've realised this can happen I've found the same problem in another project. Thankfully I saw it immediately. Not a complex project, I think from the time the project was OK until it was trashed all I did was add a couple of markers and save it. In this case it was an audio file that's been swapped out. I've got another project in progress that has over 2,000 audio events and the thought of one or more of them getting swapped around is giving me nightmares.


Bob.