per project audio folder not working as before

I just noticed that things have changed in the way my project/audio files are being saved.  somewhere along the lines they stopped being saved in separate folders and sub folders per project and now the projects are saved in the Cakewalk Projects folder and ALL wav files are in the Cakewalk Projects/Audio folder, all grouped together. Not exactly sure how that changed and how to get it back to the previous method. the "per projects audio folder" option is checked in the preferences. i've tried clearing that and rechecking but no luck.  what am i missing?  i saw this question brought up in another thread as an aside, but was not touched upon.
 
 

well, prior to this, everything was in nice, neat folders containing the project file and a subfolder with the audio.  now it's more like the old method of project files all grouped together and audio grouped together in another folder.  i think i'm on X3e, not exactly sure when it started to do this. wondering if there's a connection there?
 

Are clips also present in the project's audio sub-folder in the actual project folder?
 
didn't answer that... actually there is no actual project folder for each song and thus no sub folder.

as an experiment i used the instructions from the cakewalk help doc to save one of the  files that didn't get placed in separate folders, with no luck. :  
To save an existing project using per-project audio
You may have older files that are not using per-project audio folders. If you want to save these files using a per-project audio folder, use the following procedure:
1.
Make sure the User Per-Project Audio Folders option is selected in Edit > Preferences > File - Audio Data.

2.
Open the project whose audio you want to store using per-project audio.

3.
Select File > Save As.

The Save As dialog box appears.
4.
If you want, change the name of your project.

5.
In the Project Path field, enter the new directory where you want to save the project, or use the Browse button to the right of the field to navigate to an existing directory.

6.
Check the Copy all audio with project option.

7.
Click Save.

8.
SONAR copies the project to the directory specified in the Project Path field and stores all the project’s audio in the directory specified in theAudio Path field.
 

 

What are the actual values being used in #7.  What are the volume name(s) of the drives.
 

FWIW, I just ran the following test.
 
Phase 1 create a project using global audio folder
1) Start SONAR
2) Open Preferences > File > Audio Data and uncheck "Use Per-Project Audio Folders"
3) File > New and create new project using normal template
4) Drag two audio loops into project creating two audio tracks.
5) Save the project. Project name is Junk
6) Shot down SONAR
 
At this point I shut down verified the project and audio were in the "E:\Cakewalk Projects" my default for project and audio data.
 
Phase 2 create per-project audio folder version of project Junk
1) Start SONAR
2) Open project Junk
3) Open Preferences > File > Audio Data and check "Use Per-Project Audio Folders"
3) Save As. In the "Save As" dialog change the "Project Path" to "E:\Cakewalk Projects\junk", click the File name entry to update the Project Path entry. A dialog pops up to verify directory creation. Click yes. The "Save in" at the top of the "Save As" dialog changes to the newly created junk directory. The "Copy all audio with project" is checked. Click "Save". The "Sonar Project Information" dialog is displayed.
4) Shut down SONAR
 
At this point I verified the "E:\Cakewalk Project\junk" and "E:\Cakewalk Project\junk\Audio" were created with the audio files in "E:\Cakewalk Project\junk\Audio"

Steve, going above and beyond, i appreciate that.  when you "saved as" it looks like you manually changed the path to ".....\junk"?  that would make sense but i don't remember having to do that before to get the desired result.  it does make sense and will do my own test. 

Another thing to keep in mind, not that it is the case with this setup, using external drives as the default "Project Folder" and "Global Audio Folder" is not a good idea. On startup, SONAR must resolve these locations and will reset the configuration to "C:\Cakewalk Projects" if the folders in Preferences are unreachable. This happens without warning. So if an external drive is powered down or been reassigned a different drive letter, all of a sudden SONAR starts working off the C drive. SONAR has always worked this way.

That is an interesting point you make Steve about Sonar returning to C drive if it cannot find the external drive, And made me wonder if the same thing could happen with a internal data drive. I know for a fact my storage drives have to spin up. 
You can be working away and go to retrieve a file from a dat adrive and you'll hear it spin up. 
Must be a power saving feature. 
 
But I've mostly always used a second "G"  drive for all Sonar files. 
First thing I do after installing Sonar is go to the preferences and set the paths for Audio and projects to my folders on the "G" drive. For years now my C drive Cakewalk global audio folder has been empty. 
 
And I too as with ANY software pay attention to the file path when saving, And I will often browse to a new locations so I know exactly where things are. 
I use a different main folder for each album I'm working on as example. In that folder are the songs. 

I too will never willingly choose multi-rate of spin drives (green drives), because they can and do cause too many issues.
 
I use either internal SATA III 7,200 rpm drives, internal SATA III SSD's, or external USB 3 7,200 drives (backups) in my system.  No green drives anywhere.
 
I ALWAYS make sure my CPU runs at 100% al the time, and that no hardware goes idle or to sleeo under any circumstances automatically.
 
BUT, even though when I am actively using my computer everything is running at capacity, I DO have a handful of quick Icon launch buttons to let me do the following to the computer: Lock, Sleep, Restart, Shutdown.
 
These give me quick control to those functions, as doing them in Windows 8 is a PITA (unless you build little shortcuts like I did).  Once you set one or more of the shortcuts up, you may want to browse the web for icons you want to use for the launch shortcuts.  I did for some, and I just downloaded them and placed them in a folder in my documents folder and point to that in the path for Change Icon in the shortcut.
 
As an example, to set up a shortcut on your desktop to do a restart, create a new shortcut called Restart, and fill in the following info:
 
Shortcut for Restart:
 
Target:    C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /t 00
Start In:  C:\Windows\system32
(path for changing icon)     %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
 
-------------------------------------
 
Shortcut for 'Sleep':
 
Target:   C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0
Start in:  C:\Windows\System32
(path to change icon): D:\Users\Robert\Documents\Windows Icons\sleep_mode.ico
 
-------------------------------------
 
Shortcut for Shutdown:
 
Target:   C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 00
Start In: C:\Windows\system32
Change Icon path: %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
 
 
Anyways - hope any of the above helps, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Here is a post I put out a while back, that Craig added to his Friday Tips thread, that explains current processing for Sonar with regard to per-project audio: 
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3481366
 
I hope that helps, 
 
Bob Bone