So I use SONAR X3, and I'm working with a set of midi files that for some reason will not open in SONAR X3.  I can get them run in media players, I can open them in other production/editing software. I have even combed over them in a hex editor. Far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with them.  And again, they will open in everything else I've tried. But X3 is what I need to work on them.
 
The error message is a simple "cannot read file".  
 
Why would the files open in everything else but not Sonar?  Midi files aren't that complicated and if there's some sort of invalid instruction; shouldn't that be getting ignored?

Alpha17x
So I use SONAR X3, and I'm working with a set of midi files that for some reason will not open in SONAR X3.  I can get them run in media players, I can open them in other production/editing software. I have even combed over them in a hex editor. Far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with them.  And again, they will open in everything else I've tried. But X3 is what I need to work on them.
 
The error message is a simple "cannot read file".  
 
Why would the files open in everything else but not Sonar?  Midi files aren't that complicated and if there's some sort of invalid instruction; shouldn't that be getting ignored?

What program were they created in?  You mentioned being able to open the MIDI files in other software. Did you try opening and saving it again with another program, then trying to open it again in Sonar?
 
If this suggestion fails, you can always leave a test file on a file sharing site and post the link to it here for someone else to take a look.

The were converted from SNES SPC files. Like I said they will open and play in -everything- else without exception the one and only program they will not open in is Sonar X3. No other program of which I can access has issue.
 
I have taken them into another program capable of doing things such as editing header length and such to manually repair the file. However repeated changes are still not yielding any result.
 
Currently, I'm doing some review of midi file structures and I'm not seeing anything that should be jumping out as an issue.  As far as I can tell Sonar is just picky as hell and probably refusing to open the file over the most trivial and entirely ignorable issue, especially since once more; all other programs and players open the files without issue.
 
Sonar needs a 'be quiet and open it anyway' option. Everything else seems to.
 

What other programs have you tried importing the midi into and can you save the midi from the other program and import in to Sonar?  
 
 

 
Alpha, have you tried this yet?
 

karhide
What other programs have you tried importing the midi into and can you save the midi from the other program and import in to Sonar?  
 
 

 
Just FYI, you can also "Import" a MIDI file, as well as open one.  Just start a new Sonar project and you will see this option under the File menu.  It works a little differently than directly opening a MIDI file, and is not the recommended way to use an external MIDI file, because it removes tempo changes.  But it's still something you can try.
 
While looking into the file origin you mentioned, I ran across this comment regarding a utility called spc2midi ...
 
"Be warned that this program produces Midi files with corrupt headers and other issues. They will play in most software, but they will rarely load in a production suite like Fruity Loops or Sonar".
 
Here is some reference info that you may find useful:
 
Here is the Cakewalk documentation on MIDI file support:
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X3&language=3&help=MIDI_Files.1.html
 
Here are the MIDI specs:
https://www.midi.org/specifications
 

are they MIDI soundfont files ? and just to be sure, does the .ext read .mid ?

abacab
While looking into the file origin you mentioned, I ran across this comment regarding a utility called spc2midi ...
 
"Be warned that this program produces Midi files with corrupt headers and other issues. They will play in most software, but they will rarely load in a production suite like Fruity Loops or Sonar".
 

 
No, it can't possibly be a problem with Joe Blow's Sooperdooper Shareware File Converter; it must be SONAR. 
 
As an aside, I do support for a living. I had a customer report our product was failing to import an archive exported from another environment running the same version. After much head-scratching and questioning, the truth is revealed: they are unzipping the archive, making mods to the enclosed XML files and re-zipping them before importing.  Seriously? Gimmeabreak. Closed - Unsupported Customization

brundlefly

abacab
While looking into the file origin you mentioned, I ran across this comment regarding a utility called spc2midi ...
 
"Be warned that this program produces Midi files with corrupt headers and other issues. They will play in most software, but they will rarely load in a production suite like Fruity Loops or Sonar".
 

 
No, it can't possibly be a problem with Joe Blow's Sooperdooper Shareware File Converter; it must be SONAR. 
 
As an aside, I do support for a living. I had a customer report our product was failing to import an archive exported from another environment running the same version. After much head-scratching and questioning, the truth is revealed: they are unzipping the archive, making mods to the enclosed XML files and re-zipping them before importing.  Seriously? Gimmeabreak. Closed - Unsupported Customization

My original thoughts were that the best thing to try if the file opened OK in another program, was to re-save it in the other program (not the program that originally converted the file to a .mid).  Hopefully a different program that is capable of saving a fully standards compliant .mid file.  That way the original MIDI data can be preserved, and that the file format would hopefully be re-written correctly.

Yes, I would have thought that would be a obvious thing to try.